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Covering Code

A covering code is a mathematical object where every word in an alphabet has a codeword within a certain Hamming distance. The determination of the minimal size of covering codes is difficult, with applications including data compression, error correction, and cellular networks.

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136 views

Covering Code

A covering code is a mathematical object where every word in an alphabet has a codeword within a certain Hamming distance. The determination of the minimal size of covering codes is difficult, with applications including data compression, error correction, and cellular networks.

Uploaded by

firaszeki
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Covering code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 1 of 2

Covering code
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In coding theory, a covering code is an object satisfying a certain mathematical property: A code of length n over Q is an R-covering code if for every word of Qn there is a codeword such that their Hamming distance is .

Contents
1 Definition 2 Example 3 Covering problem 4 Applications 5 References 6 External links

Definition
Let , , be integers. A code over an alphabet Q of size |Q| = q is called q-ary R-covering code of length n if for every word there is a codeword such that the Hamming distance . In other words, the spheres (or balls or rook-domains) of radius R with respect to the Hamming metric around the codewords of C have to exhaust the finite metric space Qn. The covering radius of a code C is the smallest R such that C is R-covering. Every perfect code is a covering code of minimal size.

Example
C = {0134,0223,1402,1431,1444,2123,2234,3002,3310,4010,4341} is a 5-ary 2-covering code of length 4.[1]

Covering problem
The determination of the minimal size Kq(n,R) of a q-ary R-covering code of length n is a very hard problem. In many cases, only lower and upper bounds are known with a large gap between them. Every construction of a covering code gives an upper bound on Kq(n, R). Lower bounds include the sphere covering bound and Rodemichs bounds .[2] and The covering problem is closely related to the packing problem

in Qn, i.e. the determination of the maximal size of a q-ary e-error correcting code of length n.

Applications
The standard work[3] on covering codes lists the following applications. Compression with distortion Data compression

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covering_code

12/11/2009

Covering code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Decoding errors and erasures Broadcasting in interconnection networks Football pools[4] Write-once memories Berlekamp-Gale game Speech coding Cellular telecommunications Subset sums and Cayley graphs

References
1. ^ P.R.J. stergrd, Upper bounds for q-ary covering codes, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 37 (1991), 660-664 2. ^ E.R. Rodemich, Covering by rook-domains, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, 9 (1970), 117128 3. ^ G. Cohen, I. Honkala, S. Litsyn, A. Lobstein, Covering Codes, Elsevier (1997) ISBN 0-44482511-8 4. ^ H. Hmlinen, I. Honkala, S. Litsyn, P.R.J. stergrd, Football pools - a game for mathematicians, American Mathematical Monthly, 102 (1995), 579-588

External links
Literature on covering codes Bounds on Kq(n,R) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covering_code" Categories: Discrete mathematics | Coding theory This page was last modified on 30 August 2008 at 01:00. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covering_code

12/11/2009

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