Forward Error Correction (FEC) encryption combines encryption and channel coding technologies to effectively correct errors in data transmission while simultaneously encrypting the received information. Many programs achieve this by embedding encryption modules into a correction encoder.
Prior to the 1980s, cryptography and channel coding were largely approached as separate disciplines. In the late 80s, however, the McEliece system combined these two areas of study.
Most of the early programs that combined channel coding and encryption did so using two or more steps to achieve message encryption and error control. Recent developments, though, have achieved error correction and information encryption at the same time, reducing delays in decoding transmitted data and improving both safety and reliability of secure communications systems implementing this system.