On synchronizable binary cyclic codes (Corresp.)

In this correspondence a method is presented whereby the average synchronization-error-correcting capability of Tavares' subset codes may be improved with no additional cost in rate and with only a small increase in the complexity of encoding and decoding. The method consists simply in shifting every word of the subset codes in such a way so that the shifted versions have a maximum number of leading and trailing zeros. A lower bound on the increase in synchronization-error-correcting capability provided by this method is derived.