An investigation of SUDOKU-inspired non-linear codes with local constraints

Codes with local permutation constraints are described. Belief propagation decoding is shown to require the computation of permanents, and trellis-based methods for computing the permanents are introduced. New insights into the asymptotic performance of such codes are presented. A universal encoder for codes with local constraints is introduced, and simulation results for two code structures, SUDOKU and semi-pandiagonal Latin squares, are presented.