Constrained de Bruijn Codes and their Applications

Abstract

A sequence s = (s1,⋯,sn) is called a (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn sequence if all substrings of length h starting within b consecutive positions are distinct. A set of (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn sequences is called a (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn code. A (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn sequence was constructed and used as a component of a code correcting multiple limited-shift-errors in racetrack memories. In this work, we show that a (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn code can correct deletions and sticky-insertions and also can determine the locations of these errors in an ℓ-symbol read channel. We also show that it is possible to use sequences from a (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn code to construct a code correcting shift-errors in racetrack memories. As a consequence, we improve the rates on previous known codes.It is shown in this work that a (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn code is a constrained code avoiding a set of specific patterns. Finally, we present some techniques to compute the maximum asymptotic rate and find some efficient encoding/decoding algorithms for (b, h)-constrained de Bruijn codes.