On the maximum size of variable-length non-overlapping codes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Geyang, Wang, Qi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Wang, Geyang
Wang, Qi
author_facet Wang, Geyang
Wang, Qi
contents Non-overlapping codes are a set of codewords such that the prefix of each codeword is not a suffix of any codeword in the set, including itself. If the lengths of the codewords are variable, it is additionally required that every codeword is not contained in any other codeword as a subword. Let $C(n,q)$ be the maximum size of $q$-ary fixed-length non-overlapping codes of length $n$. The upper bound on $C(n,q)$ has been well studied. However, the nontrivial upper bound on the maximum size of variable-length non-overlapping codes of length at most $n$ remains open. In this paper, by establishing a link between variable-length non-overlapping codes and fixed-length ones, we are able to show that the size of a $q$-ary variable-length non-overlapping code is upper bounded by $C(n,q)$. Furthermore, we prove that the average length of the codewords in a $q$-ary variable-length non-overlapping codes is lower bounded by $\lceil \log_q \tilde{C} \rceil$, and is asymptotically no shorter than $n-2$ as $q$ approaches $\infty$, where $\tilde{C}$ denotes the cardinality of $q$-ary variable-length non-overlapping codes of length up to $n$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_18896
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the maximum size of variable-length non-overlapping codes
Wang, Geyang
Wang, Qi
Information Theory
Combinatorics
94A45, 94B25
Non-overlapping codes are a set of codewords such that the prefix of each codeword is not a suffix of any codeword in the set, including itself. If the lengths of the codewords are variable, it is additionally required that every codeword is not contained in any other codeword as a subword. Let $C(n,q)$ be the maximum size of $q$-ary fixed-length non-overlapping codes of length $n$. The upper bound on $C(n,q)$ has been well studied. However, the nontrivial upper bound on the maximum size of variable-length non-overlapping codes of length at most $n$ remains open. In this paper, by establishing a link between variable-length non-overlapping codes and fixed-length ones, we are able to show that the size of a $q$-ary variable-length non-overlapping code is upper bounded by $C(n,q)$. Furthermore, we prove that the average length of the codewords in a $q$-ary variable-length non-overlapping codes is lower bounded by $\lceil \log_q \tilde{C} \rceil$, and is asymptotically no shorter than $n-2$ as $q$ approaches $\infty$, where $\tilde{C}$ denotes the cardinality of $q$-ary variable-length non-overlapping codes of length up to $n$.
title On the maximum size of variable-length non-overlapping codes
topic Information Theory
Combinatorics
94A45, 94B25
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18896