Robust data compression applied to rotary head DDS-3 tapes

A piecewise, lossless data compression scheme which limits the propagation of errors is used to compress text data. The error control coding of DDS is then applied to the compressed test data using a computer simulation. Burst channel errors representing longitudinal tape defects are simulated. It is shown that when data containing uncorrected errors is decompressed, the proposed strategy curtails error propagation with only a small drop-off in compression ratio