The weighted coordinates bound and trellis complexity of block codes and periodic packings

Weighted entropy profiles and a new bound, the weighted coordinates bound, on the state complexity profile of block codes are presented. These profiles and bound generalize the notion of dimension/length profile (DLP) and entropy/length profile (ELF) to block codes whose symbols are not drawn from a common alphabet set, and in particular, group codes. Likewise, the new bound may improve upon the DLP and ELF bounds fur linear and nonlinear block codes over fields. However, it seems that the major contribution of the proposed bound is to the study of trellis complexity of block codes whose different coordinates are drawn from different alphabet sets. The label code of lattice and nonlattice periodic packings usually has this property. The construction of a trellis diagram for a lattice and some related bounds are generalized to periodic packings by introducing the fundamental module of the packing, and using the new bound on the state complexity profile. This generalization is limited to a given coordinate system. We show that any bounds on the trellis structure of block codes, and in particular, the bound presented in this work, are applicable to periodic packings.