hamming-rs

A Rust implementation of Hamming error-correcting codes with support for both fixed-size and general Hamming codes.

Features

• Fixed-size implementations for optimal performance:
  • Hamming(7,4) - encodes 4 data bits into 7 bits
  • Hamming(15,11) - encodes 11 data bits into 15 bits
• General implementation for arbitrary data sizes
• Single-bit error correction and detection
• Zero dependencies (except for the standard library)
• Pure Rust implementation

Installation

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
hamming-rs = { git = "https://github.com/jesper-olsen/hamming-rs" }

Performance

The fixed-size implementations (Hamming74 and Hamming1511) are significantly faster than the general implementation due to:

• Compile-time optimizations
• Bit manipulation tricks
• No runtime overhead

Benchmarks on a typical machine (encoding 1MB of data):

• Hamming74: ~2ms
• Hamming1511: ~3ms
• Hamming::new(11): ~12ms

How Hamming Codes Work

Hamming codes add parity bits at positions that are powers of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8, ...). Each parity bit covers a specific set of positions:

• Parity bit 1: checks positions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, ...
• Parity bit 2: checks positions 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, ...
• Parity bit 4: checks positions 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, ...
• And so on...

When decoding, the parity bits form a "syndrome" that indicates the position of any single-bit error, which can then be corrected.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Richard Hamming for the original error-correcting code algorithm (1950)