We show that Gallager's ensemble of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes achieves list-decoding capacity with high probability. These are the first graph-based codes shown to have this property. This result opens up a potential avenue toward truly linear-time list-decodable codes that achieve list-decoding capacity. Our result on list-decoding follows from a much more general result: any local property satisfied with high probability by a random linear code is also satisfied with high probability by a random LDPC code from Gallager's distribution. Local properties are properties characterized by the exclusion of small sets of codewords and include list-decodability, list-recoverability, and average-radius list-decodability. In order to prove our results on LDPC codes, we establish sharp thresholds for when local properties are satisfied by a random linear code. More precisely, we show that for any local property $\mathcal{P}$, there is some $R^*$ so that random linear codes of rate slightly less than $R^*$ satisfy $\mathcal{P}$ with high probability, while random linear codes of rate slightly more than $R^*$, with high probability, do not. We also give a characterization of the threshold rate $R^*$.

Most of the data in large-scale storage clusters is erasure coded. At exascale, optimizing erasure codes for low storage overhead, efficient reconstruction, and easy deployment is of critical importance. Locally recoverable codes (LRCs) have deservedly gained central importance in this field, because they can balance many of these requirements. In our work, we study wide LRCs; LRCs with large number of blocks per stripe and low storage overhead. These codes are a natural next step for practitioners to unlock higher storage savings, but they come with their own challenges. Of particular interest is their reliability , since wider stripes are prone to more simultaneous failures. We conduct a practically minded analysis of several popular and novel LRCs. We find that wide LRC reliability is a subtle phenomenon that is sensitive to several design choices, some of which are overlooked by theoreticians, and others by practitioners. Based on these insights, we construct novel LRCs called Uniform Cauchy LRCs , which show excellent performance in simulations and a 33% improvement in reliability on unavailability events observed by a wide LRC deployed in a Google storage cluster. We also show that these codes are easy to deploy in a manner that improves their robustness to common maintenance events. Along the way, we also give a remarkably simple and novel construction of distance-optimal LRCs (other constructions are also known), which may be of interest to theory-minded readers.

A family of error-correcting codes is list-decodable from error fraction$p$if, for every code in the family, the number of codewords in any Hamming ball of fractional radius$p$is less than some integer$L$. It is said to be list-recoverable for input list size$\ell $if for every sufficiently large subset of at least$L$codewords, there is a coordinate where the codewords take more than$\ell $values. In this work, we study the list size ofrandom linear codesfor both list-decoding and list-recovery as the rate approaches capacity. We show the following claims hold with high probability over the choice of the code (below$q$is the alphabet size, and$ \varepsilon > 0$is the gap to capacity). (1) A random linear code of rate$1 - \log _{q}(\ell) - \varepsilon $requires list size$L \ge \ell ^{\Omega (1/ \varepsilon)}$for list-recovery from input list size$\ell $. (2) A random linear code of rate$1 - h_{q}(p) - \varepsilon $requires list size$L \ge \left \lfloor{ {h_{q}(p)/ \varepsilon +0.99}}\right \rfloor $for list-decoding from error fraction$p$. (3) A randombinarylinear code of rate$1 - h_{2}(p) - \varepsilon $is list-decodable fromaverageerror fraction$p$with list size with$L \leq \left \lfloor{ {h_{2}(p)/ \varepsilon }}\right \rfloor + 2$. Our lower bounds follow by exhibiting an explicit subset of codewords so that this subset—or some symbol-wise permutation of it—lies in a random linear code with high probability. Our upper bound follows by strengthening a result of (Li, Wootters, 2018).

Suppose that$\mathcal {P}$is a property that may be satisfied by a random code$C \subset \Sigma ^{n}$. For example, for some$p \in (0,1)$,$\mathcal {P}$might be the property that there exist three elements of$C$that lie in some Hamming ball of radius$pn$. We say that$R^{\ast}$is thethreshold ratefor$\mathcal {P}$if a random code of rate$R^{\ast} + \varepsilon $is very likely to satisfy$\mathcal {P}$, while a random code of rate$R^{\ast} - \varepsilon $is very unlikely to satisfy$\mathcal {P}$. While random codes are well-studied in coding theory, even the threshold rates for relatively simple properties like the one above are not well understood. We characterize threshold rates for a rich class of properties. These properties, like the example above, are defined by the inclusion of specific sets of codewords which are also suitably “symmetric.” For properties in this class, we show that the threshold rate is in factequalto the lower bound that a simple first-moment calculation obtains. Our techniques not only pin down the threshold rate for the property$\mathcal {P}$above, they give sharp bounds on the threshold rate for list-recovery in several parameter regimes, as well as an efficient algorithm for estimating the threshold rates forlist-recoveryin general.

Suppose that 𝒫 is a property that may be satisfied by a random code C ⊂ Σⁿ. For example, for some p ∈ (0,1), 𝒫 might be the property that there exist three elements of C that lie in some Hamming ball of radius pn. We say that R^* is the threshold rate for 𝒫 if a random code of rate R^* + ε is very likely to satisfy 𝒫, while a random code of rate R^* - ε is very unlikely to satisfy 𝒫. While random codes are well-studied in coding theory, even the threshold rates for relatively simple properties like the one above are not well understood. We characterize threshold rates for a rich class of properties. These properties, like the example above, are defined by the inclusion of specific sets of codewords which are also suitably "symmetric." For properties in this class, we show that the threshold rate is in fact equal to the lower bound that a simple first-moment calculation obtains. Our techniques not only pin down the threshold rate for the property 𝒫 above, they give sharp bounds on the threshold rate for list-recovery in several parameter regimes, as well as an efficient algorithm for estimating the threshold rates for list-recovery in general.

