Locally recoverable (LRC) codes and their variants have been extensively studied in recent years. In this paper we focus on cyclic constructions of LRC codes and derive conditions on the zeros of the code that support the property of hierarchical locality. As a result, we obtain a general family of hierarchical LRC codes for a new range of code parameters. We also observe that our approach enables one to represent an LRC code in quasicyclic form, and use this representation to construct tail-biting convolutional LRC codes with locality. Among other results, we extend the general approach to cyclic codes with locality to multidimensional cyclic codes, yielding new families of LRC codes with availability, and construct a family of q-ary cyclic hierarchical LRC codes of unbounded length.
In this work codes with availability are constructed based on the cyclic \emph{locally repairable code} (LRC) construction by Tamo et al. and their extension to $(r,ρ)$-locality by Chen et al. The minimum distance of these codes is increased by carefully extending their defining set. We give a bound on the dimension of LRCs with availability and orthogonal repair sets and show that the given construction is optimal for a range of parameters.
In this paper, we study the impact of locality on the decoding of binary cyclic codes under two approaches, namely ordered statistics decoding (OSD) and trellis decoding. Given a binary cyclic code having locality or availability, we suitably modify the OSD to obtain gains in terms of the Signal-To-Noise ratio, for a given reliability and essentially the same level of decoder complexity. With regard to trellis decoding, we show that careful introduction of locality results in the creation of cyclic subcodes having lower maximum state complexity. We also present a simple upper-bounding techniqu…
We consider linear cyclic codes with the locality property, or locally recoverable codes (LRC codes). A family of LRC codes that generalize the classical construction of Reed-Solomon codes was constructed in a recent paper by I. Tamo and A. Barg (IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, no. 8, 2014). In this paper we focus on optimal cyclic codes that arise from this construction. We give a characterization of these codes in terms of their zeros, and observe that there are many equivalent ways of constructing optimal cyclic LRC codes over a given field. We also study subfield subcodes of cyclic LRC codes (…
Recently, Skabelund defined new maximal curves which are cyclic extensions of the Suzuki and Ree curves. Previously, the now well-known GK curves were found as cyclic extensions of the Hermitian curve. In this paper, we consider locally recoverable codes constructed from these new curves, complementing that done for the GK curve. Locally recoverable codes allow for the recovery of a single symbol by accessing only a few others which form what is known as a recovery set. If every symbol has at least two disjoint recovery sets, the code is said to have availability. Three constructions are descr…
We consider linear cyclic codes with the locality property, or locally recoverable codes (LRC codes). A family of LRC codes that generalizes the classical construction of Reed-Solomon codes was constructed in a recent paper by I. Tamo and A. Barg (IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, no. 8, 2014; arXiv:1311.3284). In this paper we focus on the optimal cyclic codes that arise from the general construction. We give a characterization of these codes in terms of their zeros, and observe that there are many equivalent ways of constructing optimal cyclic LRC codes over a given field. We also stu…
We consider locally repairable codes over small fields and propose constructions of optimal cyclic and linear codes in terms of the dimension for a given distance and length. Four new constructions of optimal linear codes over small fields with locality properties are developed. The first two approaches give binary cyclic codes with locality two. While the first construction has availability one, the second binary code is characterized by multiple available repair sets based on a binary Simplex code. The third approach extends the first one to q-ary cyclic codes including (binary) extension fi…
Codes for storage systems aim to minimize the repair locality, which is the number of disks (or nodes) that participate in the repair of a single failed disk. Simultaneously, the code must sustain a high rate, operate on a small finite field to be practically significant and be tolerant to a large number of erasures. To this end, we construct new families of binary linear codes that have an optimal dimension (rate) for a given minimum distance and locality. Specifically, we construct cyclic codes that are locally repairable for locality 2 and distances 2, 6 and 10. In doing so, we discover new…
Cyclicity of a convolutional code (CC) is relying on a nontrivial automorphism of the algebra F[x]/(x^n-1), where F is a finite field. If this automorphism itself has certain specific cyclicity properties one is lead to the class of doubly-cyclic CC's. Within this large class Reed-Solomon and BCH convolutional codes can be defined. After constructing doubly-cyclic CC's, basic properties are derived on the basis of which distance properties of Reed-Solomon convolutional codes are investigated.This shows that some of them are optimal or near optimal with respect to distance and performance.
