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Splitter sets are closely related to lattice tilings, and have applications in flash memories and conflict avoiding codes. In this paper, we prove some nonexistence results for nonsingular perfect splitter sets. We also give some necessary conditions for the existence of purely singular perfect splitter sets. Finally, we apply these results to purely singular perfect $B[-1,k](m)$ and $B[-2,k](m)$ sets for small $k$. In particular, we solve completely the problems left by Schwartz (European J. Combin., vol. 36, pp.130–142, Feb. 2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-standing conjecture of Golomb and Welch, raised in 1970, states that there is no perfect r error correcting Lee code of length n for n\geq 3 and r>1 under the l_{p} metric, where 1\leq p<\infty . We show some nonexistence results of linear perfect lp codes for p=1 and 2\leq p<\infty , r=2^{1/p},3^{1/p} . We also give an algebraic construction of quasi-perfect l_{p}$ codes for p=1, r=2$ , and 2\leq p<\infty , r=2^{1/p} . [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given n items with at most d of which being positive, instead of testing these items individually, the theory of combinatorial group testing aims to identify all positive items using as few tests as possible. This paper is devoted to a fundamental and thirty-year-old problem in the nonadaptive group testing theory. A binary matrix is called d -disjunct if the Boolean sum of arbitrary d columns does not contain another column not in this collection. Let T(d) denote the minimal t , such that there exists a t\times n\,\,d -disjunct matrix with n>t and was conjectured that T(d)\ge (d+1)^{2} . In this paper, we narrow the gap by proving T(d)/d^{2}\ge (15+\sqrt {33})/24$ , a quantity in [6/7,7/8]. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One central theme in quantum error-correction is to construct quantum codes that have a relatively large minimum distance. In this paper, we first present a construction of classical linear codes based on certain classes of polynomials. Through these classical linear codes, we are able to obtain some new quantum codes. It turns out that some of the quantum codes exhibited here have better parameters than the ones available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Snake-in-the-box codes under Kendall’s \tau -metric are studied in the rank modulation scheme for flash memories, where codewords are a subset of permutations in S_{n} with minimal Kendall’s \tau -distance two, and two cyclically consecutive codewords are connected via a push-to-the-top operation. Studies so far restrict the push-to-the-top operations only on odd indices, resulting in a snake consisting of permutations with the same parity, and thus, the minimal distance constraint is easily satisfied. Asymptotically optimal snake codes have been constructed this way in S2n+1 . As for S2n+2 , this framework keeps the last element fixed, and thus, a snake in S2n+2 is equivalent to a snake in S2n+1 , which is rather trivial. If one wants to do better, then it is inevitable to have some push-to-the-top operations on even indices, resulting in a combination of odd and even permutations in the snake, which increases the difficulty to guarantee the minimal Kendall’s $\tau $ -distance constraint. Thus, Horovitz and Etzion pose the open problem to prove or disprove that the size of the largest snake in ({1}/{4})|S_{2n+2}| . [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Some physical effects that limit the reliability and performance of multilevel flash memories induce errors that have low magnitudes and are dominantly asymmetric. This motivated the application of the asymmetric limited magnitude error model in flash memory. In this paper, we present a new construction of quasi-perfect codes for such errors, and we also study the perfect codes with symmetric errors. Moreover, we show some nonexistence results on perfect codes for correcting single error of limited magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For a Gray code in the scheme of rank modulation for flash memories, the codewords are permutations, and two consecutive codewords are obtained using a push-to-the-top operation. We consider the snake-in-the-box code under Kendall’s \tau -metric, which is a Gray code capable of detecting one Kendall’s \tau -error. We answer two open problems posed by Horovitz and Etzion. First, we prove the validity of a construction given by them, resulting in a snake of size M2n+1=({(2n+1)!}/{2})-2n+1 . Second, we come up with a different construction aiming at a larger snake of size M2n+1=({(2n+1)!