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This paper considers data secrecy in distributed storage systems (DSSs) using maximally recoverable locally repairable codes (MR-LRCs). Conventional MR-LRCs are in general not secure against eavesdroppers who can observe the transmitted data during a global repair operation. This work enables nonzero secrecy dimension of DSSs encoded by MR-LRCs through a new repair framework. The key idea is to associate each local group with a central processing unit (CPU), which aggregates and transmits the contribution from the intact nodes of their group to the CPU of a group needing a global repair. The aggregation is enabled by so-called local polynomials that can be generated independently in each group. Two different schemes -- direct repair and forwarded repair -- are considered, and their secrecy dimension using MR-LRCs is derived. Positive secrecy dimension is enabled for several parameter regimes.

These notes cover a few calculations regarding the sum-rank weight of a matrix in relation to its rank. In particular, a formula and lower bounds are given on the probability that a matrix of rank $t$ consisting of $\ell$ blocks has sum-rank weight $\ell t$.

For a skew polynomial ring $R=A[X;\theta,\delta]$ where $A$ is a commutative Frobenius ring, $\theta$ an endomorphism of $A$ and $\delta$ a $\theta$-derivation of $A$, we consider cyclic left module codes $\mathcal{C}=Rg/Rf\subset R/Rf$ where $g$ is a left and right divisor of $f$ in $R$. In this paper, we derive a parity check matrix when $A$ is a finite commutative Frobenius ring using only the framework of skew polynomial rings. We consider rings $A=B[a_1,\ldots,a_s]$ which are free $B$-modules where the restriction of $\delta$ and $\theta$ to $B$ are polynomial maps. If a Gr\"obner basis can be computed over $B$, then we show that all Euclidean and Hermitian dual-containing codes $\mathcal{C}=Rg/Rf\subset R/Rf$ can be computed using a Gr\"obner basis. We also give an algorithm to test if the dual code is again a cyclic left module code. We illustrate our approach for rings of order $4$ with non-trivial endomorphism and the Galois ring of characteristic $4$., Comment: 20 pages, 11 tables

The sum-rank metric arises as an algebraic approach for coding in MIMO block-fading channels and multishot network coding. Codes designed in the sum-rank metric have raised interest in applications such as streaming codes, robust coded distributed storage systems and post-quantum secure cryptosystems. The sum-rank metric can be seen as a generalization of the well-known Hamming metric and the rank metric. As a relatively new metric, there are still many open theoretical problems for codes in the sum-rank metric. In this paper we investigate the geometrical properties of the balls with sum-rank radii motivated by investigating covering properties of codes.

Linearized Reed-Solomon (LRS) codes are evaluation codes based on skew polynomials. They achieve the Singleton bound in the sum-rank metric and therefore are known as maximum sum-rank distance (MSRD) codes. In this work, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of MSRD codes with a support-constrained generator matrix. The conditions on the support constraints are identical to those for MDS codes and MRD codes. The required field size for an $[n,k]_{q^m}$ LRS codes with support-constrained generator matrix is $q\geq \ell+1$ and $m\geq \max_{l\in[\ell]}\{k-1+\log_qk, n_l\}$, where $\ell$ is the number of blocks and $n_l$ is the size of the $l$-th block. The special cases of the result coincide with the known results for Reed-Solomon codes and Gabidulin codes. For the support constraints that do not satisfy the necessary conditions, we derive the maximum sum-rank distance of a code whose generator matrix fulfills the constraints. Such a code can be constructed from a subcode of an LRS code with a sufficiently large field size. Moreover, as an application in network coding, the conditions can be used as constraints in an integer programming problem to design distributed LRS codes for a distributed multi-source network., Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Revision Submitted to IEEE Transaction on Information Theory

