Annex

Berlekamp-Massey Algorithm
The Berlekamp-Massey Algorithm is used to perform in an iterative way the RS decoding. It consists in computing two polynomials: (1) error locator polynomial (x) and (2) error evaluator polynomial (x) . The main step in the algorithm is the determination of (x) . Once (x) is determined, its roots
j indicate the locations of the errors in the received word. Example: if

is a root of (x) , then

the ith symbol is erroneous.

(a i ) The second step is the correction of the errors by evaluating the roots eis as ei , where ' ( i ) ' ( x) is the derivative of (x) with respect to x.
The polynomials are determined in an iterative way for 2t iterations as follows: 1- Initialisation:

0 ( x) 1; 0 ( x) 0; 0 ( x) 0; 0 ( x) 1; d 0 0 , where 0 ( x ) and 0 ( x ) are

auxiliary polynomials used in the algorithm and di is an intermediate variable. 2- For a code with correction capacity t, perform for i=0, 1, 2t-1: i The computation of i which represents the coefficient of the monomial x in the

product i ( x) S ( x) where S (x) is defined as:

S ( x) S j x j 1
j 1

2t

The computation of i1 ( x) and i1 ( x) using the following relations:

i 1 ( x) i ( x) i i ( x) i 1 ( x) i ( x) i i ( x)
If i =0 or if 2di > i then:

i 1 ( x) x i ( x) ; i 1 ( x) x i ( x) ; d i 1 d i
Else

i1 ( x) x1 i ( x) ; i1 ( x) x1i ( x) ; d i1 i 1 d i i i

For i=2t-1, ( x) i1 ( x) ; ( x) i1 ( x)