Abstract: A list-decoding-based soft-GMD algorithm is provided. Based on the Koetter-Vardy algorithm, the proposed algorithm performs sucessive erasure-and-error decoding according to the reliability metric of each interpolation points subset. Simulation results show that to obtain the same coding gains, the soft-GMD algorithm leads to a factor of 90%~985% reduction in complexity for RS codes of length 15 and a factor of about 46% reduction in complexity for RS(255, 239) code, as compared with the Koetter-Vardy algorithm.

Key words: Reed-Solomon codes, list decoding, Koetter-Vardy algorithm, GMD algorithm, soft-GMD algorithm