On decoding unequal error protection product codes

The decoding of unequal error protection product codes, which are a combination of linear unequal error protection (UEP) codes and product codes, is addressed. A nonconstructive proof of the existence of a good error-erasure-decoding algorithm is presented; however, obtaining the decoding procedure is still an open research problem. A particular subclass of UEP product codes is considered, including a decoding algorithm that is an extension of the Blokh-Zyablov decoding algorithm for product codes. For this particular subclass the decoding problem is solved. >