On (partial) unit memory codes based on Reed-Solomon codes for streaming

Abstract

For streaming codes an erasure channel is assumed and the decoding delay is one of the main parameters to be considered. In this paper the erasure correcting capability of unit memory convolutional codes based on disjoint RS codes is analyzed. We take a sliding window decoder approach, where only the most current information is decoded before sliding the window one time-step further. We show that when we restrict the decoding delay to a small value, these codes still achieve an excellent erasure correction performance. This makes these codes useful for streaming applications where low latency is required.