Permutation Decoding and the Stopping Redundancy Hierarchy of Cyclic and Extended Cyclic Codes

We introduce the notion of the stopping redundancy hierarchy of a linear block code as a measure of the trade-off between performance and complexity of iterative decoding for the binary erasure channel. We derive lower and upper bounds for the stopping redundancy hierarchy via Lovasz's Local Lemma and Bonferroni-type inequalities, and specialize them for codes with cyclic parity-check matrices. Based on the observed properties of parity-check matrices with good stopping redundancy characteristics, we develop a novel decoding technique, termed automorphism group decoding, that combines iterative message passing and permutation decoding. We also present bounds on the smallest number of permutations of an automorphism group decoder needed to correct any set of erasures up to a prescribed size. Simulation results demonstrate that for a large number of algebraic codes, the performance of the new decoding method is close to that of maximum likelihood decoding.Comment: 40 pages, 6 figures, 10 tables, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Cyclic lowest density MDS array codes

Three new families of lowest density maximum-distance separable (MDS) array codes are constructed, which are cyclic or quasi-cyclic. In addition to their optimal redundancy (MDS) and optimal update complexity (lowest density), the symmetry offered by the new codes can be utilized for simplified implementation in storage applications. The proof of the code properties has an indirect structure: first MDS codes that are not cyclic are constructed, and then transformed to cyclic codes by a minimum-distance preserving transformation

Low-Density Arrays of Circulant Matrices: Rank and Row-Redundancy Analysis, and Quasi-Cyclic LDPC Codes

This paper is concerned with general analysis on the rank and row-redundancy of an array of circulants whose null space defines a QC-LDPC code. Based on the Fourier transform and the properties of conjugacy classes and Hadamard products of matrices, we derive tight upper bounds on rank and row-redundancy for general array of circulants, which make it possible to consider row-redundancy in constructions of QC-LDPC codes to achieve better performance. We further investigate the rank of two types of construction of QC-LDPC codes: constructions based on Vandermonde Matrices and Latin Squares and give combinatorial expression of the exact rank in some specific cases, which demonstrates the tightness of the bound we derive. Moreover, several types of new construction of QC-LDPC codes with large row-redundancy are presented and analyzed.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1004.118

MDS array codes with independent parity symbols

A new family of maximum distance separable (MDS) array codes is presented. The code arrays contain p information columns and r independent parity columns, each column consisting of p-1 bits, where p is a prime. We extend a previously known construction for the case r=2 to three and more parity columns. It is shown that when r=3 such extension is possible for any prime p. For larger values of r, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for our codes to be MDS, and then prove that if p belongs to a certain class of primes these conditions are satisfied up to r ≤ 8. One of the advantages of the new codes is that encoding and decoding may be accomplished using simple cyclic shifts and XOR operations on the columns of the code array. We develop efficient decoding procedures for the case of two- and three-column errors. This again extends the previously known results for the case of a single-column error. Another primary advantage of our codes is related to the problem of efficient information updates. We present upper and lower bounds on the average number of parity bits which have to be updated in an MDS code over GF (2^m), following an update in a single information bit. This average number is of importance in many storage applications which require frequent updates of information. We show that the upper bound obtained from our codes is close to the lower bound and, most importantly, does not depend on the size of the code symbols

Cyclic Low-Density MDS Array Codes

We construct two infinite families of low density MDS array codes which are also cyclic. One of these families includes the first such sub-family with redundancy parameter r > 2. The two constructions have different algebraic formulations, though they both have the same indirect structure. First MDS codes that are not cyclic are constructed and then by applying a certain mapping to their parity check matrices, non-equivalent cyclic codes with the same distance and density properties are obtained. Using the same proof techniques, a third infinite family of quasi-cyclic codes can be constructed

An Iteratively Decodable Tensor Product Code with Application to Data Storage

The error pattern correcting code (EPCC) can be constructed to provide a syndrome decoding table targeting the dominant error events of an inter-symbol interference channel at the output of the Viterbi detector. For the size of the syndrome table to be manageable and the list of possible error events to be reasonable in size, the codeword length of EPCC needs to be short enough. However, the rate of such a short length code will be too low for hard drive applications. To accommodate the required large redundancy, it is possible to record only a highly compressed function of the parity bits of EPCC's tensor product with a symbol correcting code. In this paper, we show that the proposed tensor error-pattern correcting code (T-EPCC) is linear time encodable and also devise a low-complexity soft iterative decoding algorithm for EPCC's tensor product with q-ary LDPC (T-EPCC-qLDPC). Simulation results show that T-EPCC-qLDPC achieves almost similar performance to single-level qLDPC with a 1/2 KB sector at 50% reduction in decoding complexity. Moreover, 1 KB T-EPCC-qLDPC surpasses the performance of 1/2 KB single-level qLDPC at the same decoder complexity.Comment: Hakim Alhussien, Jaekyun Moon, "An Iteratively Decodable Tensor Product Code with Application to Data Storage

A CRC usefulness assessment for adaptation layers in satellite systems

This paper assesses the real usefulness of CRCs in today's satellite network-to-link adaptation layers under the lights of enhanced error control and framing techniques, focusing on the DVB-S and DVB-S2 standards. Indeed, the outer block codes of their FEC schemes (Reed-Solomon and BCH, respectively) can provide very accurate error-detection information to the receiver in addition to their correction capabilities, at virtually no cost. This handy feature could be used to manage on a frame-by-frame basis what CRCs do locally, on the frames' contents, saving the bandwidth and processing load associated with them, and paving the way for enhanced transport of IP over DVB-S2. Mathematical and experimental results clearly show that if FEC has been properly congured for combined error correction and detection, having an uncorrected event after FEC decoding is likely to be an extremely improbable event. Under such conditions, it seems possible and attractive to optimize the way global error-control is done over satellite links by reducing the role of CRCs, or even by removing them from the overall encapsulation process