A linear construction for certain Kerdock and Preparata codes

The Nordstrom-Robinson, Kerdock, and (slightly modified) Pre\- parata codes are shown to be linear over \ZZ_4, the integers $\bmod~4$. The Kerdock and Preparata codes are duals over \ZZ_4, and the Nordstrom-Robinson code is self-dual. All these codes are just extended cyclic codes over \ZZ_4. This provides a simple definition for these codes and explains why their Hamming weight distributions are dual to each other. First- and second-order Reed-Muller codes are also linear codes over \ZZ_4, but Hamming codes in general are not, nor is the Golay code.Comment: 5 page

On the equivalence of codes over rings and modules

AbstractIn light of the result by Wood that codes over every finite Frobenius ring satisfy a version of the MacWilliams equivalence theorem, a proof for the converse is considered. A strategy is proposed that would reduce the question to problems dealing only with matrices over finite fields. Using this strategy, it is shown, among other things, that any left MacWilliams basic ring is Frobenius. The results and techniques in the paper also apply to related problems dealing with codes over modules

Duality Preserving Gray Maps for Codes over Rings

Given a finite ring $A$ which is a free left module over a subring $R$ of $A$, two types of $R$-bases, pseudo-self-dual bases (similar to trace orthogonal bases) and symmetric bases, are defined which in turn are used to define duality preserving maps from codes over $A$ to codes over $R$. Both types of bases are generalizations of similar concepts for fields. Many illustrative examples are given to shed light on the advantages to such mappings as well as their abundance