Determining the burst-correcting limit of cyclic codes

Almwct--Two new computationally efficient afgorithms are developed for fmdiug tke exact burst-comxtiug limit of a cyclic code. The first algorithm is based on testing tbe culumn rank of certain submatrices of the parity& matrix of the code. Aa auxiliary result is a proof that every cyclic (n,k) code, with a min immu distauce of at least three, CorrecQ at least all bursts of length L(n-2k+l)/2J or ks. The second algorithm, wbicb requires somewhat less computation, is based on finding the length of the skortest Ihear feedback sbift-register that generates tke sub sequences of length n k of tke sequence formed by the coefficients of the parity-check polynomial h(n), augmented with L (n k)/2j 1 leading zeros and trailhg zeros. Tables of the burst-corxxting limit for a large number of binary cyclic codes are included.