arXiv subjects

Thomas Westerbäck

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Westerbäck.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Methods for Path Set Attribute Calculation in Network Systems

In graph theory and its applications to networking, such as telecommunications or transportation, path-finding is a central problem. While single-path algorithms are well established, methods for handling sets of multiple paths are less developed. A companion paper introduced a formal model for defining attributes over sets of paths based on their structural properties; this paper addresses that model's practical implementation. We present an optimized algorithm for computing cut sets of a path set, a nontrivial task that can be infeasible without efficient methods, and validate its performance via systematic benchmarks on network simulations of varying complexity. Additionally, we introduce a vectorized computational framework that expresses property calculations as matrix operations, enabling concise implementations in array-oriented languages. Together, these contributions establish practical foundations for the companion model, demonstrating that its implementation is both feasible and characterized by predictable, acceptable execution times.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2026

Constructing Koszul filtrations: existence and non-existence for G-quadratic algebras

Given a standard graded algebra over a field, we consider the relationship between G-quadraticity and the existence of a Koszul filtration. We show that having a quadratic Gröbner basis implies the existence of a Koszul filtration for algebras defined by generic determinantal ideals and for algebras defined by binomial edge ideals. We also resolve a conjecture of Ene, Herzog, and Hibi by constructing an example where this implication fails. These results are underpinned by algorithms we develop for constructing Koszul filtrations.

math.AC↗

arXiv2025

A Formal Model for Path Set Attribute Calculation in Network Systems

In graph theory and its practical networking applications, e.g., telecommunications and transportation, the problem of finding paths has particular importance. Selecting paths requires giving scores to the alternative solutions to drive a choice. While previous studies have provided comprehensive evaluation of single-path solutions, the same level of detail is lacking when considering sets of paths. This paper emphasizes that the path characterization strongly depends on the properties under consideration. While property-based characterization is also valid for single paths, it becomes crucial to analyse multiple path sets. From the above consideration, this paper proposes a mathematical approach, defining a functional model that lends itself well to characterizing the path set in its general formulation. The paper shows how the functional model contextualizes specific attributes.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2019

Cyclic Flats of Binary Matroids

In this paper, first steps are taken towards characterising lattices of cyclic flats $\mathcal{Z}(M)$ that belong to matroids $M$ that can be represented over a prescribed finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. Two natural maps from $\mathcal{Z}(M)$ to the lattice of cyclic flats of a minor of $M$ are given. Binary matroids are characterised via their lattice of cyclic flats. It is shown that the lattice of cyclic flats of a simple binary matroid without isthmuses is atomic.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

Uniform Minors in Maximally Recoverable Codes

In this letter, locally recoverable codes with maximal recoverability are studied with a focus on identifying the MDS codes resulting from puncturing and shortening. By using matroid theory and the relation between MDS codes and uniform minors, the list of all the possible uniform minors is derived. This list is used to improve the known non-asymptotic lower bound on the required field size of a maximally recoverable code.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2019

Alphabet-Dependent Bounds for Linear Locally Repairable Codes Based on Residual Codes

Locally repairable codes (LRCs) have gained significant interest for the design of large distributed storage systems as they allow a small number of erased nodes to be recovered by accessing only a few others. Several works have thus been carried out to understand the optimal rate-distance tradeoff, but only recently the size of the alphabet has been taken into account. In this paper, a novel definition of locality is proposed to keep track of the precise number of nodes required for a local repair when the repair sets do not yield MDS codes. Then, a new alphabet-dependent bound is derived, which applies both to the new definition and the initial definition of locality. The new bound is based on consecutive residual codes and intrinsically uses the Griesmer bound. A special case of the bound yields both the extension of the Cadambe-Mazumdar bound and the Singleton-type bound for codes with locality $(r, δ)$, implying that the new bound is at least as good as these bounds. Furthermore, an upper bound on the asymptotic rate-distance tradeoff of LRCs is derived, and yields the tightest known upper bound for large relative minimum distances. Achievability results are also provided by deriving the locality of the family of Simplex codes together with a few examples of optimal codes.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2018

