A Simple and Fast Vector Symbol Reed-Solomon Burst Error Decoding Method

Error correction and detection play an important role in data transmission and storage systems. With the increasing demand for higher data transfer rates, reliability and efficiency is a necessity. A commonly used error correcting method is Reed-Solomon decoding. It is particularly attractive when dealing with bursts of errors. However, decoding complexity is a factor to consider when choosing codes.There exists a faster and rather simple method in which vector symbol decoding is used along with Reed-Solomon codes to correct errors with a probability ≥ 1 n(n-k)2-r. This paper discusses and simulates this novel technique and shows that it does in fact correct at a close to perfect success rate. Three cases of errors are tested, two different types of bursts of errors along with a non-burst scenario. We will see that the procedure described in this paper can uniquely correct a larger range of errors with less decoding complexity.