Algebraic structure of quasicyclic codes (Q5939242)

Gröbner bases of modules are used in the construction and classification of quasicyclic codes. The structure of arbitrary quasicyclic codes and their duals is considered. As an application, the complete characterisation of self-dual quasicyclic codes of index 2 is given. The approach is based on the construction of a canonical generating set for a quasicyclic code regarded as a submodule of the algebra \(R^l\) where \(R=F_q[x]/\langle x^m -1\rangle \). The use of Gröbner bases leads to concise arguments and has the potential for generalisation to codes over other domains. The goal in this paper is to elucidate structure, so minimum distance, decoding algorithms, and the existence of good codes are not addressed. Nevertheless, the methods presented can be used to construct quasicyclic codes of index \(l\) and length \(lm\) for all dimensions permissible by the degrees of the irreducible factors of \(x^m-1\).