Making it to First: The Random Access Problem in DNA Storage

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Boruchovsky, Avital, Elishco, Ohad, Gabrys, Ryan, Gruica, Anina, Tamo, Itzhak, Yaakobi, Eitan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912550486016000
author Boruchovsky, Avital
Elishco, Ohad
Gabrys, Ryan
Gruica, Anina
Tamo, Itzhak
Yaakobi, Eitan
author_facet Boruchovsky, Avital
Elishco, Ohad
Gabrys, Ryan
Gruica, Anina
Tamo, Itzhak
Yaakobi, Eitan
contents In this paper, we study the Random Access Problem in DNA storage, which addresses the challenge of retrieving a specific information strand from a DNA-based storage system. In this framework, the data is represented by $k$ information strands which represent the data and are encoded into $n$ strands using a linear code. Then, each sequencing read returns one encoded strand which is chosen uniformly at random. The goal under this paradigm is to design codes that minimize the expected number of reads required to recover an arbitrary information strand. We fully solve the case when $k=2$, showing that the best possible code attains a random access expectation of $1+\frac{2}{\sqrt{2}+1}\approx 0.914\cdot 2$ for $q$ large enough. Moreover, we generalize a construction from~\cite{GMZ24}, specifically to $k=3$, for any value of $k$. Our construction uses $B_{k-1}$ sequences over $\mathbb{Z}_{q-1}$, that always exist over large finite fields. We show that for every $k\geq 4$, this generalized construction outperforms all previous constructions in terms of reducing the random access expectation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_12274
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Making it to First: The Random Access Problem in DNA Storage
Boruchovsky, Avital
Elishco, Ohad
Gabrys, Ryan
Gruica, Anina
Tamo, Itzhak
Yaakobi, Eitan
Information Theory
In this paper, we study the Random Access Problem in DNA storage, which addresses the challenge of retrieving a specific information strand from a DNA-based storage system. In this framework, the data is represented by $k$ information strands which represent the data and are encoded into $n$ strands using a linear code. Then, each sequencing read returns one encoded strand which is chosen uniformly at random. The goal under this paradigm is to design codes that minimize the expected number of reads required to recover an arbitrary information strand. We fully solve the case when $k=2$, showing that the best possible code attains a random access expectation of $1+\frac{2}{\sqrt{2}+1}\approx 0.914\cdot 2$ for $q$ large enough. Moreover, we generalize a construction from~\cite{GMZ24}, specifically to $k=3$, for any value of $k$. Our construction uses $B_{k-1}$ sequences over $\mathbb{Z}_{q-1}$, that always exist over large finite fields. We show that for every $k\geq 4$, this generalized construction outperforms all previous constructions in terms of reducing the random access expectation.
title Making it to First: The Random Access Problem in DNA Storage
topic Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12274