Linear Network Error Correction Multicast/Broadcast/Dispersion/Generic Codes

In the practical network communications, many internal nodes in the network are required to not only transmit messages but decode source messages. For different applications, four important classes of linear network codes in network coding theory, i.e., linear multicast, linear broadcast, linear dispersion, and generic network codes, have been studied extensively. More generally, when channels of communication networks are noisy, information transmission and error correction have to be under consideration simultaneously, and thus these four classes of linear network codes are generalized to linear network error correction (LNEC) coding, and we say them LNEC multicast, broadcast, dispersion, and generic codes, respectively. Furthermore, in order to characterize their efficiency of information transmission and error correction, we propose the (weakly, strongly) extended Singleton bounds for them, and define the corresponding optimal codes, i.e., LNEC multicast/broadcast/dispersion/generic MDS codes, which satisfy the corresponding Singleton bounds with equality. The existences of such MDS codes are discussed in detail by algebraic methods and the constructive algorithms are also proposed. Index Terms Network coding, network error correction, linear multicast/broadcast/dispersion, generic network codes, linear network error correction multicast/broadcast/dispersion/generic codes, Singleton bound, multicast/broadcast/dispersion/generic MDS codes, constructive algorithms. This research is supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program Grant No. 2013CB834204), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61301137, 61171082, 10990011), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. 65121007). X. Guang is with the School of Mathematical Sciences and LPMC, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P.R. China. Email: [email protected]. F.-W. Fu is with the Chern Institute of Mathematics and LPMC, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P.R. China. Email: [email protected]. December 2, 2013 DRAFT 2