On (Partial) Unit Memory Codes Based on Gabidulin Codes

Abstract

(Partial) Unit Memory ((P)UM) codes provide a powerful possibility to construct convolutional codes based on block codes in order to achieve a high decoding performance. In this contribution, a construction based on Gabidulin codes is considered. This construction requires a modified rank metric, the so-called sum rank metric. For the sum rank metric, the free rank distance, the extended row rank distance and its slope are defined analogous to the extended row distance in Hamming metric. Upper bounds for the free rank distance and the slope of (P)UM codes in the sum rank metric are derived and an explicit construction of (P)UM codes based on Gabidulin codes is given, achieving the upper bound for the free rank distance.