An Interactive Algorithm for Synchronizing from Burst Deletions

We study the efficient synchronization between two distant nodes, A and B, that are connected through a lossless bidirectional communication channel. In our setup, Node A contains file X, and node B contains file Y that is generated through burst deletions from X. The burst deletion pattern is modeled by a stationary two-state Markov chain. Inspired by the previously proposed synchronization protocol of Yazdi and Dolecek that is specifically designed to handle i.i.d. deletions, we create a new synchronization algorithm that is efficient for the case of burst deletions. Utilizing the previous overall framework from Yazdi and Dolecek, we first prove that the matching module still works well in our scenario. We then invent two new schemes for the implementation of the burst deletion recovery module. The remaining errors created in the first two modules are eliminated by the final LDPC decoder. Lastly, we provide experimental results of the proposed synchronization algorithm for both i.i.d. and realistic sources.