A PC-based general purpose Reed-Solomon codec simulator

This paper introduces a PC based general purpose Reed-Solomon (RS) codec simulator for teaching as well as research purposes. The user can define a code by selecting the symbol length 3⩽m⩽8 bits and the error correcting capability T of up to 20. In the encoder, the systematic code generation and the self-reciprocal generator polynomial are used. The error pattern can either be entered by the user with the arbitrary weight or generated by an external program which alternates all possible error positions. In the decoding process, both Peterson´s and Berlekamp´s algorithms are available for the user´s choice. Chien Search is used for finding the error locations. The error values can be obtained by using either Gauss elimination or Forney´s algorithm depending on the user´s selection. The simulator has break points and printing-out at every step in encoding, error generating and decoding processes. The simulation software runs in MS Windows operating systems and provides a friendly and easy-to-use graphical interface (GUI). This is an ideal simulator for demonstrating the RS code encoding and decoding principle in classrooms and laboratories