An $(r, δ)$-locally repairable code ($(r, δ)$-LRC for short) was introduced by Prakash et al. \cite{Prakash2012} for tolerating multiple failed nodes in distributed storage systems, which was a generalization of the concept of $r$-LRCs produced by Gopalan et al. \cite{Gopalan2012}. An $(r, δ)$-LRC is said to be optimal if it achieves the Singleton-like bound. Recently, Chen et al. \cite{Chen2018} generalized the construction of cyclic $r$-LRCs proposed by Tamo et al. \cite{Tamo2015,Tamo2016} and constructed several classes of optimal $(r, δ)$-LRCs of length $n$ for $n\, |\, (q-1)$ or $n\,|\, (…
An iterative decoding algorithm for convolutional codes is presented. It successively processes $N$ consecutive blocks of the received word in order to decode the first block. A bound is presented showing which error configurations can be corrected. The algorithm can be efficiently used on a particular class of convolutional codes, known as doubly cyclic convolutional codes. Due to their highly algebraic structure those codes are well suited for the algorithm and the main step of the procedure can be carried out using Reed-Solomon decoding. Examples illustrate the decoding and a comparison wit…
In this paper, we study convolutional codes with a specific cyclic structure. By definition, these codes are left ideals in a certain skew polynomial ring. Using that the skew polynomial ring is isomorphic to a matrix ring we can describe the algebraic parameters of the codes in a more accessible way. We show that the existence of such codes with given algebraic parameters can be reduced to the solvability of a modified rook problem. It is our strong belief that the rook problem is always solvable, and we present solutions in particular cases.
In this paper convolutional codes with cyclic structure will be investigated. These codes can be understood as left principal ideals in a suitable skew-polynomial ring. It has been shown in [3] that only certain combinations of the parameters (field size, length, dimension, and Forney indices) can occur for cyclic codes. We will investigate whether all these combinations can indeed be realized by a suitable cyclic code and, if so, how to construct such a code. A complete characterization and construction will be given for minimal cyclic codes. It is derived from a detailed investigation of the…
Basic properties of a characteristic matrix for a tail-biting convolutional code are investigated. A tail-biting convolutional code can be regarded as a linear block code. Since the corresponding scalar generator matrix Gt has a kind of cyclic structure, an associated characteristic matrix also has a cyclic structure, from which basic properties of a characteristic matrix are obtained. Next, using the derived results, we discuss the possibility of trellis reduction for a given tail-biting convolutional code. There are cases where we can find a scalar generator matrix Gs equivalent to Gt based …
Locally repairable codes (LRCs) are a class of codes designed for the local correction of erasures. They have received considerable attention in recent years due to their applications in distributed storage. Most existing results on LRCs do not explicitly take into consideration the field size $q$, i.e., the size of the code alphabet. In particular, for the binary case, only a few results are known. In this work, we present an upper bound on the minimum distance $d$ of linear LRCs with availability, based on the work of Cadambe and Mazumdar. The bound takes into account the code length $n$, di…
A code is said to be a $r$-local locally repairable code (LRC) if each of its coordinates can be repaired by accessing at most $r$ other coordinates. When some of the $r$ coordinates are also erased, the $r$-local LRC can not accomplish the local repair, which leads to the concept of $(r,δ)$-locality. A $q$-ary $[n, k]$ linear code $\cC$ is said to have $(r, δ)$-locality ($δ\ge 2$) if for each coordinate $i$, there exists a punctured subcode of $\cC$ with support containing $i$, whose length is at most $r + δ- 1$, and whose minimum distance is at least $δ$. The $(r, δ)$-LRC can tolerate $δ-1$ …
Message-passing iterative decoders for low-density parity-check (LDPC) block codes are known to be subject to decoding failures due to so-called pseudo-codewords. These failures can cause the large signal-to-noise ratio performance of message-passing iterative decoding to be worse than that predicted by the maximum-likelihood decoding union bound. In this paper we address the pseudo-codeword problem from the convolutional-code perspective. In particular, we compare the performance of LDPC convolutional codes with that of their ``wrapped'' quasi-cyclic block versions and we show that the minimu…
We investigate the notion of cyclicity for convolutional codes as it has been introduced by Piret and Roos in the seventies. Codes of this type are described as submodules of the module of all vector polynomials in one variable with some additional generalized cyclic structure but also as specific left ideals in a skew polynomial ring. Extending a result of Piret, we show in a purely algebraic setting that these ideals are always principal. This leads to the notion of a generator polynomial just like for cyclic block codes. Similarly a control polynomial can be introduced by considering the ri…
In this paper we obtain the [60,30,12], [64,32,12], [68,34,12], [72,36,12] self-dual codes as tailbitting convolutional codes with the smallest constraint length K=9. In this construction one information bit is modulo two added to the one of the encoder outputs and the first row in the quasi-cyclic generator matrix is replaced by the obtained row. The pure quasi-cyclic construction with K=10 is also available for [68,34,12] and [72,36,12] codes. The new [72,36,12] singly even self-dual code with parameters Beta=483 Gamma=0 was obtained.
