Lee distance
In coding theory, the Lee distance is a distance between two strings and of equal length n over the q-ary alphabet of size q ≥ 2.
It is a metric, defined as
Considering the alphabet as the additive group Zq, the Lee distance between two single letters and is the length of shortest path in the Cayley graph between them.
If or the Lee distance coincides with the Hamming distance, because both distances are 0 for two single equal symbols and 1 for two single non-equal symbols. For this is not the case anymore, the Lee distance can become bigger than 1.
The metric space induced by the Lee distance is a discrete analog of the elliptic space.Example
If q = 6, then the Lee distance between 3140 and 2543 is 1 + 2 + 0 + 3 = 6.The Lee distance is named after C. Y. Lee. It is applied for phase modulation while the Hamming distance is used in case of orthogonal modulation.
The Berlekamp code is an example of code in the Lee metric. Other significant examples are the Preparata code and Kerdock code; these codes are non-linear when considered over a field, but are linear over a ring.
Also, there exists a Gray isometry between with the Lee weight and with the Hamming weight.
