Binary cyclic codes from explicit polynomials over GF(2m)

Cyclic codes are a subclass of linear codes and have applications in consumer electronics, data storage systems, and communication systems as they have very efficient encoding and decoding algorithms. In this paper, monomials and trinomials over finite fields with even characteristic are employed to construct a number of families of binary cyclic codes. Lower bounds on the minimum weight of some families of the cyclic codes are developed. The minimum weights of other families of the codes constructed in this paper are determined. The dimensions of the codes are flexible. Some of the codes presented in this paper are optimal or almost optimal in the sense that they meet some bounds on linear codes. Open problems regarding binary cyclic codes from monomials and trinomials are also presented.