Non-interleaved Reed-Solomon coding over a bursty channel

The authors present a technique which analytically calculates the word, symbol, and bit error rates (BERs) of a Reed-Solomon (RS) coding system in a bursty (e.g., pulsed RF interference) environment with Poisson pulse arrivals, using a Markov chain model to represent burst errors. It is faster than the standard simulation method of analysis for low error rates, since its runtime is independent of the desired BER. The model is very flexible: it can analyze channels both with and without ideal (infinite) RS interleaving; it can analyze RS or shortened RS codes of any length, rate, or number of bits per symbol; and it can analyze a system which has a bursty channel characterized by bursts with a fixed length and by Poisson distributed arrival times. Results are presented for the commonly used RS (255,223) code, which guarantees correction of any 16 symbol errors