Quasi-optimum distance flag codes

A flag is a sequence of nested subspaces of a given ambient space F_q^n over a finite field F_q. In network coding, a flag code is a set of flags, all of them with the same sequence of dimensions, the type vector. In this paper, we investigate quasi-optimum distance flag codes, i.e., those attaining the second best possible distance value. We characterize them and present upper bounds for their cardinality. Moreover, we propose a systematic construction for every choice of the type vector by using partial spreads and sunflowers. For flag codes with lower minimum distance, we adapt the previous construction and provide some results towards their characterization, especially in the case of the third best possible distance value.