Coding for Errors and Erasures in Random Network Coding

The problem of error-control in random linear network coding is considered. A ``noncoherent'' or ``channel oblivious'' model is assumed where neither transmitter nor receiver is assumed to have knowledge of the channel transfer characteristic. Motivated by the property that linear network coding is vector-space preserving, information transmission is modelled as the injection into the network of a basis for a vector space $V$ and the collection by the receiver of a basis for a vector space $U$. A metric on the projective geometry associated with the packet space is introduced, and it is shown that a minimum distance decoder for this metric achieves correct decoding if the dimension of the space $V \cap U$ is sufficiently large. If the dimension of each codeword is restricted to a fixed integer, the code forms a subset of a finite-field Grassmannian, or, equivalently, a subset of the vertices of the corresponding Grassmann graph. Sphere-packing and sphere-covering bounds as well as a generalization of the Singleton bound are provided for such codes. Finally, a Reed-Solomon-like code construction, related to Gabidulin's construction of maximum rank-distance codes, is described and a Sudan-style ``list-1'' minimum distance decoding algorithm is provided.Comment: This revised paper contains some minor changes and clarification

Constructions for finite-state codes

A class of codes called finite-state (FS) codes is defined and investigated. These codes, which generalize both block and convolutional codes, are defined by their encoders, which are finite-state machines with parallel inputs and outputs. A family of upper bounds on the free distance of a given FS code is derived from known upper bounds on the minimum distance of block codes. A general construction for FS codes is then given, based on the idea of partitioning a given linear block into cosets of one of its subcodes, and it is shown that in many cases the FS codes constructed in this way have a d sub free which is as large as possible. These codes are found without the need for lengthy computer searches, and have potential applications for future deep-space coding systems. The issue of catastropic error propagation (CEP) for FS codes is also investigated

Application of Constacyclic codes to Quantum MDS Codes

Quantum maximal-distance-separable (MDS) codes form an important class of quantum codes. To get $q$-ary quantum MDS codes, it suffices to find linear MDS codes $C$ over $\mathbb{F}_{q^2}$ satisfying $C^{\perp_H}\subseteq C$ by the Hermitian construction and the quantum Singleton bound. If $C^{\perp_{H}}\subseteq C$, we say that $C$ is a dual-containing code. Many new quantum MDS codes with relatively large minimum distance have been produced by constructing dual-containing constacyclic MDS codes (see \cite{Guardia11}, \cite{Kai13}, \cite{Kai14}). These works motivate us to make a careful study on the existence condition for nontrivial dual-containing constacyclic codes. This would help us to avoid unnecessary attempts and provide effective ideas in order to construct dual-containing codes. Several classes of dual-containing MDS constacyclic codes are constructed and their parameters are computed. Consequently, new quantum MDS codes are derived from these parameters. The quantum MDS codes exhibited here have parameters better than the ones available in the literature.Comment: 16 page

Integer linear programming techniques for constant dimension codes and related structures

The lattice of subspaces of a finite dimensional vector space over a finite field is combined with the so-called subspace distance or the injection distance a metric space. A subset of this metric space is called subspace code. If a subspace code contains solely elements, so-called codewords, with equal dimension, it is called constant dimension code, which is abbreviated as CDC. The minimum distance is the smallest pairwise distance of elements of a subspace code. In the case of a CDC, the minimum distance is equivalent to an upper bound on the dimension of the pairwise intersection of any two codewords. Subspace codes play a vital role in the context of random linear network coding, in which data is transmitted from a sender to multiple receivers such that participants of the communication forward random linear combinations of the data. The two main problems of subspace coding are the determination of the cardinality of largest subspace codes and the classification of subspace codes. Using integer linear programming techniques and symmetry, this thesis answers partially the questions above while focusing on CDCs. With the coset construction and the improved linkage construction, we state two general constructions, which improve on the best known lower bound of the cardinality in many cases. A well-structured CDC which is often used as building block for elaborate CDCs is the lifted maximum rank distance code, abbreviated as LMRD. We generalize known upper bounds for CDCs which contain an LMRD, the so-called LMRD bounds. This also provides a new method to extend an LMRD with additional codewords. This technique yields in sporadic cases best lower bounds on the cardinalities of largest CDCs. The improved linkage construction is used to construct an infinite series of CDCs whose cardinalities exceed the LMRD bound. Another construction which contains an LMRD together with an asymptotic analysis in this thesis restricts the ratio between best known lower bound and best known upper bound to at least 61.6% for all parameters. Furthermore, we compare known upper bounds and show new relations between them. This thesis describes also a computer-aided classification of largest binary CDCs in dimension eight, codeword dimension four, and minimum distance six. This is, for non-trivial parameters which in addition do not parametrize the special case of partial spreads, the third set of parameters of which the maximum cardinality is determined and the second set of parameters with a classification of all maximum codes. Provable, some symmetry groups cannot be automorphism groups of large CDCs. Additionally, we provide an algorithm which examines the set of all subgroups of a finite group for a given, with restrictions selectable, property. In the context of CDCs, this algorithm provides on the one hand a list of subgroups, which are eligible for automorphism groups of large codes and on the other hand codes having many symmetries which are found by this method can be enlarged in a postprocessing step. This yields a new largest code in the smallest open case, namely the situation of the binary analogue of the Fano plane

Locally Encodable and Decodable Codes for Distributed Storage Systems

We consider the locality of encoding and decoding operations in distributed storage systems (DSS), and propose a new class of codes, called locally encodable and decodable codes (LEDC), that provides a higher degree of operational locality compared to currently known codes. For a given locality structure, we derive an upper bound on the global distance and demonstrate the existence of an optimal LEDC for sufficiently large field size. In addition, we also construct two families of optimal LEDC for fields with size linear in code length.Comment: 7 page