Product Construction of Affine Codes

Binary matrix codes with restricted row and column weights are a desirable method of coded modulation for power line communication. In this work, we construct such matrix codes that are obtained as products of affine codes - cosets of binary linear codes. Additionally, the constructions have the property that they are systematic. Subsequently, we generalize our construction to irregular product of affine codes, where the component codes are affine codes of different rates.Comment: 13 pages, to appear in SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematic

Density Evolution for Asymmetric Memoryless Channels

Density evolution is one of the most powerful analytical tools for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and graph codes with message passing decoding algorithms. With channel symmetry as one of its fundamental assumptions, density evolution (DE) has been widely and successfully applied to different channels, including binary erasure channels, binary symmetric channels, binary additive white Gaussian noise channels, etc. This paper generalizes density evolution for non-symmetric memoryless channels, which in turn broadens the applications to general memoryless channels, e.g. z-channels, composite white Gaussian noise channels, etc. The central theorem underpinning this generalization is the convergence to perfect projection for any fixed size supporting tree. A new iterative formula of the same complexity is then presented and the necessary theorems for the performance concentration theorems are developed. Several properties of the new density evolution method are explored, including stability results for general asymmetric memoryless channels. Simulations, code optimizations, and possible new applications suggested by this new density evolution method are also provided. This result is also used to prove the typicality of linear LDPC codes among the coset code ensemble when the minimum check node degree is sufficiently large. It is shown that the convergence to perfect projection is essential to the belief propagation algorithm even when only symmetric channels are considered. Hence the proof of the convergence to perfect projection serves also as a completion of the theory of classical density evolution for symmetric memoryless channels.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Decoding Cyclic Codes up to a New Bound on the Minimum Distance

A new lower bound on the minimum distance of q-ary cyclic codes is proposed. This bound improves upon the Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) bound and, for some codes, upon the Hartmann-Tzeng (HT) bound. Several Boston bounds are special cases of our bound. For some classes of codes the bound on the minimum distance is refined. Furthermore, a quadratic-time decoding algorithm up to this new bound is developed. The determination of the error locations is based on the Euclidean Algorithm and a modified Chien search. The error evaluation is done by solving a generalization of Forney's formula