Microsoft Corporation
CODES TO DETECT INSERTION AND DELETION ERRORS IN A DENSE STORAGE MEDIUM

Abstract:

This disclosure describes systems and methods for detecting multiple insertion and deletion errors in the presence of substitution errors in a signal (such as a sequenced DNA string). A convolutional code that includes two or more component convolutional codes is used for encoding. Each of the two or more component convolutional codes generates only a subset of all possible outputs of the convolutional code. The subsets of the two or more component convolutional codes are disjoint from each other. Only one of the two or more convolutional codes is active at any given time. The two or more convolutional codes together define a super code. The two or more convolutional codes are time interlaced within the super code, and the super code defines the convolutional code. A trellis that includes two or more component trellises designed based on the two or more component convolutional codes is used for decoding.