Asymptotic Improvement of the Gilbert-Varshamov Bound on the Size of Binary Codes

Given positive integers $n$ and $d$, let $A_2(n,d)$ denote the maximum size of a binary code of length $n$ and minimum distance $d$. The well-known Gilbert-Varshamov bound asserts that $A_2(n,d) \geq 2^n/V(n,d-1)$, where $V(n,d) = \sum_{i=0}^{d} {n \choose i}$ is the volume of a Hamming sphere of radius $d$. We show that, in fact, there exists a positive constant $c$ such that $$A_2(n,d) \geq c \frac{2^n}{V(n,d-1)} \log_2 V(n,d-1)$$ whenever $d/n \le 0.499$. The result follows by recasting the Gilbert- Varshamov bound into a graph-theoretic framework and using the fact that the corresponding graph is locally sparse. Generalizations and extensions of this result are briefly discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, submitted August 12, 2003, revised March 28, 200

Distance-regular graphs

This is a survey of distance-regular graphs. We present an introduction to distance-regular graphs for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject, and then give an overview of some developments in the area of distance-regular graphs since the monograph 'BCN' [Brouwer, A.E., Cohen, A.M., Neumaier, A., Distance-Regular Graphs, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1989] was written.Comment: 156 page

Problems on q-Analogs in Coding Theory

The interest in $q$-analogs of codes and designs has been increased in the last few years as a consequence of their new application in error-correction for random network coding. There are many interesting theoretical, algebraic, and combinatorial coding problems concerning these q-analogs which remained unsolved. The first goal of this paper is to make a short summary of the large amount of research which was done in the area mainly in the last few years and to provide most of the relevant references. The second goal of this paper is to present one hundred open questions and problems for future research, whose solution will advance the knowledge in this area. The third goal of this paper is to present and start some directions in solving some of these problems.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0805.3528 by other author

Towards a deeper understanding of APN functions and related longstanding problems

This dissertation is dedicated to the properties, construction and analysis of APN and AB functions. Being cryptographically optimal, these functions lack any general structure or patterns, which makes their study very challenging. Despite intense work since at least the early 90's, many important questions and conjectures in the area remain open. We present several new results, many of which are directly related to important longstanding open problems; we resolve some of these problems, and make significant progress towards the resolution of others. More concretely, our research concerns the following open problems: i) the maximum algebraic degree of an APN function, and the Hamming distance between APN functions (open since 1998); ii) the classification of APN and AB functions up to CCZ-equivalence (an ongoing problem since the introduction of APN functions, and one of the main directions of research in the area); iii) the extension of the APN binomial $x^3 + \beta x^{36}$ over $F_{2^{10}}$ into an infinite family (open since 2006); iv) the Walsh spectrum of the Dobbertin function (open since 2001); v) the existence of monomial APN functions CCZ-inequivalent to ones from the known families (open since 2001); vi) the problem of efficiently and reliably testing EA- and CCZ-equivalence (ongoing, and open since the introduction of APN functions). In the course of investigating these problems, we obtain i.a. the following results: 1) a new infinite family of APN quadrinomials (which includes the binomial $x^3 + \beta x^{36}$ over $F_{2^{10}}$); 2) two new invariants, one under EA-equivalence, and one under CCZ-equivalence; 3) an efficient and easily parallelizable algorithm for computationally testing EA-equivalence; 4) an efficiently computable lower bound on the Hamming distance between a given APN function and any other APN function; 5) a classification of all quadratic APN polynomials with binary coefficients over $F_{2^n}$ for $n \le 9$; 6) a construction allowing the CCZ-equivalence class of one monomial APN function to be obtained from that of another; 7) a conjecture giving the exact form of the Walsh spectrum of the Dobbertin power functions; 8) a generalization of an infinite family of APN functions to a family of functions with a two-valued differential spectrum, and an example showing that this Gold-like behavior does not occur for infinite families of quadratic APN functions in general; 9) a new class of functions (the so-called partially APN functions) defined by relaxing the definition of the APN property, and several constructions and non-existence results related to them.Doktorgradsavhandlin

Codes and Designs Related to Lifted MRD Codes

Lifted maximum rank distance (MRD) codes, which are constant dimension codes, are considered. It is shown that a lifted MRD code can be represented in such a way that it forms a block design known as a transversal design. A slightly different representation of this design makes it similar to a $q-$analog of a transversal design. The structure of these designs is used to obtain upper bounds on the sizes of constant dimension codes which contain a lifted MRD code. Codes which attain these bounds are constructed. These codes are the largest known codes for the given parameters. These transversal designs can be also used to derive a new family of linear codes in the Hamming space. Bounds on the minimum distance and the dimension of such codes are given.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. The material in this paper was presented in part in the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Saint Petersburg, Russia, August 201

Subspace Packings : Constructions and Bounds

The Grassmannian $\mathcal{G}_q(n,k)$ is the set of all $k$-dimensional subspaces of the vector space $\mathbb{F}_q^n$. K\"{o}tter and Kschischang showed that codes in Grassmannian space can be used for error-correction in random network coding. On the other hand, these codes are $q$-analogs of codes in the Johnson scheme, i.e., constant dimension codes. These codes of the Grassmannian $\mathcal{G}_q(n,k)$ also form a family of $q$-analogs of block designs and they are called subspace designs. In this paper, we examine one of the last families of $q$-analogs of block designs which was not considered before. This family, called subspace packings, is the $q$-analog of packings, and was considered recently for network coding solution for a family of multicast networks called the generalized combination networks. A subspace packing $t$-$(n,k,\lambda)_q$ is a set $\mathcal{S}$ of $k$-subspaces from $\mathcal{G}_q(n,k)$ such that each $t$-subspace of $\mathcal{G}_q(n,t)$ is contained in at most $\lambda$ elements of $\mathcal{S}$. The goal of this work is to consider the largest size of such subspace packings. We derive a sequence of lower and upper bounds on the maximum size of such packings, analyse these bounds, and identify the important problems for further research in this area.Comment: 30 pages, 27 tables, continuation of arXiv:1811.04611, typos correcte

Mathematical aspects of the design and security of block ciphers

Block ciphers constitute a major part of modern symmetric cryptography. A mathematical analysis is necessary to ensure the security of the cipher. In this thesis, I develop several new contributions for the analysis of block ciphers. I determine cryptographic properties of several special cryptographically interesting mappings like almost perfect nonlinear functions. I also give some new results both on the resistance of functions against differential-linear attacks as well as on the efficiency of implementation of certain block ciphers