On a class of optimal nonbinary linear unequal-error-protection codes for two sets of messages

Several authors have addressed the problem of designing good linear unequal error protection (LUEP) codes. However, very little is known about good nonbinary LUEP codes. The authors present a class of optimal nonbinary LUEP codes for two different sets of messages. By combining t-error-correcting Reed-Solomon (RS) codes and shortened nonbinary Hamming codes, they obtain nonbinary LUEP codes that protect one set of messages against any t or fewer symbol errors and the remaining set of messages against any single symbol error. For t⩾2, they show that these codes are optimal in the sense of achieving the Hamming lower bound on the number of redundant symbols of a nonbinary LUEP code with the same parameters