Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 13, 2026

Block check character

In telecommunications, a block check character (BCC) is a character added to a transmission block to facilitate error detection.

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In telecommunications, a block check character (BCC) is a character added to a transmission block to facilitate error detection.

In longitudinal redundancy checking and cyclic redundancy checking, block check characters are computed for, and added to, each message block transmitted.1 This block check character is compared with a second block check character computed by the receiver to determine whether the transmission is error free.

References

References

  1. Conard, J. (April 1980). "Character-Oriented Data Link Control Protocols". IEEE Transactions on Communications. 28 (4): 445–454. doi:10.1109/TCOM.1980.1094701. ISSN 1558-0857. Transmission of the block continues with data characters until the system defined block length is reached. At this point the station appends the end-of-block sequence ETB BCC or the end-of-message sequence ETX BCC if the block is the last block of a message. The BCC is the block check character, in this case a single LRC character.