Covering Sets for Limited-Magnitude Errors

For a set M = {-μ, -μ + 1, ... , λ} {0} with nonnegative integers λ, μ <; q not both 0, a subset S of the residue class ring Z_q modulo an integer q > 1 is called a (λ, μ; q)-covering set if MS = {ms mod q : m ∈ M, s ∈ S} = Z_q. Small covering sets play an important role in codes correcting limited-magnitude errors. We give an explicit construction of a (λ, μ; q)-covering set S, which is of the size q^1+o(1) max{λ, μ}^-1/2 for almost all integers q ≥ 1 and optimal order of magnitude (that is up to a multiplicative constant) p max{λ, μ}^-1 if q = p is prime. Furthermore, using a bound on the fourth moment of character sums of Cochrane and Shi that there is a (λ, μ; q)-covering set of size at most q^1+o(1) max{λ, μ}^-1/2 for any integer q ≥ 1, however the proof of this bound is not constructive.