Performance of a Chase-type decoding algorithm for Reed-Solomon codes on perpendicular magnetic recording channels

Algebraic soft-decision Reed-Solomon (RS) decoding algorithms with improved error-correcting capability and comparable complexity to standard algebraic hard-decision algorithms could be very attractive for possible implementation in the next generation of read channels. In this work, we investigate the performance of a low-complexity Chase (LCC)-type soft-decision RS decoding algorithm, recently proposed by Bellorado and Kavčić, on perpendicular magnetic recording channels for sector-long RS codes of practical interest. Previous results for additive white Gaussian noise channels have shown that for a moderately long high-rate code, the LCC algorithm can achieve a coding gain comparable to the Koetter-Vardy algorithm with much lower complexity. We present a set of numerical results that show that this algorithm provides small coding gains, on the order of a fraction of a dB, with similar complexity to the hard-decision algorithms currently used, and that larger coding gains can be obtained if we use more test patterns, which significantly increases its computational complexity.