Reed-Solomon codes are non-binary codes with block length of N=2^m-1 symbols, that can correct t symbol errors, if a hard decision decoder is used (for sophisticated soft decision decoding see our publications here). K is given by K=N-2t. Reed-Solomon codes are MDS codes and therefore achieve the maximum possible minimum distance (in a non-binary sense). Thus the code structure itself is immune against the error floor problematic of turbo and LDPC codes.

Some Reed-Solomon codes are of special interest and have been adopted in many communication standards, in some cases also as shortened version (list is not exhaustive):

The parity check matrix can be described with two different structures: the vandermonde form and the strip (cyclic) form.

The binary image representation provides an equivalent binary code, frequently used for code analysis and soft decision decoding. The binary image transformation is the same as for non-binary LDPC codes described here.