Constructing Optimal Authentication Codes with Perfect Multi-fold Secrecy

We establish a construction of optimal authentication codes achieving perfect multi-fold secrecy by means of combinatorial designs. This continues the author's work (ISIT 2009) and answers an open question posed therein. As an application, we present the first infinite class of optimal codes that provide two-fold security against spoofing attacks and at the same time perfect two- fold secrecy.Comment: 4 pages (double-column); to appear in Proc. 2010 International Zurich Seminar on Communications (IZS 2010, Zurich

Coding Theory and Algebraic Combinatorics

This chapter introduces and elaborates on the fruitful interplay of coding theory and algebraic combinatorics, with most of the focus on the interaction of codes with combinatorial designs, finite geometries, simple groups, sphere packings, kissing numbers, lattices, and association schemes. In particular, special interest is devoted to the relationship between codes and combinatorial designs. We describe and recapitulate important results in the development of the state of the art. In addition, we give illustrative examples and constructions, and highlight recent advances. Finally, we provide a collection of significant open problems and challenges concerning future research.Comment: 33 pages; handbook chapter, to appear in: "Selected Topics in Information and Coding Theory", ed. by I. Woungang et al., World Scientific, Singapore, 201

Combinatorial Bounds and Characterizations of Splitting Authentication Codes

We present several generalizations of results for splitting authentication codes by studying the aspect of multi-fold security. As the two primary results, we prove a combinatorial lower bound on the number of encoding rules and a combinatorial characterization of optimal splitting authentication codes that are multi-fold secure against spoofing attacks. The characterization is based on a new type of combinatorial designs, which we introduce and for which basic necessary conditions are given regarding their existence.Comment: 13 pages; to appear in "Cryptography and Communications

High-rate self-synchronizing codes

Self-synchronization under the presence of additive noise can be achieved by allocating a certain number of bits of each codeword as markers for synchronization. Difference systems of sets are combinatorial designs which specify the positions of synchronization markers in codewords in such a way that the resulting error-tolerant self-synchronizing codes may be realized as cosets of linear codes. Ideally, difference systems of sets should sacrifice as few bits as possible for a given code length, alphabet size, and error-tolerance capability. However, it seems difficult to attain optimality with respect to known bounds when the noise level is relatively low. In fact, the majority of known optimal difference systems of sets are for exceptionally noisy channels, requiring a substantial amount of bits for synchronization. To address this problem, we present constructions for difference systems of sets that allow for higher information rates while sacrificing optimality to only a small extent. Our constructions utilize optimal difference systems of sets as ingredients and, when applied carefully, generate asymptotically optimal ones with higher information rates. We also give direct constructions for optimal difference systems of sets with high information rates and error-tolerance that generate binary and ternary self-synchronizing codes.Comment: 9 pages, no figure, 2 tables. Final accepted version for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. Material presented in part at the International Symposium on Information Theory and its Applications, Honolulu, HI USA, October 201

Information Theoretic Authentication and Secrecy Codes in the Splitting Model

In the splitting model, information theoretic authentication codes allow non-deterministic encoding, that is, several messages can be used to communicate a particular plaintext. Certain applications require that the aspect of secrecy should hold simultaneously. Ogata-Kurosawa-Stinson-Saido (2004) have constructed optimal splitting authentication codes achieving perfect secrecy for the special case when the number of keys equals the number of messages. In this paper, we establish a construction method for optimal splitting authentication codes with perfect secrecy in the more general case when the number of keys may differ from the number of messages. To the best knowledge, this is the first result of this type.Comment: 4 pages (double-column); to appear in Proc. 2012 International Zurich Seminar on Communications (IZS 2012, Zurich

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