}/{2})-2n+3 . The construction is applied successfully to S7 . [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Quantum maximum-distance-separable (MDS) codes form an important family of quantum codes. In this paper, using Hermitian construction and classical constacyclic codes, we construct six classes of quantum MDS codes. Two of these six classes of quantum MDS codes have larger minimum distance than the ones available in the literature. Most of these quantum MDS codes are new in the sense that their parameters are not covered by the codes available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quadratic residue codes are a well-known class of codes. In this paper, we consider the constructions of self-dual codes by higher power residues, especially fourth power residues. New infinite families of self-dual codes over GF(2), GF(3), GF(4), GF(8), and GF(9) are introduced. Some of them have better minimum weight than previously known codes. We also give general results related to the automorphism group of some of these codes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multimedia fingerprinting is an effective technique to trace the sources of pirate copies of copyrighted multimedia contents. Separable codes were introduced to detect colluders taking part in the averaging attack, which is the most feasible approach to perform a collusion attack. In this paper, we provide some improved bounds for the size of separable codes. Using a combinatorial technique named grouping coordinates, we have greatly reduced the upper bound. On the other hand, we also provide some lower bounds for the size of separable codes by both probabilistic and deterministic construction methods. In particular, \( \overline {2}\) -separable codes with asymptotically optimal rate are obtained by the deletion method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compressed sensing is a novel sampling theory, which provides a fundamentally new approach to data acquisition. It asserts that a sparse or compressible signal can be reconstructed from much fewer measurements than traditional methods. A central problem in compressed sensing is the construction of the sensing matrix. While random sensing matrices have been studied intensively, only a few deterministic constructions are known. Among them, most constructions are based on coherence, which essentially generates matrices with low coherence. In this paper, we introduce the concept of near orthogonal systems to characterize the matrices with low coherence, which lie in the heart of many different applications. The constructions of these near orthogonal systems lead to deterministic constructions of sensing matrices. We obtain a series of m\times n binary sensing matrices with sparsity level k=\Theta (m^(1/2)) or k=O\big ((m/\log m)^(1/2)\big). In particular, some of our constructions are the best possible deterministic ones based on coherence. We conduct a lot of numerical experiments to show that our matrices arising from near orthogonal systems outperform several typical known sensing matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The theory of cyclotomy dates back to Gauss and has a number of applications in combinatorics, coding theory, and cryptography. Cyclotomy over a residue class ring \BBZv can be divided into classical cyclotomy or generalized cyclotomy, depending on v prime or composite. In this paper, we introduce a generalized cyclotomy of order d over \BBZp1^{e1p2^{e2},\ldots, pn^{en}}, which includes Whiteman's and Ding-Helleseth's generalized cyclotomy as special cases. Here, p1,p2,\ldots,pn are pairwise distinct odd primes satisfying d\vert (pi-1) for all 1\leq i\leq n and e1,e2,\ldots,en are positive integers. We derive some basic properties of the corresponding cyclotomic numbers and obtain a general formula to compute them via classical cyclotomic numbers. As applications, we completely solve an open problem and a conjecture on Whiteman's generalized cyclotomy of order four over \BBZp1p2. Besides, we also construct an infinite series of near-optimal codebooks over \BBZp1p2, as well as some infinite series of asymptotically optimal difference systems of sets over \BBZp1^{e1p2^{e2},\ldots,pn^{en}}. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constant-weight codes play an important role in coding theory. The problem of determining the sizes for optimal quaternary constant-weight codes with length n, weight 4, and minimum Hamming distance 5 ((n,5,4)4 codes) has been investigated in several papers. Although some constructions and several infinite families for such codes with length n\equiv 0,1\pmod4 have been given, the problem is still far from complete. In this paper, we determine the size of an optimal (n,5,4)4 code for each integer n\geq 4 leaving 55 lengths unsolved. Especially, for length n\equiv 0,1\pmod 4, the existence problem of the equivalent combinatorial object, namely the generalized Steiner system, is solved leaving only seven values undetermined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sizes of optimal constant-composition codes (CCCs) of weight 3 have been determined by Chee, Ge, and Ling with four cases in doubt. Group divisible codes (GDCs) played an important role in their constructions. In this paper, we study the problem of constructing optimal quaternary CCCs with Hamming weight 4 and minimum distances 5 or 