High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The packet erasure channel is a communication channel model where sequential packets are either received or lost (at a known location). This channel model is closely related to the binary erasure channel. An erasure code can be used for forward error correction on such a channel. A binary erasure channel (or BEC) is a common communications channel model used in coding theory and information theory. In this model, a transmitter sends a bit (a zero or a one), and the receiver either receives the bit or it receives a message that the bit was not received ("erased"). This channel is used frequently in information theory because it is one of the simplest channels to analyze. The BEC was introduced by Peter Elias of MIT in 1954 as a toy example.