A parametric approach to list decoding of Reed-Solomon codes using interpolation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a minimal list decoding algorithm for Reed-Solomon codes using a parametric approach to interpolating polynomials, enabling efficient determination of the minimum distance and codewords at that distance.

Contribution

It presents a novel parametric method for minimal list decoding of RS codes, including efficient computation of Gr"obner bases and complexity reduction techniques.

Findings

Efficient algorithms for computing minimal Gr"obner bases.

Reduction in decoding complexity through re-encoding.

Feasible rational curve fitting for decoding process.

Abstract

In this paper we present a minimal list decoding algorithm for Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. Minimal list decoding for a code $C$ refers to list decoding with radius $L$, where $L$ is the minimum of the distances between the received word $\mathbf{r}$ and any codeword in $C$. We consider the problem of determining the value of $L$ as well as determining all the codewords at distance $L$. Our approach involves a parametrization of interpolating polynomials of a minimal Gr\"obner basis $G$. We present two efficient ways to compute $G$. We also show that so-called re-encoding can be used to further reduce the complexity. We then demonstrate how our parametric approach can be solved by a computationally feasible rational curve fitting solution from a recent paper by Wu. Besides, we present an algorithm to compute the minimum multiplicity as well as the optimal values of the parameters associated with this multiplicity which results in overall savings in both memory and computation.