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

Resolving sets for Johnson and Kneser graphs

A set of vertices $S$ in a graph $G$ is a {\em resolving set} for $G$ if, for any two vertices $u,v$, there exists $x\in S$ such that the distances $d(u,x) \neq d(v,x)$. In this paper, we consider the Johnson graphs $J(n,k)$ and Kneser graphs $K(n,k)$, and obtain various constructions of resolving sets for these graphs. As well as general constructions, we show that various interesting combinatorial objects can be used to obtain resolving sets in these graphs, including (for Johnson graphs) projective planes and symmetric designs, as well as (for Kneser graphs) partial geometries, Hadamard matrices, Steiner systems and toroidal grids.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

On qq-covering designs

A $q$-covering design $\mathbb{C}_q(n, k, r)$, $k \ge r$, is a collection $\mathcal X$ of $(k-1)$-spaces of $\mathrm{PG}(n-1, q)$ such that every $(r-1)$-space of $\mathrm{PG}(n-1, q)$ is contained in at least one element of $\mathcal X$ . Let $\mathcal{C}_q(n, k, r)$ denote the minimum number of $(k-1)$-spaces in a $q$-covering design $\mathbb{C}_q(n, k, r)$. In this paper improved upper bounds on $\mathcal{C}_q(2n, 3, 2)$, $n \ge 4$, $\mathcal{C}_q(3n + 8, 4, 2)$, $n \ge 0$, and $\mathcal{C}_q(2n,4,3)$, $n \ge 4$, are presented. The results are achieved by constructing the related $q$-covering designs