In this paper we obtain a number of [70,35,12] singly even self-dual codes as a quasi-cyclic codes with m=2 (tailbitting convolutional codes). One of them is the first known code with parameters Beta=140 Gamma=0. All codes are not pure double circulant i.e. could not be represented in systematic form.
A code is called a locally repairable code (LRC) if any code symbol is a function of a small fraction of other code symbols. When a locally repairable code is employed in a distributed storage systems, an erased symbol can be recovered by accessing only a small number of other symbols, and hence alleviating the network resources required during the repair process. In this paper we consider repeated-root constacyclic codes, which is a generalization of cyclic codes, that are optimal with respect to a Singleton-like bound on minimum distance. An LRC with the structure of a constacyclic code can …
Locally repairable codes (LRCs) have emerged as an important coding scheme in distributed storage systems (DSSs) with relatively low repair cost by accessing fewer non-failure nodes. Theoretical bounds and optimal constructions of LRCs have been widely investigated. Optimal LRCs via cyclic and constacyclic codes provide significant benefit of elegant algebraic structure and efficient encoding procedure. In this paper, we continue to consider the constructions of optimal LRCs via cyclic and constacyclic codes with long code length. Specifically, we first obtain two classes of $q$-ary cyclic Sin…
In an interesting paper Professor Cunsheng Ding provided three constructions of cyclic codes of length being a product of two primes. Numerical data shows that many codes from these constructions are best cyclic codes of the same length and dimension over the same finite field. However, not much is known about these codes. In this paper we explain some of the mysteries of the numerical data by developing a general method on cyclic codes of composite length and on estimating the minimal distance. Inspired by the new method, we also provide a general construction of cyclic codes of composite len…
Locally repairable convolutional codes (LRCCs) for distributed storage systems (DSSs) are introduced in this work. They enable local repair, for a single node erasure (or more generally, $ \partial - 1 $ erasures per local group), and sliding-window global repair, which can correct erasure patterns with up to $ {\rm d}^c_j - 1 $ erasures in every window of $ j+1 $ consecutive blocks of $ n $ nodes, where $ {\rm d}^c_j $ is the $ j $th column distance of the code. The parameter $ j $ can be adjusted, for a fixed LRCC, according to different catastrophic erasure patterns, requiring only to conta…
A class of one-dimensional convolutional codes will be presented. They are all MDS codes, i. e., have the largest distance among all one-dimensional codes of the same length n and overall constraint length delta. Furthermore, their extended row distances are computed, and they increase with slope n-delta. In certain cases of the algebraic parameters, we will also derive parity check matrices of Vandermonde type for these codes. Finally, cyclicity in the convolutional sense will be discussed for our class of codes. It will turn out that they are cyclic if and only if the field element used in t…
Locally repairable codes with locality $r$ ($r$-LRCs for short) were introduced by Gopalan et al. \cite{1} to recover a failed node of the code from at most other $r$ available nodes. And then $(r,δ)$ locally repairable codes ($(r,δ)$-LRCs for short) were produced by Prakash et al. \cite{2} for tolerating multiple failed nodes. An $r$-LRC can be viewed as an $(r,2)$-LRC. An $(r,δ)$-LRC is called optimal if it achieves the Singleton-type bound. It has been a great challenge to construct $q$-ary optimal $(r,δ)$-LRCs with length much larger than $q$. Surprisingly, Luo et al. \cite{3} presented a …
After a discussion of the Griesmer and Heller bound for the distance of a convolutional code we present several codes with various parameters, over various fields, and meeting the given distance bounds. Moreover, the Griesmer bound is used for deriving a lower bound for the field size of an MDS convolutional code and examples are presented showing that, in most cases, the lower bound is tight. Most of the examples in this paper are cyclic convolutional codes in a generalized sense as it has been introduced in the seventies. A brief introduction to this promising type of cyclicity is given at t…
We propose a low-complexity method to find quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check block codes with girth 10 or 12 and shorter length than those designed through classical approaches. The method is extended to time-invariant spatially coupled low-density parity-check convolutional codes, permitting to achieve small syndrome former constraint lengths. Several numerical examples are given to show its effectiveness.
Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes combined with convolutional codes yield a powerful concatenated code that can be efficiently decoded using list decoding. To help design such systems, this paper presents an efficient algorithm for identifying the distance-spectrum-optimal (DSO) CRC polynomial for a given tail-biting convolutional code (TBCC) when the target undetected error rate (UER) is small. Lou et al. found that the DSO CRC design for a given zero-terminated convolutional code under low UER is equivalent to maximizing the undetected minimum distance (the minimum distance of the concaten…
Quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are an important instance of proto-graph-based LDPC codes. In this paper we present upper bounds on the minimum Hamming distance of QC LDPC codes and study how these upper bounds depend on graph structure parameters (like variable degrees, check node degrees, girth) of the Tanner graph and of the underlying proto-graph. Moreover, for several classes of proto-graphs we present explicit QC LDPC code constructions that achieve (or come close to) the respective minimum Hamming distance upper bounds. Because of the tight algebraic connection b…
In this paper, we discuss the reduction of error-trellises for tail-biting convolutional codes. In the case where some column of a parity-check matrix has a monomial factor (with indeterminate D), we show that the associated tail-biting error-trellis can be reduced by cyclically shifting the corresponding error-subsequence by l (the power of D) time units. We see that the resulting reduced error-trellis is again tail-biting. Moreover, we show that reduction is also possible using backward-shifted error-subsequences.
Like classical block codes, a locally repairable code also obeys the Singleton-type bound (we call a locally repairable code {\it optimal} if it achieves the Singleton-type bound). In the breakthrough work of \cite{TB14}, several classes of optimal locally repairable codes were constructed via subcodes of Reed-Solomon codes. Thus, the lengths of the codes given in \cite{TB14} are upper bounded by the code alphabet size $q$. Recently, it was proved through extension of construction in \cite{TB14} that length of $q$-ary optimal locally repairable codes can be $q+1$ in \cite{JMX17}. Surprisingly,…
Decoding of convolutional codes poses a significant challenge for coding theory. Classical methods, based on e.g. Viterbi decoding, suffer from being computationally expensive and are restricted therefore to codes of small complexity. Based on analogies with model predictive optimal control, we propose a new iterative method for convolutional decoding that is cheaper to implement than established algorithms, while still offering significant error correction capabilities. The algorithm is particularly well-suited for decoding special types of convolutional codes, such as e.g. cyclic convolution…
We propose a decoding algorithm for a class of convolutional codes called skew BCH convolutional codes. These are convolutional codes of designed Hamming distance endowed with a cyclic structure yielding a left ideal of a non-commutative ring (a quotient of a skew polynomial ring). In this setting, right and left division algorithms exist, so our algorithm follows the guidelines of the Sugiyama's procedure for finding the error locator and error evaluator polynomials for BCH block codes.
