Parity-check matrixIn coding theory, a parity-check matrix of a linear block code C is a matrix which describes the linear relations that the components of a codeword must satisfy. It can be used to decide whether a particular vector is a codeword and is also used in decoding algorithms. Formally, a parity check matrix H of a linear code C is a generator matrix of the dual code, C⊥. This means that a codeword c is in C if and only if the matrix-vector product Hc⊤ = 0 (some authors would write this in an equivalent form, cH⊤ = 0.
Expander codeIn coding theory, expander codes form a class of error-correcting codes that are constructed from bipartite expander graphs. Along with Justesen codes, expander codes are of particular interest since they have a constant positive rate, a constant positive relative distance, and a constant alphabet size. In fact, the alphabet contains only two elements, so expander codes belong to the class of binary codes. Furthermore, expander codes can be both encoded and decoded in time proportional to the block length of the code.
Repetition codeIn coding theory, the repetition code is one of the most basic linear error-correcting codes. In order to transmit a message over a noisy channel that may corrupt the transmission in a few places, the idea of the repetition code is to just repeat the message several times. The hope is that the channel corrupts only a minority of these repetitions. This way the receiver will notice that a transmission error occurred since the received data stream is not the repetition of a single message, and moreover, the receiver can recover the original message by looking at the received message in the data stream that occurs most often.
Hamming spaceIn statistics and coding theory, a Hamming space (named after American mathematician Richard Hamming) is usually the set of all binary strings of length N. It is used in the theory of coding signals and transmission. More generally, a Hamming space can be defined over any alphabet (set) Q as the set of words of a fixed length N with letters from Q. If Q is a finite field, then a Hamming space over Q is an N-dimensional vector space over Q. In the typical, binary case, the field is thus GF(2) (also denoted by Z2).
Cyclic codeIn coding theory, a cyclic code is a block code, where the circular shifts of each codeword gives another word that belongs to the code. They are error-correcting codes that have algebraic properties that are convenient for efficient error detection and correction. Let be a linear code over a finite field (also called Galois field) of block length . is called a cyclic code if, for every codeword from , the word in obtained by a cyclic right shift of components is again a codeword.
Generator matrixIn coding theory, a generator matrix is a matrix whose rows form a basis for a linear code. The codewords are all of the linear combinations of the rows of this matrix, that is, the linear code is the row space of its generator matrix. If G is a matrix, it generates the codewords of a linear code C by where w is a codeword of the linear code C, and s is any input vector. Both w and s are assumed to be row vectors.
Hadamard codeThe Hadamard code is an error-correcting code named after Jacques Hadamard that is used for error detection and correction when transmitting messages over very noisy or unreliable channels. In 1971, the code was used to transmit photos of Mars back to Earth from the NASA space probe Mariner 9. Because of its unique mathematical properties, the Hadamard code is not only used by engineers, but also intensely studied in coding theory, mathematics, and theoretical computer science.
