Method for correcting a burst of errors plus random errors

An efficient method for finding all the possible corrections of a bust of length b and e random errors consists of finding a polynomial whose roots are the candidate location for l-the location of the beginning of the burst-thus avoiding the search over all possible values of l (it is assumed that the burst is non-trivial, i.e., at least one of its errors has a non-zero value). In order to reduce the number of spurious solutions, it is assumed that the number of syndromes is t=2e+b+s, where s is at least 2. The larger the value of s the less likely it is that the algorithm will generate "spurious" solutions. Once the location of the burst is known, standard procedures are used to determine the magnitudes of the burst errors and the location and magnitude of the random errors.