Construct a Reed Solomon code: find the parity check matrix

abstract-algebracoding-theoryfinite-fields

I am trying to solve the following exercise, but I need a check/opinion on how to solve it.

Construct a Reed-Solomon code with dimensions $[12,7]$ over $\mathbb{F}_{13}$ and find a parity check matrix for the code $C$. Hint: $2$ is a primitive element of $\mathbb{F}_{13}$.


First thing: I have $\delta=12-7+1=6$, so the minimum distance is exactly $6$. Also, I choose to build a narrow-sense code, so the defining set is $T = \mathcal{C}_1 \cup \ldots \cup \mathcal{C}_{5}$.

As $12=n=13-1$, then $\mathcal{C}_i=\{ i \}$, so the generator polynomial is $$g(x)=(x-2)(x-2^2)(x-2^3)(x-2^4)(x-2^5)=(x-2)(x-4)(x-8)(x-3)(x-6)$$

Now, I can work out the computations and find $h(x)$,check polynomial, dividing $x^{12}-1$ by $g(x)$, but it seems a bit heavy to me. Is there any other possibility to compute the check polynomial faster? And so also the parity check matrix.

Best Answer

Why would you need to divide? You already know its structure as well as you know $g$'s:

It's equal to $(x-1)(x-5)(x-7)(x-9)(x-10)(x-11)(x-12)$

After you have this, you can use its corresponding word, then do cyclic shifts to find the rest of the parity matrix.

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