Algebra And Coding Theory

This is the revised edition of Berlekamp's famous book, 'Algebraic Coding Theory', originally published in 1968, wherein he introduced several algorithms which have subsequently dominated engineering practice in this field. One of these is an algorithm for decoding Reed-Solomon and Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem codes that subsequently became known as the Berlekamp-Massey Algorithm. Another is the Berlekamp algorithm for factoring polynomials over finite fields, whose later extensions and embellishments became widely used in symbolic manipulation systems. Other novel algorithms improved the basic methods for doing various arithmetic operations in finite fields of characteristic two. Other major research contributions in this book included a new class of Lee metric codes, and precise asymptotic results on the number of information symbols in long binary BCH codes.Selected chapters of the book became a standard graduate textbook.Both practicing engineers and scholars will find this book to be of great value.

Algebraic coding theory is a new and rapidly developing subject, popular for its many practical applications and for its fascinatingly rich mathematical structure. This book provides an elementary yet rigorous introduction to the theory of error-correcting codes. Based on courses given by the author over several years to advanced undergraduates and first-year graduated students, this guide includes a large number of exercises, all with solutions, making the book highly suitable for individual study.

This book provides a self-contained introduction to algebraic coding theory over finite Frobenius rings. It is the first to offer a comprehensive account on the subject. Coding theory has its origins in the engineering problem of effective electronic communication where the alphabet is generally the binary field. Since its inception, it has grown as a branch of mathematics, and has since been expanded to consider any finite field, and later also Frobenius rings, as its alphabet. This book presents a broad view of the subject as a branch of pure mathematics and relates major results to other fields, including combinatorics, number theory and ring theory. Suitable for graduate students, the book will be of interest to anyone working in the field of coding theory, as well as algebraists and number theorists looking to apply coding theory to their own work.

Coding theory came into existence in the late 1940s and is concerned with devising efficient encoding and decoding procedures. The book is intended as a principal text for first courses in coding and algebraic coding theory, and is aimed at advanced undergraduates and recent graduates as both a course and self-study text. BCH and cyclic, Group codes, Hamming codes, polynomial as well as many other codes are introduced in this textbook. Incorporating numerous worked examples and complete logical proofs, it is an ideal introduction to the fundamental of algebraic coding.

These lecture notes are the contents of a two-term course given by me during the 1970-1971 academic year as Morgan Ward visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. The students who took the course were mathematics seniors and graduate students. Therefore a thorough knowledge of algebra. (a. o. linear algebra, theory of finite fields, characters of abelian groups) and also probability theory were assumed. After introducing coding theory and linear codes these notes concern topics mostly from algebraic coding theory. The practical side of the subject, e. g. circuitry, is not included. Some topics which one would like to include 1n a course for students of mathematics such as bounds on the information rate of codes and many connections between combinatorial mathematics and coding theory could not be treated due to lack of time. For an extension of the course into a third term these two topics would have been chosen. Although the material for this course came from many sources there are three which contributed heavily and which were used as suggested reading material for the students. These are W. W. Peterson's Error-Correcting Codes «(15]), E. R. Berlekamp's Algebraic Coding Theory «(5]) and several of the AFCRL-reports by E. F. Assmus, H. F. Mattson and R. Turyn ([2], (3), [4] a. o. ). For several fruitful discussions I would like to thank R. J. McEliece.

Using a simple yet rigorous approach, Algebraic and Stochastic Coding Theory makes the subject of coding theory easy to understand for readers with a thorough knowledge of digital arithmetic, Boolean and modern algebra, and probability theory. It explains the underlying principles of coding theory and offers a clear, detailed description of each code. More advanced readers will appreciate its coverage of recent developments in coding theory and stochastic processes. After a brief review of coding history and Boolean algebra, the book introduces linear codes, including Hamming and Golay codes. It then examines codes based on the Galois field theory as well as their application in BCH and especially the Reed–Solomon codes that have been used for error correction of data transmissions in space missions. The major outlook in coding theory seems to be geared toward stochastic processes, and this book takes a bold step in this direction. As research focuses on error correction and recovery of erasures, the book discusses belief propagation and distributions. It examines the low-density parity-check and erasure codes that have opened up new approaches to improve wide-area network data transmission. It also describes modern codes, such as the Luby transform and Raptor codes, that are enabling new directions in high-speed transmission of very large data to multiple users. This robust, self-contained text fully explains coding problems, illustrating them with more than 200 examples. Combining theory and computational techniques, it will appeal not only to students but also to industry professionals, researchers, and academics in areas such as coding theory and signal and image processing.

This book grew out of our lectures given in the Oberseminar on 'Cod ing Theory and Number Theory' at the Mathematics Institute of the Wiirzburg University in the Summer Semester, 2001. The coding the ory combines mathematical elegance and some engineering problems to an unusual degree. The major advantage of studying coding theory is the beauty of this particular combination of mathematics and engineering. In this book we wish to introduce some practical problems to the math ematician and to address these as an essential part of the development of modern number theory. The book consists of five chapters and an appendix. Chapter 1 may mostly be dropped from an introductory course of linear codes. In Chap ter 2 we discuss some relations between the number of solutions of a diagonal equation over finite fields and the weight distribution of cyclic codes. Chapter 3 begins by reviewing some basic facts from elliptic curves over finite fields and modular forms, and shows that the weight distribution of the Melas codes is represented by means of the trace of the Hecke operators acting on the space of cusp forms. Chapter 4 is a systematic study of the algebraic-geometric codes. For a long time, the study of algebraic curves over finite fields was the province of pure mathematicians. In the period 1977 - 1982, V. D. Goppa discovered an amazing connection between the theory of algebraic curves over fi nite fields and the theory of q-ary codes.

The Mathematical Theory of Coding focuses on the application of algebraic and combinatoric methods to the coding theory, including linear transformations, vector spaces, and combinatorics. The publication first offers information on finite fields and coding theory and combinatorial constructions and coding. Discussions focus on self-dual and quasicyclic codes, quadratic residues and codes, balanced incomplete block designs and codes, bounds on code dictionaries, code invariance under permutation groups, and linear transformations of vector spaces over finite fields. The text then takes a look at coding and combinatorics and the structure of semisimple rings. Topics include structure of cyclic codes and semisimple rings, group algebra and group characters, rings, ideals, and the minimum condition, chains and chain groups, dual chain groups, and matroids, graphs, and coding. The book ponders on group representations and group codes for the Gaussian channel, including distance properties of group codes, initial vector problem, modules, group algebras, andrepresentations, orthogonality relationships and properties of group characters, and representation of groups. The manuscript is a valuable source of data for mathematicians and researchers interested in the mathematical theory of coding.