Fast algorithm for decoding of systematic quadratic residue codes

A general algorithm for decoding the binary systematic quadratic residue (QR) codes with lookup tables is presented in this study. The algorithm can be applied in decoding the QR codes with either reducible or irreducible generator polynomials. If the generator polynomial of the QR codes is reducible, the number of elements in the Galois field is less than the sum of all correctable error patterns. In other words, the mapping between elements of syndrome set and all correctable error patterns is not one to one. The key idea of decoding based on the mapping between the ordered q-tuples of the primary known syndrome and error patterns is one to one. In addition, the algorithm directly determines the error locations by lookup tables without the operations of multiplication over a finite field. According to the simulation result, the new lookup table decoding algorithm for the (31, 16, 7) QR code and the (73, 37, 13) QR code dramatically reduces the memory required by approximately 90 and 92%, respectively. Moreover, the high speed of decoding procedure could be utilised in modern communication system.