Algebraic decoding of quadratic residue codes using Berlekamp-Massey algorithm

In this paper, an algebraic decoding method is proposed for the quadratic residue codes that utilize the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm. By a modification of the technique developed by He et al., one can express the unknown syndromes as functions of the known syndromes. The unknown syndromes are determined by an efficient algorithm also developed in this paper. With the appearance of unknown syndromes, one obtains the consecutive syndromes that are needed for the application of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm. The decoding scheme, developed here, is easier to implement than the previous decoding algorithm developed for the Golay code and the (47, 24, 11) QR code. Moreover, it can be extended to decode all codes of the family of binary quadratic residue codes with irreducible generating polynomials.