The sum-rank metric can be seen as a generalization of both, the rank and the Hamming metric. It is well known that sum-rank metric codes outperform rank metric codes in terms of the required field size to construct maximum distance separable codes (i.e., the codes achieving the Singleton bound in the corresponding metric). In this work, we investigate the covering property of sum-rank metric codes to enrich the theory of sum-rank metric codes. We intend to answer the question: what is the minimum cardinality of a code given a sum-rank covering radius? We show the relations of this quantity between different metrics and provide several lower and upper bounds for sum-rank metric codes., Comment: 7 pages. This work has been presented in 58th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing

Due to the recent challenges in post-quantum cryptography, several new approaches for code-based cryptography have been proposed. For example, a variant of the McEliece cryptosystem based on interleaved codes was proposed. In order to deem such new settings secure, we first need to understand and analyze the complexity of the underlying problem, in this case the problem of decoding a random interleaved code. A simple approach to decode such codes, would be to randomly choose a vector in the row span of the received matrix and run a classical information set decoding algorithm on this erroneous codeword. In this paper, we propose a new generic decoder for interleaved codes, which is an adaption of the classical idea of information set decoding by Prange and perfectly fits the interleaved setting. We then analyze the cost of the new algorithm and a comparison to the simple approach described above shows the superiority of Interleaved Prange.

The rank metric measures the distance between two matrices by the rank of their difference. Codes designed for the rank metric have attracted considerable attention in recent years, reinforced by network coding and further motivated by a variety of applications. In code-based cryptography, the hardness of the corresponding generic decoding problem can lead to systems with reduced public-key size. In distributed data storage, codes in the rank metric have been used repeatedly to construct codes with locality, and in coded caching, they have been employed for the placement of coded symbols. This survey gives a general introduction to rank-metric codes, explains their most important applications, and highlights their relevance to these areas of research.

This paper is concerned with list decoding of $2$-interleaved binary alternant codes. The principle of the proposed algorithm is based on a combination of a list decoding algorithm for (interleaved) Reed-Solomon codes and an algorithm for (non-interleaved) alternant codes. A new upper bound on the decoding radius is derived and the list size is shown to scale polynomially in the code parameters. While it remains an open problem whether this upper bound is achievable, the provided simulation results show that a decoding radius exceeding the binary Johnson radius can be achieved with a high probability of decoding success by the proposed algorithm.

Cryptographic algorithms rely on the secrecy of their corresponding keys. On embedded systems with standard CMOS chips, where secure permanent memory such as flash is not available as a key storage, the secret key can be derived from Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) that make use of minuscule manufacturing variations of, for instance, SRAM cells. Since PUFs are affected by environmental changes, the reliable reproduction of the PUF key requires error correction. For silicon PUFs with binary output, errors occur in the form of bitflips within the PUFs response. Modelling the channel as a Binary Symmetric Channel (BSC) with fixed crossover probability $p$ is only a first-order approximation of the real behavior of the PUF response. We propose a more realistic channel model, refered to as the Varying Binary Symmetric Channel (VBSC), which takes into account that the reliability of different PUF response bits may not be equal. We investigate its channel capacity for various scenarios which differ in the channel state information (CSI) present at encoder and decoder. We compare the capacity results for the VBSC for the different CSI cases with reference to the distribution of the bitflip probability according a work by Maes et al.

Lifted codes are a class of evaluation codes attracting more attention due to good locality and intermediate availability. In this work we introduce and study quadratic-curve-lifted Reed-Solomon (QC-LRS) codes, where the codeword symbols whose coordinates are on a quadratic curve form a codeword of a Reed-Solomon code. We first develop a necessary and sufficient condition on the monomials which form a basis the code. Based on the condition, we give upper and lower bounds on the dimension and show that the asymptotic rate of a QC-LRS code over $\mathbb{F}_q$ with local redundancy $r$ is $1-\Theta(q/r)^{-0.2284}$. Moreover, we provide analytical results on the minimum distance of this class of codes and compare QC-LRS codes with lifted Reed-Solomon codes by simulations in terms of the local recovery capability against erasures. For short lengths, QC-LRS codes have better performance in local recovery for erasures than LRS codes of the same dimension., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. A short version is accepted by WCC 2022 (12th International Workshop on Coding and Cryptography)

