Minimal realizations of linear systems: The "shortest basis" approach

Given a controllable discrete-time linear system C, a shortest basis for C is a set of linearly independent generators for C with the least possible lengths. A basis B is a shortest basis if and only if it has the predictable span property (i.e., has the predictable delay and degree properties, and is non-catastrophic), or alternatively if and only if it has the subsystem basis property (for any interval J, the generators in B whose span is in J is a basis for the subsystem C_J). The dimensions of the minimal state spaces and minimal transition spaces of C are simply the numbers of generators in a shortest basis B that are active at any given state or symbol time, respectively. A minimal linear realization for C in controller canonical form follows directly from a shortest basis for C, and a minimal linear realization for C in observer canonical form follows directly from a shortest basis for the orthogonal system C^\perp. This approach seems conceptually simpler than that of classical minimal realization theory.Comment: 20 pages. Final version, to appear in special issue of IEEE Transactions on Information Theory on "Facets of coding theory: From algorithms to networks," dedicated to Ralf Koette

MacWilliams Identities for Terminated Convolutional Codes

Shearer and McEliece [1977] showed that there is no MacWilliams identity for the free distance spectra of orthogonal linear convolutional codes. We show that on the other hand there does exist a MacWilliams identity between the generating functions of the weight distributions per unit time of a linear convolutional code C and its orthogonal code C^\perp, and that this distribution is as useful as the free distance spectrum for estimating code performance. These observations are similar to those made recently by Bocharova, Hug, Johannesson and Kudryashov; however, we focus on terminating by tail-biting rather than by truncation.Comment: 5 pages; accepted for 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Austin, TX, June 13-1

Simple Rate-1/3 Convolutional and Tail-Biting Quantum Error-Correcting Codes

Simple rate-1/3 single-error-correcting unrestricted and CSS-type quantum convolutional codes are constructed from classical self-orthogonal \F_4-linear and \F_2-linear convolutional codes, respectively. These quantum convolutional codes have higher rate than comparable quantum block codes or previous quantum convolutional codes, and are simple to decode. A block single-error-correcting [9, 3, 3] tail-biting code is derived from the unrestricted convolutional code, and similarly a [15, 5, 3] CSS-type block code from the CSS-type convolutional code.Comment: 5 pages; to appear in Proceedings of 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theor