Bounds on Binary Locally Repairable Codes Tolerating Multiple Erasures

Recently, locally repairable codes has gained significant interest for their potential applications in distributed storage systems. However, most constructions in existence are over fields with size that grows with the number of servers, which makes the systems computationally expensive and difficult to maintain. Here, we study linear locally repairable codes over the binary field, tolerating multiple local erasures. We derive bounds on the minimum distance on such codes, and give examples of LRCs achieving these bounds. Our main technical tools come from matroid theory, and as a byproduct of our proofs, we show that the lattice of cyclic flats of a simple binary matroid is atomic.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2018

On Binary Matroid Minors and Applications to Data Storage over Small Fields

Locally repairable codes for distributed storage systems have gained a lot of interest recently, and various constructions can be found in the literature. However, most of the constructions result in either large field sizes and hence too high computational complexity for practical implementation, or in low rates translating into waste of the available storage space. In this paper we address this issue by developing theory towards code existence and design over a given field. This is done via exploiting recently established connections between linear locally repairable codes and matroids, and using matroid-theoretic characterisations of linearity over small fields. In particular, nonexistence can be shown by finding certain forbidden uniform minors within the lattice of cyclic flats. It is shown that the lattice of cyclic flats of binary matroids have additional structure that significantly restricts the possible locality properties of $\mathbb{F}_{2}$-linear storage codes. Moreover, a collection of criteria for detecting uniform minors from the lattice of cyclic flats of a given matroid is given, which is interesting in its own right.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2017

Matroid Theory and Storage Codes: Bounds and Constructions

Recent research on distributed storage systems (DSSs) has revealed interesting connections between matroid theory and locally repairable codes (LRCs). The goal of this chapter is to introduce the reader to matroids and polymatroids, and illustrate their relation to distribute storage systems. While many of the results are rather technical in nature, effort is made to increase accessibility via simple examples. The chapter embeds all the essential features of LRCs, namely locality, availability, and hierarchy alongside with related generalised Singleton bounds.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Bounds on the Maximal Minimum Distance of Linear Locally Repairable Codes

Locally repairable codes (LRCs) are error correcting codes used in distributed data storage. Besides a global level, they enable errors to be corrected locally, reducing the need for communication between storage nodes. There is a close connection between almost affine LRCs and matroid theory which can be utilized to construct good LRCs and derive bounds on their performance. A generalized Singleton bound for linear LRCs with parameters $(n,k,d,r,δ)$ was given in [N. Prakash et al., "Optimal Linear Codes with a Local-Error-Correction Property", IEEE Int. Symp. Inf. Theory]. In this paper, a LRC achieving this bound is called perfect. Results on the existence and nonexistence of linear perfect $(n,k,d,r,δ)$-LRCs were given in [W. Song et al., "Optimal locally repairable codes", IEEE J. Sel. Areas Comm.]. Using matroid theory, these existence and nonexistence results were later strengthened in [T. Westerbäck et al., "On the Combinatorics of Locally Repairable Codes", Arxiv: 1501.00153], which also provided a general lower bound on the maximal achievable minimum distance $d_{\rm{max}}(n,k,r,δ)$ that a linear LRC with parameters $(n,k,r,δ)$ can have. This article expands the class of parameters $(n,k,d,r,δ)$ for which there exist perfect linear LRCs and improves the lower bound for $d_{\rm{max}}(n,k,r,δ)$. Further, this bound is proved to be optimal for the class of matroids that is used to derive the existence bounds of linear LRCs.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Parity check systems of nonlinear codes over finite commutative Frobenius rings

The concept of parity check matrices of linear binary codes has been extended by Heden [9] to parity check systems of nonlinear binary codes. In the present paper we extend this concept to parity check systems of nonlinear codes over finite commutative Frobenius rings. Using parity check systems, results on how to get some fundamental properties of the codes are given. Moreover, parity check systems and its connection to characters is investigated and a MacWilliams type theorem on the distance distribution is given.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

A Connection Between Locally Repairable Codes and Exact Regenerating Codes

Typically, locally repairable codes (LRCs) and regenerating codes have been studied independently of each other, and it has not been clear how the parameters of one relate to those of the other. In this paper, a novel connection between locally repairable codes and exact regenerating codes is established. Via this connection, locally repairable codes are interpreted as exact regenerating codes. Further, some of these codes are shown to perform better than time-sharing codes between minimum bandwidth regenerating and minimum storage regenerating codes.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2016

