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.

In quantum private information retrieval (QPIR), a user retrieves a classical file from multiple servers by downloading quantum systems without revealing the identity of the file. The QPIR capacity is the maximal achievable ratio of the retrieved file size to the total download size. In this paper, the capacity of QPIR from MDS-coded and colluding servers is studied for the first time. Two general classes of QPIR, called stabilizer QPIR and dimension-squared QPIR induced from classical strongly linear PIR are defined, and the related QPIR capacities are derived. For the non-colluding case, the general QPIR capacity is derived when the number of files goes to infinity. A general statement on the converse bound for QPIR with coded and colluding servers is derived showing that the capacities of stabilizer QPIR and dimension-squared QPIR induced from any class of PIR are upper bounded by twice the classical capacity of the respective PIR class. The proposed capacity-achieving scheme combines the star-product scheme by Freij-Hollantiet al.and the stabilizer QPIR scheme by Songet al.by employing (weakly) self-dual Reed–Solomon codes.

In this work, two practical concepts related to private information retrieval (PIR) are introduced and coinedfull support-rankPIR andstrongly linearPIR. Being of full support-rank is a technical, yet natural condition required to prove a converse result for a capacity expression and satisfied by almost all currently known capacity-achieving schemes, while strong linearity is a practical requirement enabling implementation over small finite fields with low subpacketization degree. Then, the capacity of MDS-coded, linear, full support-rank PIR in the presence of colluding servers is derived, as well as the capacity of symmetric, linear PIR with colluding, adversarial, and nonresponsive servers for the recently introduced concept of matched randomness. This positively settles the capacity conjectures stated by Freij-Hollantiet al.and Tajeddineet al.in the presented cases. It is also shown that, further restricting to strongly-linear PIR schemes with deterministic linear interference cancellation, the so-called star product scheme proposed by Freij-Hollantiet al.is essentially optimal and induces no capacity loss.

In the classical private information retrieval (PIR) setup, a user wants to retrieve a file from a database or a distributed storage system (DSS) without revealing the file identity to the servers holding the data. In the quantum PIR (QPIR) setting, a user privately retrieves a classical file by receiving quantum information from the servers. The QPIR problem has been treated by Song et al. in the case of replicated servers, both with and without collusion. QPIR over [n, k] maximum distance separable (MDS) coded servers was recently considered by Allaix et al., but the collusion was essentially restricted to t = n -$k$servers in the sense that a smaller$t$would not improve the retrieval rate. In this paper, the QPIR setting is extended to allow for retrieval with high rate for any number of colluding servers$t$with 1 ≤$t$≤$n$- k. Similarly to the previous cases, the rates achieved are better than those known or conjectured in the classical counterparts, as well as those of the previously proposed coded and colluding QPIR schemes. This is enabled by considering the stabilizer formalism and weakly self-dual generalized Reed-Solomon (GRS) star product codes.

Locality enables storage systems to recover failed nodes from small subsets of surviving nodes. The setting where nodes are partitioned into subsets, each allowing for local recovery, is well understood. In this work we consider a generalization introduced by Gopalan et al., where, viewing the codewords as arrays, constraints are imposed on the columns and rows in addition to some global constraints. Specifically, we present a generic method of adding such global parity-checks and derive new results on the set of correctable erasure patterns. Finally, we relate the set of correctable erasure patterns in the considered topology to those correctable in tensor-product codes.

A distributed storage system must support efficient access to stored data while ensuring recovery of temporally unavailable nodes. Another important aspect of a distributed storage system is security. In this paper, we bring these features together and investigate the problem of efficient access to stored data in presence of a passive eavesdropper with access to limited number of nodes. The access efficiency is measured in two different terms, namely, the number of accessed nodes and the volume of generated network traffic. These quantities possess a natural connection to locality and repair bandwidth in distributed storage system. For each of them we derive bounds on parameters and provide explicit constructions based on maximum distance separable codes. Motivated by practical perspectives we propose the techniques to ensure the same workload on each node as well as constructions over small fields based on subfield subcodes, Euclidean geometry codes and Reed-Muller codes. Finally, we derive an asymptotic random coding bound on parameters of a secure distributed storage system and propose further research directions.

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 eitherfailto return a codeword ormiscorrectto 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.

