Permutation decoding of Z2Z4-linear codes

Abstract

An alternative permutation decoding method is described which can be used for any binary systematic encoding scheme, regardless whether the code is linear or not. Thus, the method can be applied to some important codes such as Z2Z4-linear codes, which are binary and, in general, nonlinear codes in the usual sense. For this, it is proved that these codes allow a systematic encoding scheme. As a particular example, this permutation decoding method is applied to some Hadamard Z2Z4-linear codes.