A Study of the Separating Property in Reed-Solomon Codes by Bounding the Minimum Distance

Abstract: According to their strength, the tracing properties of a code can be categorized as frameproof, separating, IPP and TA. It is known that if the minimum distance of the code is larger than a certain threshold then the TA property implies the rest. Silverberg et al. ask if there is some kind of tracing capability left when the minimum distance falls below the threshold. Under different assumptions, several papers have given a negative answer to the question. In this paper further progress is made. We establish values of the minimum distance for which Reed-Solomon codes do not posses the separating property.