Patent ID: 7487429

Claim:
Method of decoding possibly mutilated codewords (r) of a code (C) into information words (m′) comprising information symbols (m′ 1 , m′ 2 , . . . , m′ k ), said information words (m′) being encoded into codewords (c) of said code (C), comprising the steps of: providing a mechanism having a minimum Hamming distance for at least one subcode (C′) of said code (C) that is larger than the minimum Hamming distance of said code (C), wherein said information words (m′) are encoded into said codewords (c) using said mechanism; decoding said possibly mutilated codewords (r) into codewords (r′), reconstructing information symbols (m′ 1 , m 2 , . . . , m′ k ) from said codewords (r′), comparing said reconstruct information symbols (m′ 1 , m′ 2 , . . . , m′ k ) with information symbols (m 1 ) known a priori before decoding, and verifying decoding errors based on the result of said comparison.