6 through GDCs and Room square approaches. The problem is solved leaving only five lengths undetermined. Previously, the results on the sizes of such quaternary CCCs were scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constant-composition codes (CCCs) are a generalization of constant weight codes and permutation codes. The concept of group divisible codes, an analog of group divisible designs in combinatorial design theory, was first introduced by Chee et al. This new class of codes has been shown to be useful in recursive constructions of constant-weight codes and constant-composition codes. In this paper, we consider the problem of determining the maximal sizes of ternary constant-composition codes of weight four and distance five using group divisible codes as the main tools. We determine the exact values for these parameters. The previously known results are those with code length no greater than 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Chee and Ling ("Constructions for q-ary constant-weight codes", IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 53, no. 1, 135-146, Jan. 2007 ) introduced a new combinatorial construction for q-ary constant-weight codes which reveals a close connection between q-ary constant-weight codes and sets of pairwise disjoint combinatorial designs. In this paper, we study the problem of constructing optimal ternary constant-weight codes with Hamming weight four and minimum distance six using this approach. The construction here exploits completely reducible super simple designs and group divisible codes. The problem is solved leaving only two cases undetermined. Previously, the sizes of constant-weight codes of weight four and distance six were known only for those of length no greater than 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the direct constructions for optimal optical orthogonal codes. Constructions via skew starters; Auxiliary designs of recursive constructions; Required designs for the creation of optimal codes.

This paper focuses on constructions of MDS self-dual codes from (extended) generalized Reed-Solomon (GRS) codes. Let $q = r^{2}$ be an odd prime power. We show that, there exists a $q$ -ary self-dual (extended) GRS code for each even length in the range $[{2r,3r-3}]$ , and for each singly even length in the range $[3r-1,4r]$. This extends the only known consecutive range $[2,2r]$ to $[{2,3r-3}]$ for this case. Furthermore, our general constructions provide many MDS self-dual codes with new parameters which, to the best of our knowledge, were not reported before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important coding scheme in modern distributed storage systems, locally repairable codes (LRCs) have attracted a lot of attentions from perspectives of both practical applications and theoretical research. As a major topic in the research of LRCs, bounds and constructions of the corresponding optimal codes are of particular concerns. In this work, codes with $(r,\delta)$ -locality which have optimal minimal distance w.r.t. the bound given by Prakash et al. are considered. Through parity-check matrix approach, constructions of both optimal $(r,\delta)$ -LRCs with all symbol locality ($(r,\delta)_{a}$ -LRCs) and optimal $(r,\delta)$ -LRCs with information locality ($(r,\delta)_{i}$ -LRCs) are provided. As a generalization of a work of Xing and Yuan, these constructions are built on a connection between sparse hypergraphs and optimal $(r,\delta)$ -LRCs. With the help of constructions of large sparse hypergraphs, the lengths of codes obtained from our construction can be super-linear in the alphabet size. This improves upon previous constructions when the minimal distance of the code is at least $3\delta +1$. As two applications, optimal H-LRCs with super-linear lengths and GSD codes with unbounded lengths are also constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a crucial technique for integrated circuits (IC) test response compaction, X-compact employs a special kind of codes called X-codes for reliable compressions of the test response in the presence of unknown logic values (Xs). From a combinatorial view point, Fujiwara and Colbourn introduced an equivalent definition of X-codes and studied X-codes of small weights that have good detectability and X-tolerance. An $({\it\text { m, n, d, x}})~\text {X}$ -code is an $\text {m}\times \text {n}$ binary matrix with column vectors as its codewords. The parameters ${\it\text { d, x}}$ correspond to the test quality of the code. In this paper, bounds and constructions for constant weighted X-codes are investigated. First, we obtain a general result on the maximum number of codewords n for an $({\it\text { m, n, d, x}})~\text {X}$ -code of weight w, and we further improve this lower bound for the case with $\text {x}=2$ and $\text {w}=3$ through the probabilistic method. Then, using tools from additive combinatorics and finite fields, we present some explicit constructions for constant weighted X-codes with $\text {d}=3,7$ and $\text {x}=2$ , which are optimal for the case when $\text {d}=3, \text {w}=4$ and nearly optimal for the case when $\text {d}=3,\text {w}=3$. We also consider a special class of X-codes introduced by Fujiwara and Colbourn and improve the best known lower bound on the maximum number of codewords for this kind of X-codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the access-balancing problem in distributed storage systems, we introduce a new combinatorial model, called MinVar model for fractional repetition (FR) codes. Since FR codes are based on graphs or set systems, our MinVar model is characterized by the property that the variance among the sums of block-labels incident to a fixed vertex is minimized. This characterization is different from Dau and Milenkovic’s MaxMinSum model, while the minimum sum of labels is maximized. We show that our MinVar model is meaningful by distinguishing labelings with different variances but with the same MaxMin value for some FR codes. By reformulating the MinVar model to an equivalent vertex-labeling problem of graphs, we find several families of optimal FR codes with balanced access frequency, and provide fundamental results for both problems. It is interesting that MinVar model is closely related to the concept of magic-labeling in graph theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centralized coded caching scheme is a technique proposed by Maddah-Ali and Niesen as a method to reduce the network burden in peak times in a wireless network system. Yan et al. reformulate the problem as designing a corresponding placement delivery array and propose two new schemes from this perspective. These schemes significantly reduce the rate compared with the uncoded caching schemes. However, to implement these schemes, each file should be cut into $F$ pieces, where $F$ grows exponentially with the number of users $K$. Such a constraint is obviously infeasible in the practical setting, especially when $K$ is large. Thus, it is desirable to design caching schemes with constant rate $R$ (independent of $K$ ) as well as smaller $F$. In this paper, we view the centralized coded caching problem in a hypergraph perspective and show that designing a feasible placement delivery array is equivalent to constructing a linear and (6,3)-free 3-uniform 3-partite hypergraph. Several new results and constructions arise from our novel point of view. First, by using the famous (6,3)-theorem in extremal graph theory, we show that constant rate placement delivery arrays with $F$ growing linearly with $K$ do not exist. Second, we present two infinite classes of placement delivery arrays to show that constant rate caching schemes with $F$ growing sub-exponentially with $K$ do exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Splitter sets are closely related to lattice tilings, and have applications in flash memories and conflict-avoiding codes. The study of k -radius sequences was motivated by some problems occurring in large data transfer. It is observed that the existence of splitter sets yields k -radius sequences of short length. In this paper, we obtain several new results contributing to splitter sets and k -radius sequences. We give some new constructions of perfect splitter sets, as well as some nonexistence results on them. As a byproduct, we obtain some new results on optimal conflict-avoiding codes. Furthermore, we provide several explicit constructions of short k -radius sequences for certain values of n , by establishing the existence of k -additive sequences. In particular, we show that for any fixed k , where fk (n) denotes the shortest length of an n -ary $k$ -radius sequence. This result partially affirms a conjecture posed by Bondy, Lonc, and Rzążewski. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frameproof codes are used to fingerprint digital data. They can prevent copyrighted materials from unauthorized use. In this paper, we study upper and lower bounds for $w$ -frameproof codes of length N$ over an alphabet of size q$ . The upper bound is based on a combinatorial approach and the lower bound is based on a probabilistic construction. Both bounds can improve one of the previous results when q$ is small compared with w$ , say cq\leq w$ for some constant c\leq q$ . Furthermore, we pay special attention to binary frameproof codes. We show a binary w . [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Various kinds of secure codes and their related hash families are broadly studied combinatorial structures for protecting copyrighted materials. The codewords in such a structure can be regarded as a subset of Q^N , the set of all $q$ -ary vectors of given length $N$ , satisfying some constraints. We use a hypergraph model to characterize the combinatorial structure. By applying a result of Duke et al. on the lower bound of the independence number of hypergraphs, we provide a new approach to evaluate the lower bounds for several kinds of secure codes and related hash families. In particular, the general method is illustrated via the examples of existence results on some perfect hash families, frameproof codes, and separable codes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The generalized Hamming weights (GHWs) of linear codes are fundamental parameters, the knowledge of which is of great interest in many applications. However, to determine the GHWs of linear codes is difficult in general. In this paper, we study the GHWs for a family of reducible cyclic codes and obtain the complete weight hierarchy in several cases. This is achieved by extending the idea of Yang et al. into higher dimension and by employing some interesting combinatorial arguments. It shall be noted that these cyclic codes may have arbitrary number of nonzeros. