Progressive List-Enlarged Algebraic Soft Decoding of Reed-Solomon Codes

A progressive algebraic soft decoding algorithm is proposed for Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, aiming to reduce the computational complexity. The decoding starts with a small initial factorization output list size (OLS), then updates the OLS progressively leading to an incremental interpolation. Decoding will terminate either when the output contains a codeword that can be identified as the most likely one or the predefined maximal OLS is reached. The algorithm can adjust the decoding parameter according to the quality of the received information, optimizing its complexity to the minimal but necessary level.