On the generalized Hamming weights of convolutional codes

Motivated by applications in cryptology, Wei (1991) introduced the concept of a generalized Hamming weight for a linear block code. In this correspondence, we define generalized Hamming weights for the class of convolutional codes and we derive several of their basic properties. By restricting to convolutional codes having a generator matrix G(D) with bounded Kronecker indices we are able to derive upper and lower bounds on the weight hierarchy.