Gilbert–Varshamov bound

In coding theory, the Gilbert–Varshamov bound (due to Edgar Gilbert and independently Rom Varshamov) is a bound on the size of a (not necessarily linear) code. It is occasionally known as the Gilbert–Shannon–Varshamov bound (or the GSV bound), but the name "Gilbert–Varshamov bound" is by far the most popular. Varshamov proved this bound by using the probabilistic method for linear codes. For more about that proof, see Gilbert–Varshamov bound for linear codes.