Multitrial decoding of concatenated codes using fixed thresholds

For decoding concatenated codes up to half their designed distance, generalized minimum distance (GMD) decoding can be used. GMD decoding applies multitrial error/erasure decoding of the outer code, where erased symbols depend on some reliability measure stemming from the inner decoders. We consider the case where the outer decoder is able to decode beyond half the minimum distance of the outer code. For a given number of outer decoding trials, we derive achievable decoding radii for GMD decoding. Vice versa, we give a lower bound on the number of required outer decoding trials to obtain the greatest possible decoding radius.