Upper and Lower Bounds on the Minimum Distance of Expander Codes

The minimum distance of expander codes over GF(q) is studied. A new upper bound on the minimum distance of expander codes is derived. The bound is shown to lie under the Varshamov-Gilbert (VG) bound while q >= 32. Lower bounds on the minimum distance of some families of expander codes are obtained. A lower bound on the minimum distance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with a Reed--Solomon constituent code over GF(q) is obtained. The bound is shown to be very close to the VG bound and to lie above the upper bound for expander codes.