Construction of Maximum Run-Length Limited Codes Using Sequence Replacement Techniques

The sequence replacement technique converts an input sequence into a constrained sequence in which a prescribed subsequence is forbidden to occur. Several coding algorithms are presented that use this technique for the construction of maximum run-length limited sequences. The proposed algorithms show how all forbidden subsequences can be successively or iteratively removed to obtain a constrained sequence and how special subsequences can be inserted at predefined positions in the constrained sequence to represent the indices of the positions where the forbidden subsequences were removed. Several modifications are presented to reduce the impact of transmission errors on the decoding operation, and schemes to provide error control are discussed as well. The proposed algorithms can be implemented efficiently, and the rates of the constructed codes are close to their theoretical maximum. As such, the proposed algorithms are of interest for storage systems and data networks.