Two topics on linear unequal error protection codes: Bounds on their length and cyclic code classes

It is possible for a linear block code to provide more protection for selected positions in the input message words than is guaranteed by the minimum distance of the code. Linear codes having this property are called linear unequal error protection (LUEP) codes. Bounds on the length of a LUEP code that ensures a given unequal error protection are derived. A majority decoding method for certain classes of cyclic binary UEP codes is treated. A list of short (i.e., of length less than 16) binary LUEP codes of optimal (i.e., minimal) length and a list of all cyclic binary UEP codes of length less than 40 are included.