A Generalized Covering Algorithm for Chained Codes

The covering radius is a fundamental property of linear codes that characterizes the trade-off between storage and access in linear data-query protocols. The generalized covering radius was recently defined by Elimelech and Schwartz for applications in joint-recovery of linear data-queries. In this work we extend a known bound on the ordinary covering radius to the generalized one for all codes satisfying the chain condition—a known condition which is satisfied by most known families of codes. Given a generator matrix of a special form, we also provide an algorithm which finds codewords which cover the input vector(s) within the distance specified by the bound. For the case of Reed-Muller codes we provide efficient construction of such generator matrices, therefore providing a faster alternative to a previous generalized covering algorithm for Reed-Muller codes.