Improved product error-correction scheme for optical recording systems

Reed-Solomon product-code (RSPC), which performs erasures-and-errors decoding utilizing inner and outer Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, can be used to effectively correct burst errors in DVD systems. RSPC has the advantages of high error correction capabilities and high code rate. In this study, we present that the maximum correctable burst length of RSPC in DVD systems is 2917 bytes. However, by applying iterative decoding, the RSPC can obtain the length, resulting in the increase of execution time and energy consumption. In order to combat these unnecessary operations, we present a new encoding and decoding scheme. Experimental results show that the new scheme can significantly decrease the probability of decoding errors, thereby improving the error correction performance of DVD systems.