Fundamentals of Error-Correcting Codes

Professor W. Cary Huffman graduated with a PhD in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1974. He taught at Dartmouth College and Union College until he joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Loyola in 1978, serving as chair of the department from 1986 through 1992. He is an author of approximately 40 research papers in finite group theory, combinatorics, and coding theory that have appeared in journals such as the Journal of Algebra, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and the Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Professor Vera Pless was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and received her PhD from Northwestern in 1957. After ten years at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory, she spent a few years at M.I.T.'s project MAC. She joined the University of Illinois-Chicago's department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science as a full professor in 1975 and has been there ever since. She is a University of Illinois Scholar and has published over 100 papers.

Review of the hardback: 'Numerous exercises and examples and an accessible writing style make this a lucid and effective introduction to coding theory for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and engineers - whether approaching the subject from a mathematical, engineering or computer science background.' IASI Polytechnic Magazine

• Preface; 1. Basic concepts of linear codes; 2. Bounds on size of codes; 3. Finite fields; 4. Cyclic codes; 5. BCH and Reed-Soloman codes; 6. Duadic codes; 7. Weight distributions; 8. Designs; 9. Self-dual codes; 10. Some favourite self-dual codes; 11. Covering radius and cosets; 12. Codes over Z4; 13. Codes from algebraic geometry; 14. Convolutional codes; 15. Soft decision and iterative decoding; Bibliography; Index.