An error-detection scheme which performs a calculation on the binary value of the packet/frame and then which is appended to the packet/frame as a fixed-length field. Once the packet/frame is received a similar calculation is performed. If the result does not match the first calculation then a data change occurred during transmission. The calculation can be a sum (checksum), a remainder of a division (CRC-cyclic redundancy check) or the result of a hashing function.