On Lattice Constructions D and D' from q-ary Linear Codes

Abstract: Multilevel lattice codes, such as those associated to Constructions $C$, $\overline{D}$, D and D', have relevant applications in communications. In this paper, we investigate some properties of lattices obtained via Constructions D and D' from $q$-ary linear codes. Connections with Construction A, generator matrices, expressions and bounds for the lattice volume and minimum distances are derived. Extensions of previous results regarding construction and decoding of binary and $p$-ary linear codes ($p$ prime) are also presented.