Lifted Reed-Solomon and multiplicity codes are classes of codes, constructed from specific sets of$m$-variate polynomials. These codes allow for the design of high-rate codes that can recover every codeword or information symbol from many disjoint sets. Recently, the underlying approaches have been combined for the bi-variate case to construct lifted multiplicity codes, a generalization of lifted codes that can offer further rate improvements. We continue the study of these codes by first establishing new lower bounds on the rate of lifted Reed-Solomon codes for any number of variables$m$, which improve upon the known bounds for any$m\ge 4$. Next, we use these results to provide lower bounds on the rate and distance of lifted multiplicity codes obtained from polynomials in an arbitrary number of variables, which improve upon the known results for any$m\ge 3$. Specifically, we investigate a subcode of a lifted multiplicity code formed by the linear span of$m$-variate monomials whose restriction to an arbitrary line in${\mathbb {F}}_{q}^{m}$is equivalent to a low-degree univariate polynomial. We find the tight asymptotic behavior of the fraction of such monomials when the number of variables$m$is fixed and the alphabet size$q=2^\ell $is large. Using these results, we give a new explicit construction of batch codes utilizing lifted Reed-Solomon codes. For some parameter regimes, these codes have a better trade-off between parameters than previously known batch codes. Further, we show that lifted multiplicity codes have a better trade-off between redundancy and the number of disjoint recovering sets for every codeword or information symbol than previously known constructions, thereby providing the best known PIR codes for some parameter regimes. Additionally, we present a new local self-correction algorithm for lifted multiplicity codes.

Partial MDS (PMDS) and sector-disk (SD) codes are classes of erasure correcting codes that combine locality with strong erasure correction capabilities. We construct PMDS and SD codes with local regeneration where each local code is a bandwidth-optimal regenerating MDS code. In the event of a node failure, these codes reduce both, the number of servers that have to be contacted as well as the amount of network traffic required for the repair process. The constructions require significantly smaller field size than the only other construction known in literature. Further, we present a construction of PMDS codes with global regeneration which allow to efficiently repair patterns of node failures that exceed the local erasure correction capability of the code and thereby invoke repair across different local groups.

A distributed storage system (DSS) needs to be efficiently accessible and repairable. Recently, considerable effort has been made towards the latter, while the former is usually not considered, since a trivial solution exists in the form of systematic encoding. However, this is not a viable option when considering storage that has to be secure against eavesdroppers. This work investigates the problem of efficient access to data stored on a DSS under such security constraints. Further, we establish methods to balance the access load, i.e., ensure that each node is accessed equally often. We establish the capacity for the alphabet independent case and give an explicit code construction. For the alphabet-dependent case we give existence results based on a random coding argument.

In the classical private information retrieval (PIR) setup, a user wants to retrieve a file from a database or a distributed storage system (DSS) without revealing the file identity to the servers holding the data. In the quantum PIR (QPIR) setting, a user privately retrieves a classical file by downloading quantum systems from the servers. The QPIR problem has been treated by Song et al. in the case of replicated servers, both without collusion and with all but one servers colluding. In this paper, the QPIR setting is extended to account for maximum distance separable (MDS) coded servers. The proposed protocol works for any [n, k]-MDS code and t-collusion with t = n - k. Similarly to the previous cases, the rates achieved are better than those known or conjectured in the classical counterparts.

A new computational private information retrieval (PIR) scheme based on random linear codes is presented. A matrix of messages from a McEliece scheme is used to query the server with carefully chosen errors. The server responds with the sum of the scalar multiple of the rows of the query matrix and the files. The user recovers the desired file by erasure decoding the response. Contrary to code-based cryptographic systems, the scheme presented here enables to use truly random codes, not only codes disguised as such. Further, we show the relation to the so-called error subspace search problem and quotient error search problem, which we assume to be difficult, and show that the scheme is secure against attacks based on solving these problems.

Guo, Kopparty and Sudan have initiated the study of error-correcting codes derived by lifting of affine-invariant codes. Lifted Reed-Solomon (RS) codes are defined as the evaluation of polynomials in a vector space over a field by requiring their restriction to every line in the space to be a codeword of the RS code. In this paper, we investigate lifted RS codes and discuss their application to batch codes, a notion introduced in the context of private information retrieval and load-balancing in distributed storage systems. First, we improve the estimate of the code rate of lifted RS codes for lifting parameter m ≥ 3 and large field size. Second, a new explicit construction of batch codes utilizing lifted RS codes is proposed. For some parameter regimes, our codes have a better trade-off between parameters than previously known batch codes.

Partial MDS (PMDS) and sector-disk (SD) codes are classes of erasure codes that combine locality with strong erasure correction capabilities. We construct PMDS and SD codes where each local code is a bandwidth-optimal regenerating MDS code. The constructions require significantly smaller field size than the only other construction known in literature.

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 decodable error matrices by Schmidt et al.’s decoding algorithm, thereby making it the only decoding algorithm for interleaved alternant codes for which such bounds are known.

