Tensor Reed-Muller Codes: Achieving Capacity with Quasilinear Decoding Time

TL;DR

This paper introduces Tensor Reed-Muller codes that achieve capacity with quasilinear decoding time, providing explicit constructions with low error probability for any constant rate below capacity.

Contribution

It presents the first constructions of Tensor Reed-Muller codes that are decodable in quasilinear time at rates approaching capacity, with novel decoding algorithms for tensor codes.

Findings

Decodable in quasilinear time for constant rate below capacity

Two constructions with different error probabilities and decoding complexities

A polynomial-time decoding algorithm for tensor codes from adversarial errors

Abstract

Define the codewords of the Tensor Reed-Muller code $\mathsf{TRM}(r_1,m_1;r_2,m_2;\dots;r_t,m_t)$ to be the evaluation vectors of all multivariate polynomials in the variables $\left\{x_{ij}\right\}_{i=1,\dots,t}^{j=1,\dots m_i}$ with degree at most $r_i$ in the variables $x_{i1},x_{i2},\dots,x_{im_i}$. The generator matrix of $\mathsf{TRM}(r_1,m_1;\dots;r_t,m_t)$ is thus the tensor product of the generator matrices of the Reed-Muller codes $\mathsf{RM}(r_1,m_1),\dots, \mathsf{RM}(r_t,m_t)$. We show that for any constant rate $R$ below capacity, one can construct a Tensor Reed-Muller code $\mathsf{TRM}(r_1,m_1;\dotsc;r_t,m_t)$ of rate $R$ that is decodable in quasilinear time. For any blocklength $n$, we provide two constructions of such codes: 1) Our first construction (with $t=3$) has error probability $n^{-\omega(\log n)}$ and decoding time $O(n\log\log n)$. 2) Our second construction, for any $t\geq 4$, has error probability $2^{-n^{\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{2(t-2)}-o(1)}}$ and decoding time $O(n\log n)$. One of our main tools is a polynomial-time algorithm for decoding an arbitrary tensor code $C=C_1\otimes\dotsc\otimes C_t$ from $\frac{d_{\min}(C)}{2\max\{d_{\min}(C_1),\dotsc,d_{\min}(C_t) \}}-1$ adversarial errors. Crucially, this algorithm does not require the codes $C_1,\dotsc,C_t$ to themselves be decodable in polynomial time.