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Constacyclic codes which generalize the classical cyclic codes have played important roles in recent constructions of many new quantum maximum distance separable (MDS) codes. However, the mathematical mechanism may not have been fully understood. In this paper, we use pseudo-cyclic codes, which is a further generalization of constacyclic codes, to construct the quantum MDS codes. We can not only provide a unified explanation of many previous constructions, but also produce some new quantum MDS codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been intensive research on the weight distributions of cyclic codes. In this paper, we compute the weight distributions of three classes of cyclic codes with Niho exponents. More specifically, we obtain two classes of binary three-weight and four-weight cyclic codes and a class of nonbinary four-weight cyclic codes. The weight distributions follow from the determination of value distributions of certain exponential sums. Several examples are presented to show that some of our codes are optimal and some have the best known parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permutation codes have been shown to be useful in power line communications, block ciphers, and multilevel flash memory models. Construction of such codes is extremely difficult. In fact, the only general lower bound known is the Gilbert–Varshamov type bound. In this paper, we establish a connection between permutation codes and independent sets in certain graphs. Using the connection, we improve the Gilbert–Varshamov bound asymptotically by a factor \log (n), when the code length n goes to infinity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Compressed sensing is a sampling technique which provides a fundamentally new approach to data acquisition. Comparing with traditional methods, compressed sensing makes full use of sparsity so that a sparse signal can be reconstructed from very few measurements. A central problem in compressed sensing is the construction of sensing matrices. While random sensing matrices have been studied intensively, only a few deterministic constructions are known. Inspired by algebraic geometry codes, we introduce a new deterministic construction via algebraic curves over finite fields, which is a natural generalization of DeVore's construction using polynomials over finite fields. The diversity of algebraic curves provides numerous choices for sensing matrices. By choosing appropriate curves, we are able to construct binary sensing matrices which are superior to Devore's ones. We hope this connection between algebraic geometry and compressed sensing will provide a new point of view and stimulate further research in both areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Constant-weight codes (CWCs) play an important role in coding theory. The problem of determining the sizes for optimal ternary CWCs with length n, weight 4, and minimum Hamming distance 5 ((n,5,4)3 code) has been settled for all positive integers n\leq 10 or n > 10 and n\equiv 1\pmod 3 with n\in \13,52,58\ undetermined. In this paper, we investigate the problem of constructing optimal (n,5,4)3 codes for all lengths n with the tool of group divisible codes. We determine the size of an optimal (n,5,4)3 code for each integer n\geq 4 leaving the lengths n\in \12,13,21,27,33,39,45,52\ unsolved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Splitter sets have been widely studied due to their applications in flash memories, and their close relations with lattice tilings and conflict avoiding codes. In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of nonsingular perfect splitter sets, ${B}[-{k}_{1},{k}_{2}]({p})$ sets, where $0\le {k}_{1}\leq {k}_{2}=4$. Meanwhile, constructions of nonsingular perfect splitter sets are given. When perfect splitter sets do not exist, we present four new constructions of quasi-perfect splitter sets. Finally, we give a connection between nonsingular splitter sets and Cayley graphs, and as a byproduct, a general lower bound on the maximum size of nonsingular splitter sets is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a database, the private information retrieval (PIR) protocol allows a user to make queries