On constructing a shortest linear recurrence relation

m.kuijperQee.mu.oz.au In 1968, Berlekamp and Massey presented an algo-rithm to compute a shortest linear recurrence relation for a finite sequence of numbers. It was originally designed for the purpose of decoding certain types of block codes. It later became important for cryp-tographic applications, namely for determining the complexity profile of a sequence of numbers. Here, we interpret the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm in a system-theoretic way. We explicitly present the al-gorithm as an iterative procedure to construct a be-havior. We conclude that this procedure is the most efficient method for solving the scalar minimal partial realization problem. 1