INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR MECHANICAL SCIENCES COURSES AND LECTURES - No. 8 ELWYN R. BERLEKAMP BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES MURRAY HILL, NEW JERSEY A SURVEY OF ALGEBRAIC CODING THEORY LECTURES HELD AT THE DEPARTMENT FOR AUTOMATION AND INFORMATION JULY 1970 UDINE 1970This work is aubject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concemed specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machine or similar means, and storage in data banks, © 1972 by CISM, Udine Printed in Italy ISBN 3-211-81088.9 Springer-Verlag Wien—New York ISBN 0.387-81088.9 Springer-Verlag New York—WienPreface This paper is a survey of ooding theory vitten for mathematicians and statisttietans who have some familiarity with modern algebra, finite ftelds, and posstbly some acquaintance with block designs. No knowledge of stochastic processes, information theory, or communication theory ts requtred. Most of this paper ts base on my lee- tures gtven to the Department of Automation and Infor- matton of the International Center for Mechanical Setences in Udine during early duly, 1970. Some of the eture matertal, which dealt with a revtew of the baste properties of finite fields, ts not included in thts paper. Instead the paper includes a small amount of additional material dealing wtth extensions of the results covered in the lectures. A number of text-books and survey pa- pers dealing with coding theory have already been published, and one might reasonably ask why I have written yet another at thie time. While it ts true tha this survey ts a bit more up to date than its prede- eessors, tt ts also true that something upwards of 75 per cent of the matertal in this survey can be found in a more complete, more general, or more rtgorous form in my 1968 book, Aigebraie Coding Theory There are two major reasons for my writing thts survey: 1) Po reach a new audience, which eannot reasonably be expected to learn about coding