A complete classification of partial MDS (Maximally recoverable) codes with one global parity

Abstract

We generalize the definition of partial MDS codes to locality blocks of various length and show that these codes are maximally recoverable. Then we focus on partial MDS codes with exactly one global parity. We derive a general construction for such codes by describing a suitable parity check matrix. Then we give a construction of generator matrices of such codes. Afterwards we show that all partial MDS codes with one global parity have a generator matrix (or parity check matrix) of this form. This gives a complete classification and hence also a sufficient and necessary condition on the underlying field size for the existence of such codes. This condition is related to the classical MDS conjecture. Moreover, we investigate the decoding of such codes and give some comments on partial MDS codes with more than one global parity.