Low decoding latency and complexity are two important requirements of channel codes used in many applications, like machine-to-machine communications. In this paper, we show how these requirements can be fulfilled by using some special quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check block codes and spatially coupled low-density parity-check convolutional codes that we denote as compact. They are defined by parity-check matrices designed according to a recent approach based on sequentially multiplied columns. This method allows obtaining codes with girth up to 12. Many numerical examples of practical cod…
This paper propose a decoder architecture for low-density parity-check convolutional code (LDPCCC). Specifically, the LDPCCC is derived from a quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC block code. By making use of the quasi-cyclic structure, the proposed LDPCCC decoder adopts a dynamic message storage in the memory and uses a simple address controller. The decoder efficiently combines the memories in the pipelining processors into a large memory block so as to take advantage of the data-width of the embedded memory in a modern field-programmable gate array (FPGA). A rate-5/6 QC-LDPCCC has been implemented on an …
Families of "asymptotically regular" LDPC block code ensembles can be formed by terminating (J,K)-regular protograph-based LDPC convolutional codes. By varying the termination length, we obtain a large selection of LDPC block code ensembles with varying code rates, minimum distance that grows linearly with block length, and capacity approaching iterative decoding thresholds, despite the fact that the terminated ensembles are almost regular. In this paper, we investigate the properties of the quasi-cyclic (QC) members of such an ensemble. We show that an upper bound on the minimum Hamming dista…
We design a non-commutative version of the Peterson-Gorenstein-Zierler decoding algorithm for a class of codes that we call skew RS codes. These codes are left ideals of a quotient of a skew polynomial ring, which endow them of a sort of non-commutative cyclic structure. Since we work over an arbitrary field, our techniques may be applied both to linear block codes and convolutional codes. In particular, our decoding algorithm applies for block codes beyond the classical cyclic case.
Let H(D) be the parity-check matrix of an LDPC convolutional code corresponding to the parity-check matrix H of a QC code obtained using the method of Tanner et al. We see that the entries in H(D) are all monomials and several rows (columns) have monomial factors. Let us cyclically shift the rows of H. Then the parity-check matrix H'(D) corresponding to the modified matrix H' defines another convolutional code. However, its free distance is lower-bounded by the minimum distance of the original QC code. Also, each row (column) of H'(D) has a factor different from the one in H(D). We show that t…
Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes check if a codeword is correctly received. This paper presents an algorithm to design CRC codes that are optimized for the code-specific error behavior of a specified feedforward convolutional code. The algorithm utilizes two distinct approaches to computing undetected error probability of a CRC code used with a specific convolutional code. The first approach enumerates the error patterns of the convolutional code and tests if each of them is detectable. The second approach reduces complexity significantly by exploiting the equivalence of the undetected erro…
Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) convolutional codes are cha- racterized through the property that the free distance meets the generalized Singleton bound. The existence of free MDS convolutional codes over Z p r was recently discovered in [26] via the Hensel lift of a cyclic code. In this paper we further investigate this important class of convolutional codes over Z p r from a new perspective. We introduce the notions of p-standard form and r- optimal parameters to derive a novel upper bound of Singleton type on the free distance. Moreover, we present a constructive method for building gener…
Recently, rate-$1/ω$ zero-terminated and tail-biting convolutional codes (ZTCCs and TBCCs) with cyclic-redundancy-check (CRC)-aided list decoding have been shown to closely approach the random-coding union (RCU) bound for short blocklengths. This paper designs CRCs for rate-$(ω-1)/ω$ CCs with short blocklengths, considering both the ZT and TB cases. The CRC design seeks to optimize the frame error rate (FER) performance of the code resulting from the concatenation of the CRC and the CC. Utilization of the dual trellis proposed by Yamada \emph{et al.} lowers the complexity of CRC-aided serial l…
This paper is concerned with block Markov superposition transmission (BMST) of tail-biting convolutional code (TBCC). We propose a new decoding algorithm for BMST-TBCC, which integrates a serial list Viterbi algorithm (SLVA) with a soft check instead of conventional cyclic redundancy check (CRC). The basic idea is that, compared with an erroneous candidate codeword, the correct candidate codeword for the first sub-frame has less influence on the output of Viterbi algorithm for the second sub-frame. The threshold is then determined by statistical learning based on the introduced empirical diver…
