Constant-Weight Gray Codes for Local Rank Modulation

We consider the local rank-modulation scheme in which a sliding window going over a sequence of real-valued variables induces a sequence of permutations. Local rank- modulation is a generalization of the rank-modulation scheme, which has been recently suggested as a way of storing information in flash memory. We study constant-weight Gray codes for the local rank- modulation scheme in order to simulate conventional multi-level flash cells while retaining the benefits of rank modulation. We provide necessary conditions for the existence of cyclic and cyclic optimal Gray codes. We then specifically study codes of weight 2 and upper bound their efficiency, thus proving that there are no such asymptotically-optimal cyclic codes. In contrast, we study codes of weight 3 and efficiently construct codes which are asymptotically-optimal. We conclude with a construction of codes with asymptotically-optimal rate and weight asymptotically half the length, thus having an asymptotically-optimal charge difference between adjacent cells

Constant-Weight Gray Codes for Local Rank Modulation

We consider the local rank-modulation scheme in which a sliding window going over a sequence of real-valued variables induces a sequence of permutations. The local rank-modulation, as a generalization of the rank-modulation scheme, has been recently suggested as a way of storing information in flash memory. We study constant-weight Gray codes for the local rank-modulation scheme in order to simulate conventional multi-level flash cells while retaining the benefits of rank modulation. We provide necessary conditions for the existence of cyclic and cyclic optimal Gray codes. We then specifically study codes of weight 2 and upper bound their efficiency, thus proving that there are no such asymptotically-optimal cyclic codes. In contrast, we study codes of weight 3 and efficiently construct codes which are asymptotically-optimal

On a construction for constant-weight Gray codes for local rank modulation

We consider the local rank-modulation scheme in which a sliding window going over a sequence of real-valued variables induces a sequence of permutations. The local rank-modulation, as a generalization of the rank-modulation scheme, has been recently suggested as a way of storing information in flash memory. We study constant-weight Gray codes for the local rank-modulation scheme in order to simulate conventional multilevel flash cells while retaining the benefits of rank modulation. We describe a construction for a codes of rate tending to 1

Generalized Gray Codes for Local Rank Modulation

We consider the local rank-modulation scheme in which a sliding window going over a sequence of real-valued variables induces a sequence of permutations. Local rank-modulation is a generalization of the rank-modulation scheme, which has been recently suggested as a way of storing information in flash memory. We study Gray codes for the local rank-modulation scheme in order to simulate conventional multi-level flash cells while retaining the benefits of rank modulation. Unlike the limited scope of previous works, we consider code constructions for the entire range of parameters including the code length, sliding window size, and overlap between adjacent windows. We show our constructed codes have asymptotically-optimal rate. We also provide efficient encoding, decoding, and next-state algorithms.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, shorter version was submitted to ISIT 201

Constructions of Rank Modulation Codes

Rank modulation is a way of encoding information to correct errors in flash memory devices as well as impulse noise in transmission lines. Modeling rank modulation involves construction of packings of the space of permutations equipped with the Kendall tau distance. We present several general constructions of codes in permutations that cover a broad range of code parameters. In particular, we show a number of ways in which conventional error-correcting codes can be modified to correct errors in the Kendall space. Codes that we construct afford simple encoding and decoding algorithms of essentially the same complexity as required to correct errors in the Hamming metric. For instance, from binary BCH codes we obtain codes correcting $t$ Kendall errors in $n$ memory cells that support the order of $n!/(\log_2n!)^t$ messages, for any constant $t= 1,2,...$ We also construct families of codes that correct a number of errors that grows with $n$ at varying rates, from $\Theta(n)$ to $\Theta(n^{2})$. One of our constructions gives rise to a family of rank modulation codes for which the trade-off between the number of messages and the number of correctable Kendall errors approaches the optimal scaling rate. Finally, we list a number of possibilities for constructing codes of finite length, and give examples of rank modulation codes with specific parameters.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Compressed Encoding for Rank Modulation

Rank modulation has been recently proposed as a scheme for storing information in flash memories. While rank modulation has advantages in improving write speed and endurance, the current encoding approach is based on the "push to the top" operation that is not efficient in the general case. We propose a new encoding procedure where a cell level is raised to be higher than the minimal necessary subset -instead of all - of the other cell levels. This new procedure leads to a significantly more compressed (lower charge levels) encoding. We derive an upper bound for a family of codes that utilize the proposed encoding procedure, and consider code constructions that achieve that bound for several special cases

Limited-Magnitude Error-Correcting Gray Codes for Rank Modulation

We construct Gray codes over permutations for the rank-modulation scheme, which are also capable of correcting errors under the infinity-metric. These errors model limited-magnitude or spike errors, for which only single-error-detecting Gray codes are currently known. Surprisingly, the error-correcting codes we construct achieve a better asymptotic rate than that of presently known constructions not having the Gray property, and exceed the Gilbert-Varshamov bound. Additionally, we present efficient ranking and unranking procedures, as well as a decoding procedure that runs in linear time. Finally, we also apply our methods to solve an outstanding issue with error-detecting rank-modulation Gray codes (snake-in-the-box codes) under a different metric, the Kendall $\tau$-metric, in the group of permutations over an even number of elements $S_{2n}$, where we provide asymptotically optimal codes.Comment: Revised version for journal submission. Additional results include more tight auxiliary constructions, a decoding shcema, ranking/unranking procedures, and application to snake-in-the-box codes under the Kendall tau-metri