Abstract
In this paper we study spread codes: a family of constant-dimension codes for random linear network coding. In other words, the codewords are full-rank matrices of size k×n with entries in a finite field Fq. Spread codes are a family of optimal codes with maximal minimum distance. We give a minimum-distance decoding algorithm which requires O((n−k)k3) operations over an extension field Fqk. Our algorithm is more efficient than the previous ones in the literature, when the dimension k of the codewords is small with respect to n. The decoding algorithm takes advantage of the algebraic structure of the code, and it uses original results on minors of a matrix and on the factorization of polynomials over finite fields.
Gorla, E