Performance of errors-and-erasures decoded Reed-Solomon codes over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels using M-ary orthogonal signaling

The performance of Reed-Solomon (RS) codes is investigated over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels using M-ary orthogonal signaling schemes. `Errors-and-erasures´ decoding (E<sup>2</sup>D) is considered, where erasures are judged based on Viterbi´s (1982) ratio threshold test (RTT) and on the basis of the output likelihood ratio threshold test (LRT<sup>2</sup>). The LRT<sup>2</sup> technique is compared with Viterbi´s RTT, and both of these are compared to receivers using `error-correction only´ decoding (ECOD) over frequency-selective Rayleigh-fading channels, numerical results show that upon using E² D, RS codes of a given code rate can achieve higher coding gain, than that without erasure information, and that the LRT² technique outperforms the RTT, provided that both schemes are operated at the optimum decision thresholds