Reduced-complexity implementation of algebraic soft-decision decoding of Reed-Solomon codes

A reduced complexity implementation of a soft Chase algorithm for algebraic soft-decision decoding of Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, based on the recently proposed algorithm of Koetter and Vardy, is presented. The reduction in complexity is obtained at the algorithm level by integrating the re-encoding and Chase algorithms and at the architecture level by considering a backup mode which sharply reduces the average computational complexity of the hybrid decoder.