Centralized Fusion Approach to the Estimation Problem with Multi-Packet Processing under Uncertainty in Outputs and Transmissions

This paper is concerned with the least-squares linear centralized estimation problem in multi-sensor network systems from measured outputs with uncertainties modeled by random parameter matrices. These measurements are transmitted to a central processor over different communication channels, and owing to the unreliability of the network, random one-step delays and packet dropouts are assumed to occur during the transmissions. In order to avoid network congestion, at each sampling time, each sensor’s data packet is transmitted just once, but due to the uncertainty of the transmissions, the processing center may receive either one packet, two packets, or nothing. Different white sequences of Bernoulli random variables are introduced to describe the observations used to update the estimators at each sampling time. To address the centralized estimation problem, augmented observation vectors are defined by accumulating the raw measurements from the different sensors, and when the current measurement of a sensor does not arrive on time, the corresponding component of the augmented measured output predictor is used as compensation in the estimator design. Through an innovation approach, centralized fusion estimators, including predictors, filters, and smoothers are obtained by recursive algorithms without requiring the signal evolution model. A numerical example is presented to show how uncertain systems with state-dependent multiplicative noise can be covered by the proposed model and how the estimation accuracy is influenced by both sensor uncertainties and transmission failures.This research is supported by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Agencia Estatal de Investigación and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional FEDER (grant no. MTM2017-84199-P)

Centralized filtering and smoothing algorithms from outputs with random parameter matrices transmitted through uncertain communication channels

The least-squares linear centralized estimation problem is addressed for discrete-time signals from measured outputs whose disturbances are modeled by random parameter matrices and correlated noises. These measurements, coming from different sensors, are sent to a processing center to obtain the estimators and, due to random transmission failures, some of the data packet processed for the estimation may either contain only noise (uncertain observations), be delayed (sensor delays) or even be definitely lost (packet dropouts). Different sequences of Bernoulli random variables with known probabilities are employed to describe the multiple random transmission uncertainties of the different sensors. Using the last observation that successfully arrived when a packet is lost, the optimal linear centralized fusion estimators, including filter, multi-step predictors and fixed-point smoothers, are obtained via an innovation approach; this approach is a general and useful tool to find easily implementable recursive algorithms for the optimal linear estimators under the least-squares optimality criterion. The proposed algorithms are obtained without requiring the evolution model of the signal process, but using only the first and second-order moments of the processes involved in the measurement model.This research is supported by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Agencia Estatal de Investigaciónand Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional FEDER (grant no. MTM2017-84199-P)

Two Compensation Strategies for Optimal Estimation in Sensor Networks with Random Matrices, Time-Correlated Noises, Deception Attacks and Packet Losses

Due to its great importance in several applied and theoretical fields, the signal estimation problem in multisensor systems has grown into a significant research area. Networked systems are known to suffer random flaws, which, if not appropriately addressed, can deteriorate the performance of the estimators substantially. Thus, the development of estimation algorithms accounting for these random phenomena has received a lot of research attention. In this paper, the centralized fusion linear estimation problem is discussed under the assumption that the sensor measurements are affected by random parameter matrices, perturbed by time-correlated additive noises, exposed to random deception attacks and subject to random packet dropouts during transmission. A covariance-based methodology and two compensation strategies based on measurement prediction are used to design recursive filtering and fixed-point smoothing algorithms. The measurement differencing method— typically used to deal with the measurement noise time-correlation—is unsuccessful for these kinds of systems with packet losses because some sensor measurements are randomly lost and, consequently, cannot be processed. Therefore, we adopt an alternative approach based on the direct estimation of the measurement noises and the innovation technique. The two proposed compensation scenarios are contrasted through a simulation example, in which the effect of the different uncertainties on the estimation accuracy is also evaluated.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Agencia Estatal de InvestigacionEuropean Commission PID2021-124486NB-I0

Centralized, distributed and sequential fusion estimation from uncertain outputs with correlation between sensor noises and signal

