Strongly MDS Convolutional Codes

MDS convolutional codes have the property that their free distance is maximal among all codes of the same rate and the same degree. In this paper we introduce a class of MDS convolutional codes whose column distances reach the generalized Singleton bound at the earliest possible instant. We call these codes strongly MDS convolutional codes. It is shown that these codes can decode a maximum number of errors per time interval when compared with other convolutional codes of the same rate and degree. These codes have also a maximum or near maximum distance profile. A code has a maximum distance profile if and only if the dual code has this property.