Asymptotically Optimal Regenerating Codes Over Any Field

Abstract

The study of regenerating codes has advanced tremendously in recent years. However, most known constructions require large field size and, hence, may be hard to implement in practice. By restructuring a code construction by Rashmi et al. , we obtain two explicit families regenerating codes. These codes approach the cut-set bound as the reconstruction degree increases and may be realized over any given finite field if the file size is large enough. Essentially, these codes constitute a constructive proof that the cut-set bound does not imply a field size restriction, unlike some known bounds for ordinary linear codes. The first construction attains the cut-set bound at the MBR point asymptotically for all parameters, whereas the second one attains the cut-set bound at the MSR point asymptotically for low-rate parameters. Even though these codes require a large file size, this restriction is trivially satisfied in most conceivable distributed storage scenarios, that are the prominent motivation for regenerating codes.