On the number of $q$-ary quasi-perfect codes with covering radius 2

Abstract: In this paper we present a family of $q$-ary nonlinear quasi-perfect codes with covering radius 2. The codes have length $n = q^m$ and size $ M = q^{n - m - 1}$ where $q$ is a prime power, $q \geq 3$, $m$ is an integer, $m \geq 2$. We prove that there are more than $q^{q^{cn}}$ nonequivalent such codes of length $n$, for all sufficiently large $n$ and a constant $c = \frac{1}{q} - \varepsilon$.