Optimal possibly nonlinear 3-PIR codes of small size

Abstract

First, we state a generalization of the minimum-distance bound for PIR codes. Then we describe a construction for linear PIR codes using packing designs and use it to construct some new 5-PIR codes. Finally, we show that no encoder (linear or nonlinear) for the binary $r$-th order Hamming code produces a 3-PIR code except when $r=2$. We use these results to determine the smallest length of a binary (possibly nonlinear) 3-PIR code of combinatorial dimension up to~6. A binary 3-PIR code of length 11 and size $2^7$ is necessarily nonlinear, and we pose the existence of such a code as an open problem.