In this paper, we deal with time-invariant spatially coupled low-density parity-check convolutional codes (SC-LDPC-CCs). Classic design approaches usually start from quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDPC) block codes and exploit suitable unwrapping procedures to obtain SC-LDPC-CCs. We show that the direct design of the SC-LDPC-CCs syndrome former matrix or, equivalently, the symbolic parity-check matrix, leads to codes with smaller syndrome former constraint lengths with respect to the best solutions available in the literature. We provide theoretical lower bounds on the syndrome form…
We consider the concatenation of a convolutional code (CC) with an optimized cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code as a promising paradigm for good short blocklength codes. The resulting CRC-aided convolutional code naturally permits the use of serial list Viterbi decoding (SLVD) to achieve maximum-likelihood decoding. The convolutional encoder of interest is of rate-$1/ω$ and the convolutional code is either zero-terminated (ZT) or tail-biting (TB). The resulting CRC-aided convolutional code is called a CRC-ZTCC or a CRC-TBCC. To design a good CRC-aided convolutional code, we propose the distanc…
Designs and methods for nested lattice codes using Construction D' lattices for coding and convolutional code lattices for shaping are described. Two encoding methods and a decoding algorithm for Construction D' coding lattices that can be used with shaping lattices for power-constrained channels are given. We construct nested lattice codes with good coding properties, a high shaping gain, and low-complexity encoding and decoding. Convolutional code generator polynomials for Construction A lattices with the greatest shaping gain are given, as a result of an extensive search. It is shown that r…
Locally repairable codes for distributed storage systems have gained a lot of interest recently, and various constructions can be found in the literature. However, most of the constructions result in either large field sizes and hence too high computational complexity for practical implementation, or in low rates translating into waste of the available storage space. In this paper we address this issue by developing theory towards code existence and design over a given field. This is done via exploiting recently established connections between linear locally repairable codes and matroids, and …
We present in this paper a special class of unit memory convolutional codes (UMCCs), called semi-random UMCCs (SRUMCCs), where the information block is first encoded by a short block code and then transmitted in a block Markov (random) superposition manner. We propose a successive cancellation list decoding algorithm, by which a list of candidate codewords are generated serially until one passes an empirical divergence test instead of the conventional cyclic redundancy check (CRC). The threshold for testing the correctness of candidate codewords can be learned off-line based on the statistical…
This paper investigates the application of the theoretical algebraic notion of a separable ring extension, in the realm of cyclic convolutional codes or, more generally, ideal codes. We work under very mild conditions, that cover all previously known as well as new non trivial examples. It is proved that ideal codes are direct summands as left ideals of the underlying non-commutative algebra, in analogy with cyclic block codes. This implies, in particular, that they are generated by an idempotent element. Hence, by using a suitable separability element, we design an efficient algorithm for com…
With the use of belief propagation (BP) decoding algorithm, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes can achieve near-Shannon limit performance. In order to evaluate the error performance of LDPC codes, simulators running on CPUs are commonly used. However, the time taken to evaluate LDPC codes with very good error performance is excessive. In this paper, efficient LDPC block-code decoders/simulators which run on graphics processing units (GPUs) are proposed. We also implement the decoder for the LDPC convolutional code (LDPCCC). The LDPCCC is derived from a pre-designed quasi-cyclic LDPC block c…
Motivated by the need to communicate short control messages in 5G and beyond, this paper carefully designs codes for cyclic redundancy check (CRC)-aided list decoding of tail-biting convolutional codes (TBCCs) and polar codes. Both codes send a 32-bit message using an 11-bit CRC and 512 transmitted bits. We aim to provide a careful, fair comparison of the error performance and decoding complexity of polar and TBCC techniques for a specific case. Specifically, a TBCC is designed to match the rate of a (512, 43) polar code, and optimal 11-bit CRCs for both codes are designed. The paper examines …
In this paper a framework to study the dual of skew cyclic codes is proposed. The transposed Hamming ring extensions are based in the existence of an anti-isomorphism of algebras between skew polynomial rings. Our construction is applied to left ideal convolutional codes, skew constacyclic codes and skew Reed-Solomon code, showing that the dual of these codes belong to the same class.
New properties of $q$-ary cyclotomic cosets modulo $n = q^{m} - 1$, where $q \geq 3$ is a prime power, are investigated in this paper. Based on these properties, the dimension as well as bounds for the designed distance of some families of classical cyclic codes can be computed. As an application, new families of nonbinary Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) quantum codes as well as new families of convolutional codes are constructed in this work. These new CSS codes have parameters better than the ones available in the literature. The convolutional codes constructed here have free distance greater t…
