Reed-Solomon Code Symbol Avoidance

A Reed-Solomon code construction that avoids or excludes particular symbols in a linear Reed-Solomon code is presented. The resulting code, from our symbol avoidance construction, has the same or better error-correcting capabilities compared to the original Reed-Solomon code, but with reduced efficiency in terms of rate. The codebook of the new code is a subset of the original Reed-Solomon code and the code may no longer be linear. We also present computer search results for the bound on the number of symbols that can be avoided, and we make an attempt to find an expression for the bound. Such a code, by symbol avoidance, can be well suited to a number of applications, some of which include markers for synchronization, frequency hopping signatures, and pulse position modulation.