METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ERROR CORRECTION DECODING A NORDSTROM-ROBINSON ENCODED DATA STREAM

摘要

A method and apparatus are provided for decoding a received data block encoded with a Nordstrom-Robinson codeword. The method and apparatus reduce the number of mathematical operations necessary to decode the data block. The method and apparatus divide the received data block 600 into subsets 601-604 and calculate a maximum confidence quadracodeword (QCW) character for each data subset 601-604 to form a set of maximum confidence QCW characters (step 304). A set of maximum confidence quadracodewords 802-809 is determined based on the set of maximum confidence QCW characters (step 306). At least one NR codeword 1102 is identified that corresponds to each maximum confidence quadracodeword 802-809 in the set of maximum confidence quadracodewords to thereby form a set of NR codewords (step 308). A single NR codeword is then selected from the set of NR codewords and then used to decode the received data block.