Fast Möbius inversion in semimodular lattices and U-labelable posets

We consider the problem of fast zeta and Möbius transforms in finite posets, particularly in lattices. It has previously been shown that for a certain family of lattices, zeta and Möbius transforms can be computed in $O(e)$ elementary arithmetic operations, where $e$ denotes the size of the covering relation. We show that this family is exactly that of geometric lattices. We also extend the algorithms so that they work in $e$ operations for all semimodular lattices, including chains and divisor lattices. Finally, for both transforms, we provide a more general algorithm that works in $e$ operations for all R-labelable posets and their non-graded generalization, which we call U-labelable.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

On the Combinatorics of Locally Repairable Codes via Matroid Theory

This paper provides a link between matroid theory and locally repairable codes (LRCs) that are either linear or more generally almost affine. Using this link, new results on both LRCs and matroid theory are derived. The parameters $(n,k,d,r,δ)$ of LRCs are generalized to matroids, and the matroid analogue of the generalized Singleton bound in [P. Gopalan et al., "On the locality of codeword symbols," IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory] for linear LRCs is given for matroids. It is shown that the given bound is not tight for certain classes of parameters, implying a nonexistence result for the corresponding locally repairable almost affine codes, that are coined perfect in this paper. Constructions of classes of matroids with a large span of the parameters $(n,k,d,r,δ)$ and the corresponding local repair sets are given. Using these matroid constructions, new LRCs are constructed with prescribed parameters. The existence results on linear LRCs and the nonexistence results on almost affine LRCs given in this paper strengthen the nonexistence and existence results on perfect linear LRCs given in [W. Song et al., "Optimal locally repairable codes," IEEE J. Sel. Areas Comm.].

cs.IT↗

arXiv2015

Applications of Polymatroid Theory to Distributed Storage Systems

In this paper, a link between polymatroid theory and locally repairable codes (LRCs) is established. The codes considered here are completely general in that they are subsets of $A^n$, where $A$ is an arbitrary finite set. Three classes of LRCs are considered, both with and without availability, and for both information-symbol and all-symbol locality. The parameters and classes of LRCs are generalized to polymatroids, and a general- ized Singelton bound on the parameters for these three classes of polymatroids and LRCs is given. This result generalizes the earlier Singleton-type bounds given for LRCs. Codes achieving these bounds are coined perfect, as opposed to the more common term optimal used earlier, since they might not always exist. Finally, new constructions of perfect linear LRCs are derived from gammoids, which are a special class of matroids. Matroids, for their part, form a subclass of polymatroids and have proven useful in analyzing and constructing linear LRCs.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2015

Constructions and Properties of Linear Locally Repairable Codes

In this paper, locally repairable codes with all-symbol locality are studied. Methods to modify already existing codes are presented. Also, it is shown that with high probability, a random matrix with a few extra columns guaranteeing the locality property, is a generator matrix for a locally repairable code with a good minimum distance. The proof of this also gives a constructive method to find locally repairable codes. Constructions are given of three infinite classes of optimal vector-linear locally repairable codes over an alphabet of small size, not depending on the size of the code.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2014

Linear Locally Repairable Codes with Random Matrices

In this paper, locally repairable codes with all-symbol locality are studied. Methods to modify already existing codes are presented. Also, it is shown that with high probability, a random matrix with a few extra columns guaranteeing the locality property, is a generator matrix for a locally repairable code with a good minimum distance. The proof of this gives also a constructive method to find locally repairable codes.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2014

Constructions of Optimal and Almost Optimal Locally Repairable Codes

Constructions of optimal locally repairable codes (LRCs) in the case of $(r+1) \nmid n$ and over small finite fields were stated as open problems for LRCs in [I. Tamo \emph{et al.}, "Optimal locally repairable codes and connections to matroid theory", \emph{2013 IEEE ISIT}]. In this paper, these problems are studied by constructing almost optimal linear LRCs, which are proven to be optimal for certain parameters, including cases for which $(r+1) \nmid n$. More precisely, linear codes for given length, dimension, and all-symbol locality are constructed with almost optimal minimum distance. `Almost optimal' refers to the fact that their minimum distance differs by at most one from the optimal value given by a known bound for LRCs. In addition to these linear LRCs, optimal LRCs which do not require a large field are constructed for certain classes of parameters.

cs.IT↗