Block Length Gain for Nanopore Channels

Abstract: DNA is an attractive candidate for data storage. Its millennial durability and nanometer scale offer exceptional data density and longevity. Its relevance to medical applications also drives advances in DNA-related biotechnology. To protect our data against errors, a straightforward approach uses one error-correcting code per DNA strand, with a Reed--Solomon code protecting the collection of strands. A downside is that current technology can only synthesize strands 200--300 nucleotides long. At this block length, the inner code rate suffers a significant finite-length penalty, making its effective capacity hard to characterize. Last year, we proposed $\textit{Geno-Weaving}$ in a JSAIT publication. The idea is to protect the same position across multiple strands using one code; this provably achieves capacity against substitution errors. In this paper, we extend the idea to combat deletion errors and show two more advantages of Geno-Weaving: (1) Because the number of strands is 3--4 orders of magnitude larger than the strand length, the finite-length penalty vanishes. (2) At realistic deletion rates $0.1\%$--$10\%$, Geno-Weaving designed for BSCs works well empirically, bypassing the need to tailor the design for deletion channels.