Subspace subcodes of Reed-Solomon codes

We introduce a class of nonlinear cyclic error-correcting codes, which we call subspace subcodes of Reed-Solomon (SSRS) codes. An SSRS code is a subset of a parent Reed-Solomon (RS) code consisting of the RS codewords whose components all lie in a fixed ν-dimensional vector subspace S of GF (2m). SSRS codes are constructed using properties of the Galois field GF(2m). They are not linear over the field GF(2ν), which does not come into play, but rather are Abelian group codes over S. However, they are linear over GF(2), and the symbol-wise cyclic shift of any codeword is also a codeword. Our main result is an explicit but complicated formula for the dimension of an SSRS code. It implies a simple lower bound, which gives the true value of the dimension for most, though not all, subspaces. We also prove several important duality properties. We present some numerical examples, which show, among other things, that (1) SSRS codes can have a higher dimension than comparable subfield subcodes of RS codes, so that even if GF(2ν) is a subfield of GF(2m), it may not be the best ν-dimensional subspace for constructing SSRS codes; and (2) many high-rate SSRS codes have a larger dimension than any previously known code with the same values of n, d, and q, including algebraic-geometry codes. These examples suggest that high-rate SSRS codes are promising candidates to replace Reed-Solomon codes in high-performance transmission and storage systems

Asymptotically Good Additive Cyclic Codes Exist

Long quasi-cyclic codes of any fixed index $>1$ have been shown to be asymptotically good, depending on Artin primitive root conjecture in (A. Alahmadi, C. G\"uneri, H. Shoaib, P. Sol\'e, 2017). We use this recent result to construct good long additive cyclic codes on any extension of fixed degree of the base field. Similarly self-dual double circulant codes, and self-dual four circulant codes, have been shown to be good, also depending on Artin primitive root conjecture in (A. Alahmadi, F. \"Ozdemir, P. Sol\'e, 2017) and ( M. Shi, H. Zhu, P. Sol\'e, 2017) respectively. Building on these recent results, we can show that long cyclic codes are good over \F_q, for many classes of $q$'s. This is a partial solution to a fifty year old open problem

Trellis decoding complexity of linear block codes

In this partially tutorial paper, we examine minimal trellis representations of linear block codes and analyze several measures of trellis complexity: maximum state and edge dimensions, total span length, and total vertices, edges and mergers. We obtain bounds on these complexities as extensions of well-known dimension/length profile (DLP) bounds. Codes meeting these bounds minimize all the complexity measures simultaneously; conversely, a code attaining the bound for total span length, vertices, or edges, must likewise attain it for all the others. We define a notion of “uniform” optimality that embraces different domains of optimization, such as different permutations of a code or different codes with the same parameters, and we give examples of uniformly optimal codes and permutations. We also give some conditions that identify certain cases when no code or permutation can meet the bounds. In addition to DLP-based bounds, we derive new inequalities relating one complexity measure to another, which can be used in conjunction with known bounds on one measure to imply bounds on the others. As an application, we infer new bounds on maximum state and edge complexity and on total vertices and edges from bounds on span lengths