Small Parity-Check Erasure Codes - Exploration and Observations

James S. Plank, Adam L. Buchsbaum, Rebecca L. Collins and Michael G. Thomason.

Technical Report CS-04-537, University of Tennessee Department of Computer Science, November, 2004.

This paper was published in DSN-2005: The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks. See http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~jplank/plank/papers/DSN-2005-PBCT.html for complete citation information and for the PDF of that paper.

Please see UT CS Technical Report 535 for an enumeration of the codes explored in this paper.

Available via anonymous ftp to cs.utk.edu in pub/plank/papers/CS-04-537.pdf

Abstract

Erasure codes have profound uses in wide- and medium-area storage applications. While infinite-size codes have been developed with optimal properties, there remains a need to develop small codes with optimal properties. In this paper, we provide a framework for exploring very small codes, and we use this framework to derive optimal and near-optimal ones for discrete numbers of data bits and coding bits. These codes have heretofore been unknown and unpublished, and should be useful in practice. We also use our exploration to make observations about upper bounds for these codes, in order to gain a better understanding of them and to lead the way for future derivations of larger, optimal and near-optimal codes.

PDF of the paper.

Citation Information

Plain Text:

.techreport     pbct:04:sp
author          J. S. Plank and A. L. Buchsbaum and R. L. Collins and 
                M. G. Thomason
title           Small Parity-Check Erasure Codes - Exploration and Observations
number          UT-CS-04-537
institution     Department of Computer Science, University of Tennessee
month           November
year            2004
where           http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~jplank/plank/papers/CS-04-537.html

Bibtex:

@TECHREPORT{pbct:04:sp,
        author = "J. S. Plank and A. L. Buchsbaum and R. L. Collins and 
                M. G. Thomason",
        title = "Small Parity-Check Erasure Codes - Exploration and Observations",
        number = "UT-CS-04-537",
        institution = "Department of Computer Science, University of Tennessee",
        month = "November",
        year = "2004",
        where = "http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~jplank/plank/papers/CS-04-537.html"
}