to several servers and retrieve a certain item of the database via the feedbacks without revealing the identity of the specific item to any single server. Classic $k$ -server PIR protocols work on replicated databases, i.e., each of the $k$ servers stores a whole copy of the database. Recently, new PIR models were proposed with coding techniques arising from the distributed storage system. In these new models, each server only stores a fraction $1/s$ of the whole database, where $s>1$ is the given rational number. The PIR array codes are recently proposed by Fazeli, Vardy, and Yaakobi to characterize the new models. The central problem in designing a PIR array code with $m$ servers and the $k$ -PIR property (which indicates that these $m$ servers may emulate a classic $k$ -server PIR protocol) is to maximize $k/m$ , known as the virtual server rate. Our main contribution to this problem is twofold. First, for the case $1 < s\le 2$ , although the PIR array codes with optimal rate have been constructed recently by Blackburn and Etzion, the number of servers in their construction is rather large. We determine the minimum number of servers admitting the existence of a PIR array code with an optimal rate for a certain range of parameters. Second, for the case $s>2$ , a new upper bound on the rate of a PIR array code is presented. Besides, we also have some discussions on an asymptotically optimal construction by Blackburn and Etzion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical orthogonal signature pattern codes (OOSPCs) have played an important role in a novel type of optical code-division multiple-access network for 2-D image transmission. In this paper, we give four direct constructions for OOSPCs based on polynomials and rational functions over finite fields. We also use $r$ -simple matrices to present a recursive construction for OOSPCs. These constructions yield new families of asymptotically optimal OOSPCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclic codes are widely employed in communication systems, storage devices, and consumer electronics, as they have efficient encoding and decoding algorithms. BCH codes, as a special subclass of cyclic codes, are in most cases among the best cyclic codes. A subclass of good BCH codes are the narrow-sense BCH codes over \mathrm GF(q) with length n=(q^m-1)/(q-1) . Little is known about this class of BCH codes when $q>2$ . The objective of this paper is to study some of the codes within this class. In particular, the dimension, the minimum distance, and the weight distribution of some ternary BCH codes with length n=(3^{m}-1)/2 are determined in this paper. A class of ternary BCH codes meeting the Griesmer bound is identified. An application of some of the BCH codes in secret sharing is also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multiply constant-weight codes (MCWCs) were introduced recently to improve the reliability of certain physically unclonable function response. In this paper, the bounds of MCWCs and the constructions of optimal MCWCs are studied. First, we derive three different types of upper bounds which improve the Johnson-type bounds given by Chee et al. for some parameters. The asymptotic lower bound of MCWCs is also examined. Then, we obtain the asymptotic existence of two classes of optimal MCWCs, which shows that the Johnson-type bounds for MCWCs with distances 2\sum i=1^{m}wi-2 or $2mw-2w$ are asymptotically exact. Finally, we construct a class of optimal MCWCs with total weight four and distance six by establishing the connection between such MCWCs and a new kind of combinatorial structures. As a consequence, the maximum sizes of MCWCs with total weight less than or equal to four are determined almost completely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of the cross correlation between an m -sequence and its decimated sequence has been a long-standing research problem. Considering a ternary m -sequence of period 3^3r-1 , we determine the cross correlation distribution for decimations d=3^r+2 and d=3^2r+2 , where \gcd (r,3)=1 . Meanwhile, for a binary m -sequence of period 2^2lm-1 , we make an initial investigation for the decimation d=(2^2lm-1)/(2^m+1)+2^s , where $l\geq 2$ is even and $0\leq s\leq 2m-1$ . It is shown that the cross correlation takes at least four values. Furthermore, we confirm the validity of two famous conjectures due to Sarwate et al. and Helleseth in this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of weight distribution of cyclic codes involves the evaluation of Gauss sums and exponential sums. Despite some cases where a neat expression is available, the computation is generally rather complicated. In this note, we determine the weight distribution of a class of reducible cyclic codes whose dual codes may have arbitrarily many zeros. This goal is achieved by building an unexpected connection between the corresponding exponential sums and the spectra of Hermitian forms graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]