Reconstruction of a Non-binary Block Code from an Intercepted Sequence with Application to Reed-Solomon Codes

In this paper, a method is proposed for reconstruction of the parameters of a non-binary block encoder using an intercepted sequence of noisy coded data. The proposed method is a generalization of the Barbier's method for the reconstruction of binary block codes to the more problematic case of non-binary codes. It has been shown mathematically that considering some revisions in definitions, such a generalization is possible. The proposed method is able to estimate the code parameters such as the code length, the code dimension, number of bits per symbol, and the dual-code subspace, and also to synchronize the sequence. Since the Reed-Solomon code is the most important type of non-binary block codes, an additional method is proposed to reconstruct the generator polynomial in the case of Reed-Solomon codes. The proposed method is evaluated via computer simulations which verify its strength and effectiveness.