Generalising Fisher's inequality to coverings and packings (Q681600)

\textit{R. A. Fisher} [Ann. Eugenics 10, 52--75 (1940; Zbl 0063.01383)] showed that the number of blocks is greater than or equal to the number of points in a nontrivial balanced incomplete block design (BIBD). Fisher's inequality further implies that for a given number of points and a given value of the \(\lambda\) parameter, there is an upper bound on the size of the blocks. When the block size is larger than this bound, there are no BIBDs, but one may still consider covering and packing designs. In this paper, bounds on the size of such coverings and packings are obtained by generalizing a proof of Fisher's inequality obtained by \textit{R. C. Bose} [Ann. Math. Stat. 20, 619--620 (1949; Zbl 0034.23102)]. Several general theorems are obtained and extensive tables of specific results for small parameters are provided.