Generalized Goppa codes are defined by a code locator set $\mathcal{L}$ of polynomials and a Goppa polynomial $G(x)$. When the degree of all code locator polynomials in $\mathcal{L}$ is one, generalized Goppa codes are classical Goppa codes. In this work, binary generalized Goppa codes are investigated. First, a parity-check matrix for these codes with code locators of any degree is derived. A careful selection of the code locators leads to a lower bound on the minimum Hamming distance of generalized Goppa codes which improves upon previously known bounds. A quadratic-time decoding algorithm is presented which can decode errors up to half of the minimum distance. Interleaved generalized Goppa codes are introduced and a joint decoding algorithm is presented which can decode errors beyond half the minimum distance with high probability. Finally, some code parameters and how they apply to the Classic McEliece post-quantum cryptosystem are shown.

Interleaved Reed-Solomon codes admit efficient decoding algorithms which correct burst errors far beyond half the minimum distance in the random errors regime, e.g., by computing a common solution to the Key Equation for each Reed-Solomon code, as described by Schmidt et al. If this decoder does not succeed, it may either fail to return a codeword or miscorrect to an incorrect codeword, and good upper bounds on the fraction of error matrices for which these events occur are known. The decoding algorithm immediately applies to interleaved alternant codes as well, i.e., the subfield subcodes of interleaved Reed-Solomon codes, but the fraction of decodable error matrices differs, since the error is now restricted to a subfield. In this paper, we present new general lower and upper bounds on the fraction of error matrices decodable by Schmidt et al.'s decoding algorithm, thereby making it the only decoding algorithm for interleaved alternant codes for which such bounds are known.

In this work, we introduce a natural notion concerning finite vector spaces. A family of $k$-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{F}_q^n$, which forms a partial spread, is called almost affinely disjoint if any $(k+1)$-dimensional subspace containing a subspace from the family non-trivially intersects with only a few subspaces from the family. The central question discussed in the paper is the polynomial growth (in $q$) of the maximal cardinality of these families given the parameters $k$ and $n$. For the cases $k=1$ and $k=2$, optimal families are constructed. For other settings, we find lower and upper bounds on the polynomial growth. Additionally, some connections with problems in coding theory are shown., Comment: 10 pages; Published in Finite Fields and Their Applications, Volume 75, October 2021, 101879

We study scalar-linear and vector-linear solutions of the generalized combination network. We derive new upper and lower bounds on the maximum number of nodes in the middle layer, depending on the network parameters and the alphabet size. These bounds improve and extend the parameter range of known bounds. Using these new bounds we present a lower bound and an upper bound on the gap in the alphabet size between optimal scalar-linear and optimal vector-linear network coding solutions. For a fixed network structure, while varying the number of middle-layer nodes $r$, the asymptotic behavior of the upper and lower bounds shows that the gap is in $\Theta(\log(r))$., Comment: extended version of arXiv:2001.04150v2; 13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Goppa Codes are a well-known class of codes with, among others, applications in code-based cryptography. In this paper, we present a collaborative decoding algorithm for interleaved Goppa codes (IGC). Collaborative decoding increases the decoding radius beyond half of the designed minimum distance. We consider wild Goppa codes and show that we can collaboratively correct more errors for binary Goppa codes than the Patterson decoder. We propose a modified version of the McEliece cryptosystem using wild IGC based on a recently proposed system by Elleuch et al., analyze attacks on the system and present some parameters with the corresponding key sizes.

The cover metric is suitable for describing the resilience against correlated errors in arrays, in particular crisscross errors, which makes it interesting for applications such as distributed data storage (DDS). In this work, we consider codes designed for the cover metric that have locality, that means lost symbols can be recovered by using only a few other (local) symbols. We derive and prove a Singleton-like bound on the minimum cover distance of cover-metric codes with locality and propose a bound-achieving construction. Further, we explore the performance of our construction in comparison to a known construction based on rank-metric codes.