We continue the study of rateless codes for transmission of information across channels whose rate of erasure is unknown. In such a code, an infinite stream of encoding symbols can be generated from the message and sent across the erasure channel, and the decoder can decode the message after it has successfully collected a certain number of encoding symbols. A rateless erasure code is real-time oblivious if rather than collecting encoding symbols as they are received, the receiver either immediately decodes or discards each symbol it receives. Efficient real-time oblivious erasure correction uses a feedback channel in order to maximize the probability that a received encoding symbol is decoded rather than discarded. We construct codes which are real-time oblivious, but require fewer feedback messages and have faster decoding compared to previous work in [1]. Specifically, for a message of length$k^{\prime}$, we improve the expected complexity of the feedback channel from$O(\sqrt{k^{\prime}})$to$O(1)$, and the expected decoding complexity from$O(k^{\prime}\log(k^{\prime}))$to$O(k^{\prime})$. Our method involves using an appropriate block erasure code to first encode the$k^{\prime}$message symbols, and then using a truncated version of the real-time oblivious erasure correction of [1] to transmit the encoded message to the receiver, which then uses the decoding algorithm for the outer code to recover the message.

We continue the study of list recovery properties of high-rate tensor codes, initiated by Hemenway, Ron-Zewi, and Wootters (FOCS'17). In that work it was shown that the tensor product of an efficient (poly-time) high-rate globally list recoverable code is approximately locally list recoverable, as well as globally list recoverable in probabilistic near-linear time. This was used in turn to give the first capacity-achieving list decodable codes with (1) local list decoding algorithms, and with (2) probabilistic near-linear time global list decoding algorithms. This also yielded constant-rate codes approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound with probabilistic near-linear time global unique decoding algorithms. In the current work we obtain the following results: 1) The tensor product of an efficient (poly-time) high-rate globally list recoverable code is globally list recoverable in deterministic near-linear time. This yields in turn the first capacity-achieving list decodable codes with deterministic near-linear time global list decoding algorithms. It also gives constant-rate codes approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound with deterministic near-linear time global unique decoding algorithms. 2) If the base code is additionally locally correctable, then the tensor product is (genuinely) locally list recoverable. This yields in turn (non-explicit) constant-rate codes approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound that are locally correctable with query complexity and running time No(1). This improves over prior work by Gopi et. al. (SODA'17; IEEE Transactions on Information Theory'18) that only gave query complexity NE with rate that is exponentially small in 1/ε. 3) A nearly-tight combinatori allower bound on output list size for list recovering high-rate tensor codes. This bound implies in turn a nearly-tight lower bound of NΩ(1/loglogN)on the product of query complexity and output list size for locally list recovering high-rate tensor codes.

We show that Gallager's ensemble of Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes achieves list-decoding capacity with high probability. These are the first graph-based codes shown to have this property. This result opens up a potential avenue towards truly linear-time list-decodable codes that achieve list-decoding capacity. Our result on list decoding follows from a much more general result: any local property satisfied with high probability by a random linear code is also satisfied with high probability by a random LDPC code from Gallager's distribution. Local properties are properties characterized by the exclusion of small sets of codewords, and include list-decoding, list-recovery and average-radius list-decoding. In order to prove our results on LDPC codes, we establish sharp thresholds for when local properties are satisfied by a random linear code. More precisely, we show that for any local property P, there is some R* so that random linear codes of rate slightly less than R* satisfy P with high probability, while random linear codes of rate slightly more than R* with high probability do not. We also give a characterization of the threshold rate R*. This is an extended abstract. The full version is available at https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.06430

We continue the study of list recovery properties of high-rate tensor codes, initiated by Hemenway, Ron-Zewi, and Wootters (FOCS'17). In that work it was shown that the tensor product of an efficient (poly-time) high-rate globally list recoverable code is approximately locally list recoverable, as well as globally list recoverable in probabilistic near-linear time. This was used in turn to give the first capacity-achieving list decodable codes with (1) local list decoding algorithms, and with (2) probabilistic near-linear time global list decoding algorithms. This also yielded constant-rate codes approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound with probabilistic near-linear time global unique decoding algorithms. In the current work we obtain the following results: 1) The tensor product of an efficient (poly-time) high-rate globally list recoverable code is globally list recoverable in deterministic near-linear time. This yields in turn the first capacity-achieving list decodable codes with deterministic near-linear time global list decoding algorithms. It also gives constant-rate codes approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound with deterministic near-linear time global unique decoding algorithms. 2) If the base code is additionally locally correctable, then the tensor product is (genuinely) locally list recoverable. This yields in turn (non-explicit) constant-rate codes approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound that are locally correctable with query complexity and running time N^{o(1)}. This improves over prior work by Gopi et. al. (SODA'17; IEEE Transactions on Information Theory'18) that only gave query complexity N^{epsilon} with rate that is exponentially small in 1/epsilon. 3) A nearly-tight combinatorial lower bound on output list size for list recovering high-rate tensor codes. This bound implies in turn a nearly-tight lower bound of N^{Omega(1/log log N)} on the product of query complexity and output list size for locally list recovering high-rate tensor codes.

We introduce load-balanced fractional repetition (LBFR) codes, which are a strengthening of fractional repetition (FR) codes. LBFR codes have the additional property that multiple node failures can be sequentially repaired by downloading no more than one block from any other node. This allows for better use of the network, and can additionally reduce the number of disk reads necessary to repair multiple nodes. We characterize LBFR codes in terms of their adjacency graphs, and use this characterization to present explicit constructions of LBFR codes with storage capacity comparable to existing FR codes. Surprisingly, in some parameter regimes, our constructions of LBFR codes match the parameters of the best constructions of FR codes.