Rank Modulated Composite Encoding for Data Storage in DNA
2026-05-31 • Information Theory
Information Theory
AI summaryⓘ
The authors study two problems related to a new way of storing information using DNA, where each symbol is a mix of the four DNA bases rather than just one. They focus on reading the order or ranking of these mixed symbols instead of their exact makeup. The first problem looks at how much information can be sent through this system, while the second problem explores ways to build and limit the codes used for this method.
DNA composite symbolsrank modulationDNA synthesischannel capacitycoding theorymotif rankingDNA storagecomposite DNA coding
Authors
Tomer Cohen, Zhiying Wang, Eitan Yaakobi, Zohar Yakhini
Abstract
This paper studies two problems that are motivated by combining two novel approaches, namely DNA composite and rank modulation. The recent approach of composite DNA takes advantage of the DNA synthesis property which generates a huge number of copies for every synthesized strand. Under this paradigm, every composite symbols does not store a single nucleotide but a mixture of the four DNA nucleotides. Instead of considering all the possible composite symbols we are interested only in the rank of the motifs in the symbol. The first problem in this paper addresses the capacity of a channel that uses such symbols, while in the second, bounds and construction of such codes are studied.