You have some packets of data a, b, c. Add one additional packet z that is computed as z = a ^ b ^ c. Now whenever one of a, b or c gets corrupted or lost, it can be reconstructed by computing the XOR of all the others.
So if b is lost: b = a ^ c ^ z. This works for any packet, but only one. If multiple are lost, this will fail.
There are way better error correction algorithms, but I like the simplicity of this one.
Yes, error correction.
You have some packets of data a, b, c. Add one additional packet z that is computed as z = a ^ b ^ c. Now whenever one of a, b or c gets corrupted or lost, it can be reconstructed by computing the XOR of all the others.
So if b is lost: b = a ^ c ^ z. This works for any packet, but only one. If multiple are lost, this will fail.
There are way better error correction algorithms, but I like the simplicity of this one.