[pilc] Re: How many bytes should a CRC-32 protect?

From: Matt Mathis (mathis@psc.edu)
Date: Tue May 07 2002 - 11:38:49 EDT

  • Next message: Aaron Falk: "Re: [pilc] Re: How many bytes should a CRC-32 protect?"

    The standard answer is 12KB, but I believe that this statement is based on an
    engineering requirement that the maximum allowed probability that the CRC fails
    to detect a corrupted packet is below some threshold. (I would greatly
    appreciate it if somebody can provide a specific reference for this
    calculation.)

    The logic behind the calculation seems to be flawed in the following way: If
    you have a large quantity of data to move (say a Peta Byte, 1e+15 Bytes) then
    the total undetected error rate is independent of the packet size across a huge
    range of sizes. This is because changes in per-packet exposure to undetected
    errors are exactly offset by the change in the number of packets.

    For example if I send 1e+15 bytes over a link that has a raw error rate of
    1E-12 then I compute:

    Using 1000 byte packets:
     Raw bit error rate: 1.0e-12
     Per packet error rate: 1.0e-09
     Undetected packet errors: 2.5e-19
     Packets per data set: 1.0e+12
     Total undetected errors per data set: 2.5e-07

    Using 10000000 byte packets:
     Raw bit error rate: 1.0e-12
     Per packet error rate: 1.0e-05
     Undetected packet errors: 2.5e-15
     Packets per data set: 1.0e+08
     Total undetected errors per data set: 2.5e-07

    You can find some of my musing about the Internet cell size at
     http://www.psc.edu/~mathis/MTU/

    Comments and feedback appreciated,
    --MM--

    On Mon, 6 May 2002, Dr G Fairhurst wrote:

    >
    > I was asked by someone how big a frame size can a CRC-32 reasonably protect?
    >
    > One of my students came across:
    >
    > http://sd.wareonearth.com/~phil/jumbo.html
    >
    > which seems to suggest that the CRC-32 is good for 10-12KB or so of
    > data, and that
    > this could be one reason why we don't see many subnetworks supporting
    > MTUs > 12KB.
    >
    > Is there more wisdom out there on the use of CRCs over large subnetwork PDUs?
    > - perhaps the ATM or gigEthernet people have thought this one through?
    >
    >
    > Gorry Fairhurst.
    >

    -- 
    --MM--
    ----------------------------------------------
    Matt Mathis <mathis@psc.edu>    W:412.268.3319
    http://www.psc.edu/~mathis      H:412.654.7529
    ----------------------------------------------
    

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