E2 205 (Aug – Dec 2021 online semester)

Homework Assignment 8
Submission deadline: Thursday, Oct. 21, 11:59pm

Questions marked with ∗ will not be discussed in the tutorial sessions. You have to solve them on your own.

You are allowed to collaborate with your classmates in solving the homework problems, including on the ∗ questions,
but you must then write down the names of your collaborators for each problem.

∗ 1. Let C be the [15, 5, 7] triple-error-correcting binary BCH code with parity-check matrix
 
1 α α2 α3 ··· α14
2 2 2 3 2 2
1 α (α ) (α ) · · · (α14 )
 
 
HRS = .. .. .. .. .. .. ,
. . . . . .
 
 
6 2 6 3 6 6
1 α (α ) (α ) · · · (α14 )

where α ∈ F16 is a root of f (x) = x4 + x3 + 1. Suppose that a codeword from C was transmitted. Use the
Peterson-Gorenstein-Zierler decoding algorithm to decode the following received words, if possible:

(a) 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
(b) 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
(c) 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

2. Let C be the code in Problem 1 above. Let s = [s0 s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 ]T ∈ (F16 )6 be the syndrome arising from
a binary received word y ∈ (F2 )15 . In each of the following cases, analyze the operation of the extended
Euclidean algorithm decoder to identify all the values of s4 or s2 (as the case may be) for which the decoder
is able to produce a codeword from C as output.

(a) s0 = 0, s2 6= 0, s4 = 0.
(b) s0 = 0, s2 = 0, s4 6= 0.

3. (a) The received word in Problem 1(a) yields a syndrome of the form given in Problem 2(a). Find a binary
word y of least Hamming weight that gives rise to a syndrome of this form.
(b) The received word in Problem 1(b) yields a syndrome of the form given in Problem 2(b). Find a binary
word y of least Hamming weight that gives rise to a syndrome of this form.