The process of improving communications through techniques designed variously to detect, flag, and correct errors created in transmission.There are three specific error control modes. Recognition and flagging involves simply flagging detected errors, with no mechanism for automatic error correction. Recognition and retransmission provides for retransmission of errored data. Forward error correction (FEC) triggers an automatic error correction process in the receiver when it detects an error in a data packet. See also FEC, parity checking, recognition and flagging, and recognition and retransmission.