Linear Block Codes

Abstract

As usual, in this chapter we consider that p denotes a prime number, q is a prime power and ${\mathbb F}_{q}$ is the finite field with q elements. We begin by defining the general concept of a code over ${\mathbb F}_{q}$; after this, we present the concept of a linear code that is the more important class of codes in coding and information theory due to its vector space structure. In this subsection, the vectors are written in bold.