Abstract
The minimum distance of codes on bipartite graphs (BG codes) over GF(q) is studied. A new upper bound on the minimum distance of BG codes is derived. The bound is shown to lie below the Gilbert-Varshamov bound when q ≤ 32. Since the codes based on bipartite expander graphs (BEG codes) are a special case of BG codes and the resulting bound is valid for any BG code, it is also valid for BEG codes. Thus, nonbinary (q ≤ 32) BG codes are worse than the best known linear codes. This is the key result of the work. We also obtain a lower bound on the minimum distance of BG codes with a Reed-Solomon constituent code and a lower bound on the minimum distance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with a Reed-Solomon constituent code. The bound for LDPC codes is very close to the Gilbert-Varshamov bound and lies above the upper bound for BG codes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tanner, R.M., A Recursive Approach to Low Complexity Codes, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 1981, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 533–547.
Sipser, M. and Spielman, D.A., Expander Codes, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 1996, vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 1710–1722.
Lubotzky, A., Phillips, R., and Sarnak, P., Ramanujan Graphs, Combinatorica, 1988, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 261–277.
Margulis, G.A., Explicit Constructions of Concentrators, Probl. Peredachi Inf., 1973, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 71–80 [Probl. Inf. Trans. (Engl. Transl.), 1973, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 325–332].
Zémor, G., On Expander Codes, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 2001, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 835–837.
Skachek, V. and Roth, R., Generalized Minimum Distance Iterative Decoding of Expander Codes, in Proc. 2003 IEEE Information Theory Workshop, Paris, France, 2003, pp. 245–248.
Barg, A. and Zémor, G., Distance Properties of Expander Codes, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 2006, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 78–90.
Skachek, V., Minimum Distance Bounds for Expander Codes, in Information Theory and Applications Workshop (ITA’2008), San Diego, USA, 2008, pp. 366–370.
Boutros, J., Pothier, O., and Zémor, G., Generalized Low Density (Tanner) Codes, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Communications (ICC), Vancouver, Canada, 1999, vol. 1, pp. 441–445.
Lentmaier, M. and Zigangirov, K., On Generalized Low-Density Parity-Check Codes Based on Hamming Component Codes, IEEE Commun. Lett., 1999, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 248–250.
Ben-Haim, Y. and Litsyn, S., Upper Bounds on the Rate of LDPC Codes as a Function of Minimum Distance, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 2006, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 2092–2100.
Roth, R. and Skachek, V., Improved Nearly-MDS Expander Codes, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 2006, vol. 52, no. 8, pp. 3650–3661.
Peterson, W.W. and Weldon, E.J., Jr., Error-Correcting Codes, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1972. Translated under the title Kody, ispravlyayushchie oshibki, Moscow: Mir, 1976.
Bassalygo, L.A., New Upper Bounds for Error Correcting Codes, Probl. Peredachi Inf., 1965, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 41–44 [Probl. Inf. Trans. (Engl. Transl.), 1965, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 32–35].
McEliece, R.J., Rodemich, E.R., Rumsey, H., Jr., and Welch, L.R., New Upper Bounds on the Rate of a Code via the Delsarte-MacWilliams Inequalities, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 1977, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 157–166.
Gallager, R.G., Low-Density Parity-Check Codes, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1963. Translated under the title Kody s maloi plotnost’yu proverok na chetnost’, Moscow: Mir, 1966.
Barg, A., Mazumdar, A., and Zémor, G., Weight Distribution and Decoding of Codes on Hypergraphs, Adv. Math. Commun., 2008, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 433–450.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © A.A. Frolov, V.V. Zyablov, 2011, published in Problemy Peredachi Informatsii, 2011, Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 27–42.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frolov, A.A., Zyablov, V.V. Bounds on the minimum code distance for nonbinary codes based on bipartite graphs. Probl Inf Transm 47, 327–341 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032946011040028
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032946011040028