Maximum Distance Separable Codes for Symbol-Pair Read Channels

We study (symbol-pair) codes for symbol-pair read channels introduced recently by Cassuto and Blaum (2010). A Singleton-type bound on symbol-pair codes is established and infinite families of optimal symbol-pair codes are constructed. These codes are maximum distance separable (MDS) in the sense that they meet the Singleton-type bound. In contrast to classical codes, where all known q-ary MDS codes have length O(q), we show that q-ary MDS symbol-pair codes can have length \Omega(q^2). In addition, we completely determine the existence of MDS symbol-pair codes for certain parameters

Frequency permutation arrays

Motivated by recent interest in permutation arrays, we introduce and investigate the more general concept of frequency permutation arrays (FPAs). An FPA of length n=m lambda and distance d is a set T of multipermutations on a multiset of m symbols, each repeated with frequency lambda, such that the Hamming distance between any distinct x,y in T is at least d. Such arrays have potential applications in powerline communication. In this paper, we establish basic properties of FPAs, and provide direct constructions for FPAs using a range of combinatorial objects, including polynomials over finite fields, combinatorial designs, and codes. We also provide recursive constructions, and give bounds for the maximum size of such arrays.Comment: To appear in Journal of Combinatorial Design

Structured optical receivers to attain superadditive capacity and the Holevo limit

When classical information is sent over a quantum channel, attaining the ultimate limit to channel capacity requires the receiver to make joint measurements over long codeword blocks. For a pure-state channel, we construct a receiver that can attain the ultimate capacity by applying a single-shot unitary transformation on the received quantum codeword followed by simultaneous (but separable) projective measurements on the single-modulation-symbol state spaces. We study the ultimate limits of photon-information-efficient communications on a lossy bosonic channel. Based on our general results for the pure-state quantum channel, we show some of the first concrete examples of codes and structured joint-detection optical receivers that can achieve fundamentally higher (superadditive) channel capacity than conventional receivers that detect each modulation symbol individually.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Lectures on Designing Screening Experiments

Designing Screening Experiments (DSE) is a class of information - theoretical models for multiple - access channels (MAC). We discuss the combinatorial model of DSE called a disjunct channel model. This model is the most important for applications and closely connected with the superimposed code concept. We give a detailed survey of lower and upper bounds on the rate of superimposed codes. The best known constructions of superimposed codes are considered in paper. We also discuss the development of these codes (non-adaptive pooling designs) intended for the clone - library screening problem. We obtain lower and upper bounds on the rate of binary codes for the combinatorial model of DSE called an adder channel model. We also consider the concept of universal decoding for the probabilistic DSE model called a symmetric model of DSE.Comment: 66 page

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