MATCHING Q-ARY REED-SOLOMON CODES WITH M-ARY MODULATION

Reed-Solomon (RS) error-correcting (EC) codes are often proposed for c ommunication systems requiring burst and/or erasure correction capabil ities. In most cases, the modulation symbol size is fixed a priori, Th erefore, the effective application of RS coding implies proper matchin g of the code symbol size with the modulation symbol size, Previous re sults have assumed that the RS codeword symbol size is an integer mult iple of the modulation symbol size or have been based on simple approx imations, In this paper, the exact symbol error probability with K-bit M-ary modulation symbols and q-bit RS codeword symbols is presented.