A class of one-dimensional MDS convolutional codes

A class of one-dimensional convolutional codes will be presented. They are all MDS codes, i.e. have the largest distance among all one-dimensional codes of the same length n and overall constraint length δ. Furthermore, their extended row distances are computed, and they increase with slope at least n - δ. In certain cases of the algebraic parameters, we will also derive parity check matrices of Vandermonde type for these codes. Finally, cyclicity in the convolutional sense of [8] will be discussed for our class of codes. It will turn out that they are cyclic if and only if the field element used in the generator matrix has order n. This can be regarded as a generalization of the block code case.