Bounds on codes based on graph theory

Let A(q)(n,d) be the maximum order (maximum number of codewords) of a q-ary code of length n and Hamming distance at least d. And let A(n, d, w) that of a binary code of constant weight w. Building on results from algebraic graph theory and Erdos-ko-Rado like theorems in extremal combinatorics, we show how several known bounds on A(q)(n, d) and A (n, d, w) can be easily obtained in a single framework. For instance, both the Hamming and Singleton bounds can derived as an application of a property relating the clique number and the independence number of vertex transitive graphs. Using the same techniques, we also derive some new bounds and present some additional applications.