Basic Reed-Solomon Error Correction Question...

Question

Does Reed-Solomon error correction work in an instance where there is a dropped byte (or multiple dropped bytes)? For example, let's say it's a (12,8) Reed Solomon code, so theoretically it should be able to correct 2 errors (or 4 erasures if the position is known). But, what happens if only 11 (or 10) bytes are received and one doesn't know which byte(s) were dropped? Will Reed-Solomon error correction work?

Thanks,
Ben

Answer 1

RS decoding for erasures requires the position of the symbols "dropped" or lost. The kind of error you're talking about is due to phase distortion.