On acceptance criterion for efficient successive errors-and-erasures decoding of Reed-Solomon and BCH codes

We describe an efficient algorithm for successive errors-and-erasures decoding of BCH codes. The decoding algorithm consists of finding all necessary error locator polynomials and errata evaluator polynomials, choosing the most appropriate error locator polynomial and errata evaluator polynomial, using these two polynomials to compute a candidate codeword for the decoder output, and testing the candidate for optimality via an originally developed acceptance criterion. Even in the most stringent case possible, the acceptance criterion is only a little more stringent than Forney's (1966) criterion for generalised minimum distance (GMD) decoding. We present simulation results on the error performance of our decoding algorithm for binary antipodal signals over an AWGN channel and a Rayleigh fading channel. The number of calculations of elements in a finite field that are required by our algorithm is only slightly greater than that required by hard-decision decoding, while the error performance is almost as good as that achieved with GMD decoding. The presented algorithm is also applicable to efficient decoding of product RS codes.