Erasure-burst and error-burst decoding of linear codes

Iterative algorithms for decoding over erasure-burst channels have attracted much interest lately due to their simplicity. Although the performance of these techniques is typically good, it may not be optimal if the underlying matrix used for decoding is not properly chosen. In this paper, we construct matrices that lead to optimal performance when used with iterative decoding over erasure-burst channels. We also develop a simple decoding technique that makes use of these same matrices to decode any linear code over error-burst channels. For cyclic codes, this algorithm is optimal.