Lifted Reed-Solomon codes, a subclass of lifted affine-invariant codes, have been shown to be of high rate while preserving locality properties similar to generalized Reed-Muller codes, which they contain as subcodes. This work introduces a simple bounded distance decoder for (subcodes of) lifted affine-invariant codes that is guaranteed to decode up to half of an asymptotically tight bound on their minimum distance. Further, long q-ary lifted affine-invariant codes are shown to correct almost all error patterns of relative weight $\frac{{q - 1}}{q} - \varepsilon $ for ε > 0.

Lifted Reed-Solomon codes and multiplicity codes are two classes of evaluation codes that allow for the design of high-rate codes that can recover every codeword or information symbol from many disjoint sets. Recently, the underlying approaches have been combined to construct lifted bi-variate multiplicity codes, that can further improve on the rate. We continue the study of these codes by providing lower bounds on the rate and distance for lifted multiplicity codes obtained from polynomials in an arbitrary number of variables. Specifically, we investigate a subcode of a lifted multiplicity code formed by the linear span of m-variate monomials whose restriction to an arbitrary line in Fqmis equivalent to a low-degree uni-variate polynomial. We find the tight asymptotic behavior of the fraction of such monomials when the number of variables m is fixed and the alphabet sizeq=2ℓis large. For some parameter regimes, lifted multiplicity codes are then shown to have a better tradeoff between redundancy and the number of disjoint recovering sets for every codeword or information symbol than previously known constructions.

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.

In this work, we first prove the capacity of coded, linear symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR) in the presence of colluding, adversarial, and nonresponsive servers, giving a positive closure to the conjecture stated by Tajeddine et al. It is also shown that, further restricting to strongly-linear PIR schemes with linear interference cancellation, the so-called star product scheme proposed by Freij-Hollanti et al. is optimal. This observation enables to prove the capacity of strongly-linear (non-symmetric) PIR schemes for any number of files. Further, it also provides a positive proof in this practical special case for the conjectures stated in the asymptotic regime by Freij-Hollanti et al. and Tajeddine et al.

In this work it is shown that locally repairable codes (LRCs) can be list-decoded efficiently beyond the Johnson radius for a large range of parameters by utilizing the local error-correction capabilities. The corresponding decoding radius is derived and the asymptotic behavior is analyzed. A general list-decoding algorithm for LRCs that achieves this radius is proposed along with an explicit realization for LRCs that are subcodes of Reed-Solomon codes (such as, e.g., Tamo-Barg LRCs). Further, a probabilistic algorithm of low complexity for unique decoding of LRCs is given and its success probability is analyzed. The second part of this work considers error decoding of LRCs and partial maximum distance separable (PMDS) codes through interleaved decoding. For a specific class of LRCs the success probability of interleaved decoding is investigated. For PMDS codes, it is shown that there is a wide range of parameters for which interleaved decoding can increase their decoding radius beyond the minimum distance such that the probability of successful decoding approaches 1 when the code length goes to infinity.

We show that locally repairable codes (LRCs) can be list decoded efficiently beyond the Johnson radius for a large range of parameters by utilizing the local error correction capabilities. The new decoding radius is derived and the asymptotic behavior is analyzed. We give a general list decoding algorithm for LRCs that achieves this radius along with an explicit realization for a class of LRCs based on Reed-Solomon codes (Tamo-Barg LRCs). Further, a probabilistic algorithm for unique decoding of low complexitv is given and its success probability analyzed.

Recently, information-theoretic private information retrieval (PIR) from coded storage systems has gained a lot of attention, and a general star product PIR scheme was proposed. In this paper, the star product scheme is adopted, with appropriate modifications, to the case of private (e.g., video) streaming. It is assumed that the files to be streamed are stored on n servers in a coded form, and the streaming is carried out via a convolutional code. The star product scheme is defined for this special case, and various properties are analyzed for two channel models related to straggling and Byzantine servers, both in the baseline case as well as with colluding servers. The achieved PIR rates for the given models are derived and, for the cases where the capacity is known, the first model is shown to be asymptotically optimal, when the number of stripes in a file is large. The second scheme introduced in this work is shown to be the equivalent of block convolutional codes in the PIR setting. For the Byzantine server model, it is shown to outperform the trivial scheme of downloading stripes of the desired file separately without memory.

The S-Box operation in the Advanced Encryption Standard has a long history of research in tailored and optimised hardware designs. While Canright's design based on tower-field decomposition has long been a benchmark design for low area, designs based on linear-feedback structures achieve lower area and power consumption at the price of additional clock cycles. We combine both approaches to get a design with ~80% lower switching power than Canright using 4% less gates. While our design needs 7 additional clock cycles, it runs at up to 4.8 times higher clock speeds. Our design adds an additional attractive choice along the line of power-speed-tradeoffs while keeping area minimal, offering designers more choices for implementing the AES S-Box.