Abstract
A method for deriving key parameters of a bit-error-rate (BER) estimate is presented. The method is based on a bursty channel model proposed by B.D. Fritchman (IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, Vol. IT-13, pp.221-227, Apr. 1967). This model is used to derive the confidence levels and confidence intervals of an error-rate estimate. The theoretical results have been confirmed experimentally by using the data from a helical-scan digital magnetic-tape recorder. The experiments clearly demonstrate the inadequacy of the BER estimates based on an independent-error approach. >

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