List decoding of a class of affine variety codes

Consider a polynomial $F$ in $m$ variables and a finite point ensemble $S=S_1 \times ... \times S_m$. When given the leading monomial of $F$ with respect to a lexicographic ordering we derive improved information on the possible number of zeros of $F$ of multiplicity at least $r$ from $S$. We then use this information to design a list decoding algorithm for a large class of affine variety codes.Comment: 11 pages, 5 table

Linear-algebraic list decoding of folded Reed-Solomon codes

Folded Reed-Solomon codes are an explicit family of codes that achieve the optimal trade-off between rate and error-correction capability: specifically, for any \eps > 0, the author and Rudra (2006,08) presented an n^{O(1/\eps)} time algorithm to list decode appropriate folded RS codes of rate $R$ from a fraction 1-R-\eps of errors. The algorithm is based on multivariate polynomial interpolation and root-finding over extension fields. It was noted by Vadhan that interpolating a linear polynomial suffices if one settles for a smaller decoding radius (but still enough for a statement of the above form). Here we give a simple linear-algebra based analysis of this variant that eliminates the need for the computationally expensive root-finding step over extension fields (and indeed any mention of extension fields). The entire list decoding algorithm is linear-algebraic, solving one linear system for the interpolation step, and another linear system to find a small subspace of candidate solutions. Except for the step of pruning this subspace, the algorithm can be implemented to run in {\em quadratic} time. The theoretical drawback of folded RS codes are that both the decoding complexity and proven worst-case list-size bound are n^{\Omega(1/\eps)}. By combining the above idea with a pseudorandom subset of all polynomials as messages, we get a Monte Carlo construction achieving a list size bound of O(1/\eps^2) which is quite close to the existential O(1/\eps) bound (however, the decoding complexity remains n^{\Omega(1/\eps)}). Our work highlights that constructing an explicit {\em subspace-evasive} subset that has small intersection with low-dimensional subspaces could lead to explicit codes with better list-decoding guarantees.Comment: 16 pages. Extended abstract in Proc. of IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC), 201

Lemma for Linear Feedback Shift Registers and DFTs Applied to Affine Variety Codes

In this paper, we establish a lemma in algebraic coding theory that frequently appears in the encoding and decoding of, e.g., Reed-Solomon codes, algebraic geometry codes, and affine variety codes. Our lemma corresponds to the non-systematic encoding of affine variety codes, and can be stated by giving a canonical linear map as the composition of an extension through linear feedback shift registers from a Grobner basis and a generalized inverse discrete Fourier transform. We clarify that our lemma yields the error-value estimation in the fast erasure-and-error decoding of a class of dual affine variety codes. Moreover, we show that systematic encoding corresponds to a special case of erasure-only decoding. The lemma enables us to reduce the computational complexity of error-evaluation from O(n^3) using Gaussian elimination to O(qn^2) with some mild conditions on n and q, where n is the code length and q is the finite-field size.Comment: 37 pages, 1 column, 10 figures, 2 tables, resubmitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory on Jan. 8, 201

Decoding of Projective Reed-Muller Codes by Dividing a Projective Space into Affine Spaces

A projective Reed-Muller (PRM) code, obtained by modifying a (classical) Reed-Muller code with respect to a projective space, is a doubly extended Reed-Solomon code when the dimension of the related projective space is equal to 1. The minimum distance and dual code of a PRM code are known, and some decoding examples have been represented for low-dimensional projective space. In this study, we construct a decoding algorithm for all PRM codes by dividing a projective space into a union of affine spaces. In addition, we determine the computational complexity and the number of errors correctable of our algorithm. Finally, we compare the codeword error rate of our algorithm with that of minimum distance decoding.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Feng-Rao decoding of primary codes

We show that the Feng-Rao bound for dual codes and a similar bound by Andersen and Geil [H.E. Andersen and O. Geil, Evaluation codes from order domain theory, Finite Fields Appl., 14 (2008), pp. 92-123] for primary codes are consequences of each other. This implies that the Feng-Rao decoding algorithm can be applied to decode primary codes up to half their designed minimum distance. The technique applies to any linear code for which information on well-behaving pairs is available. Consequently we are able to decode efficiently a large class of codes for which no non-trivial decoding algorithm was previously known. Among those are important families of multivariate polynomial codes. Matsumoto and Miura in [R. Matsumoto and S. Miura, On the Feng-Rao bound for the L-construction of algebraic geometry codes, IEICE Trans. Fundamentals, E83-A (2000), pp. 926-930] (See also [P. Beelen and T. H{\o}holdt, The decoding of algebraic geometry codes, in Advances in algebraic geometry codes, pp. 49-98]) derived from the Feng-Rao bound a bound for primary one-point algebraic geometric codes and showed how to decode up to what is guaranteed by their bound. The exposition by Matsumoto and Miura requires the use of differentials which was not needed in [Andersen and Geil 2008]. Nevertheless we demonstrate a very strong connection between Matsumoto and Miura's bound and Andersen and Geil's bound when applied to primary one-point algebraic geometric codes.Comment: elsarticle.cls, 23 pages, no figure. Version 3 added citations to the works by I.M. Duursma and R. Pellikaa