A note on optimum burst-error-correcting codes

A detailed study has been made of a certain class of systematic binary error-correcting codes that will correct the error bursts typical of some digital channels. These codes--generalizations of codes discovered by Abramson and Melas--are cyclic codes designed to correct any single burst of errors per n -digit word provided that the width of the burst (regarded cyclically) does not exceed a certain number of digits, b . Moreover, these codes are optimum in the sense that they employ the minimum number of redundant digits theoretically possible for a cyclic code with given values of n and b . A cyclic code is completely characterized by its generator polynomial g(x) , hence, the properties of the code can be determined by analysis of the corresponding g(x) . Necessary and sufficient conditions on g(x) have been formulated for the corresponding cyclic code to be an optimum burst- b correcting code. These conditions have been formulated into a series of tests that can be carried out (in principle) on any g(x) . All optimum burst- b cyclic codes with n and b have been found in this way and their generators are tabulated in the paper. In all, 98 codes are listed (not counting reciprocals) for b = 3 and b = 4 ; it was shown that no optimum codes exist for b = 5 within the limits stated. Practical codes for b \geq 6 will probably be nonoptimum codes because of the extreme word lengths required for optimum ones.