Weight Enumerator and the Covering Radius of Codes

Fuad M. Shareef

Learning Development & Continuing Education
Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End, E1 4NS
E-mail: f.shareef@qmul.ac.uk

Abstract: The covering radius of a code is a fundamental parameter that is closely related to the quality of the code. Determining the exact value of the covering radius of a binary linear code is a NP-complete problem. The question arises as to whether extra information on the code parameters can help in determining its covering radius. In this paper we are concerned with this question and in particular with the potential relationship between the covering radius of a code and its weight enumerator. This is motivated by the observation that knowledge of the weight enumerator sheds a light on the way codewords are distributed. We shall give an upper bound on the covering radius of arbitrary linear codes in terms of their parameters and show that inequivalent codes with the same weight enumerator do not necessarily have equal covering radius.

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