1 Introduction

Abstract

In the everyday situation where one party wishes to communicate a message to another distant party, more often than not, the intervening communication channel is “noisy” and distorts the message during transmission. The problem of reliable communication of information over such a noisy channel is a fundamental and challenging one. Error-correcting codes (or simply, codes) are objects designed to cope with this problem. They are now ubiquitous and found in all walks of life, ranging from basic home and office appliances like compact disc players and computer hard disk drives to deep space communication.