``A Tutorial on Reed-Solomon Coding for Fault-Tolerance in RAID-like Systems''

Software -- Practice & Experience, 27(9), September, 1997, pp. 995-1012.

Important!!

The information dispersal matrix A given in this paper does not have the desired properties. Please see Technical Report CS-03-504 for a correction to this problem.

Paper Errata

On page 1000 of the journal article (page 8 of the tech report), there is a typographical error. 3 / 7 should = 10, not 14.

Procedures for Reed-Solomon Coding

Please see http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~jplank/plank/gflib/ for an implementation of Galois-Field arithmetic in GF(2^8) and GF(2^16), and for Reed-Solomon coding as described in this paper.

Abstract

It is well-known that Reed-Solomon codes may be used to provide error correction for multiple failures in RAID-like systems. The coding technique itself, however, is not as well-known. To the coding theorist, this technique is a straightforward extension to a basic coding paradigm and needs no special mention. However, to the systems programmer with no training in coding theory, the technique may be a mystery. Currently, there are no references that describe how to perform this coding that do not assume that the reader is already well-versed in algebra and coding theory.

This paper is intended for the systems programmer. It presents a complete specification of the coding algorithm plus details on how it may be implemented. This specification assumes no prior knowledge of algebra or coding theory. The goal of this paper is for a systems programmer to be able to implement Reed-Solomon coding for reliability in RAID-like systems without needing to consult any external references.

A precursor to this paper is available as UT CS Technical Report CS-96-332.

Citation Information

Plain Text:

     .article        p:97:rs
     author          J. S. Plank
     title           A Tutorial on {R}eed-{S}olomon Coding for
                     Fault-Tolerance in {RAID}-like Systems
     journal         Software -- Practice \& Experience
     volume          27
     number          9
     pages           995-1012
     month           September
     year            1997
     where           http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~jplank/plank/papers/CS-96-332.html

Bibtex:

@ARTICLE{p:97:rs,
        author = "J. S. Plank",
        title = "A Tutorial on {R}eed-{S}olomon Coding for
                Fault-Tolerance in {RAID}-like Systems",
        journal = "Software -- Practice \& Experience",
        volume = "27",
        number = "9",
        pages = "995-1012",
        month = "September",
        year = "1997",
        where = "http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~jplank/plank/papers/CS-96-332.html"
}