This paper shows that nonperfect secret sharing schemes (NSS) have matroid structures and presents a direct link between the secret sharing matroids and entropy for both perfect and nonperfect schemes. W e define natural classes of NSS and derive a lower bound of Iv,l for those ClaSSeS. "Ideal" nonperfect schemes are defined based on this lower bound. We prove that every such ideal secret sharing scheme has a matroid structure. The rank function of the matroid is given by the entropy divided by some constant. It satisfies a simple equation which represents the access level of each subset of participants.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.