Binary Multiple-Node-Erasure-Correcting Codes over Complete Graphs: Constructions, q-Ary Metric Balls, and Duality

Abstract

We study linear codes whose coordinates are the ordinary edges and self-loops of complete undirected graphs; a node erasure removes all coordinates incident with a failed vertex. The construction results are binary. For triple-node erasures, we extend the published cyclic construction by allowing a suitable cyclic check slope to depend on the prime graph length. An explicit determinant test proves that one of three fixed slope choices works at infinitely many prime lengths, unconditionally, and gives redundancy $3n-2$, one bit above the graph Singleton bound. We also give Singleton-optimal triple-node codes at $n=6,8,10,12$, together with a general ordinary-edge framework that isolates the remaining loop-completion problem. When $2$ is primitive modulo an odd prime $n$, a binary multi-slope construction corrects every $ρ$-node erasure for $2\leqρ<n$, with redundancy $ρn-(ρ-1)$ in the range $2\leqρ\leq(n+1)/2$. Returning to arbitrary prime powers, we derive exact generating transforms and inclusion--exclusion formulas for node-metric ball volumes, fixed-radius asymptotics, and packing, existence, and covering bounds. Finally, for the complementary clique-erasure metric, we obtain an exact weight enumerator and a Singleton-optimal node--clique duality.