This paper focuses on the least-squares linear fusion filter design for discrete-time stochastic signals from multisensor measurements perturbed not only by additive noise, but also by different uncertainties that can be comprehensively modeled by random parameter matrices. The additive noises from the different sensors are assumed to be cross-correlated at the same time step and correlated with the signal at the same and subsequent time steps. A covariancebased approach is used to derive easily implementable recursive filtering algorithms under the centralized, distributed and sequential fusion architectures. Although centralized and sequential estimators both have the same accuracy, the evaluation of their computational complexity reveals that the sequential filter can provide a significant reduction of computational cost over the centralized one. The accuracy of the proposed fusion filters is explored by a simulation example, where observation matrices with random parameters are used to describe different kinds of sensor uncertainties.This research is supported by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Agencia Estatal de Investigación and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional FEDER [grant number MTM2017- 84199-P]

Markov Decision Processes with Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost, WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are to make optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process (MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs

Cooperative Wideband Spectrum Sensing Based on Joint Sparsity

COOPERATIVE WIDEBAND SPECTRUM SENSING BASED ON JOINT SPARSITY By Ghazaleh Jowkar, Master of Science A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University 2017 Major Director: Dr. Ruixin Niu, Associate Professor of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering In this thesis, the problem of wideband spectrum sensing in cognitive radio (CR) networks using sub-Nyquist sampling and sparse signal processing techniques is investigated. To mitigate multi-path fading, it is assumed that a group of spatially dispersed SUs collaborate for wideband spectrum sensing, to determine whether or not a channel is occupied by a primary user (PU). Due to the underutilization of the spectrum by the PUs, the spectrum matrix has only a small number of non-zero rows. In existing state-of-the-art approaches, the spectrum sensing problem was solved using the low-rank matrix completion technique involving matrix nuclear-norm minimization. Motivated by the fact that the spectrum matrix is not only low-rank, but also sparse, a spectrum sensing approach is proposed based on minimizing a mixed-norm of the spectrum matrix instead of low-rank matrix completion to promote the joint sparsity among the column vectors of the spectrum matrix. Simulation results are obtained, which demonstrate that the proposed mixed-norm minimization approach outperforms the low-rank matrix completion based approach, in terms of the PU detection performance. Further we used mixed-norm minimization model in multi time frame detection. Simulation results shows that increasing the number of time frames will increase the detection performance, however, by increasing the number of time frames after a number of times the performance decrease dramatically

Optimal Fusion Estimation with Multi-Step Random Delays and Losses in Transmission

This paper is concerned with the optimal fusion estimation problem in networked stochastic systems with bounded random delays and packet dropouts, which unavoidably occur during the data transmission in the network. The measured outputs from each sensor are perturbed by random parameter matrices and white additive noises, which are cross-correlated between the different sensors. Least-squares fusion linear estimators including filter, predictor and fixed-point smoother, as well as the corresponding estimation error covariance matrices are designed via the innovation analysis approach. The proposed recursive algorithms depend on the delay probabilities at each sampling time, but do not to need to know if a particular measurement is delayed or not. Moreover, the knowledge of the signal evolution model is not required, as the algorithms need only the first and second order moments of the processes involved. Some of the practical situations covered by the proposed system model with random parameter matrices are analyzed and the influence of the delays in the estimation accuracy are examined in a numerical example.This research is supported by the “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” and “Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional” FEDER (Grant No. MTM2014-52291-P)

Networked Fusion Filtering from Outputs with Stochastic Uncertainties and Correlated Random Transmission Delays

This paper is concerned with the distributed and centralized fusion filtering problems in sensor networked systems with random one-step delays in transmissions. The delays are described by Bernoulli variables correlated at consecutive sampling times, with different characteristics at each sensor. The measured outputs are subject to uncertainties modeled by random parameter matrices, thus providing a unified framework to describe a wide variety of network-induced phenomena; moreover, the additive noises are assumed to be one-step autocorrelated and cross-correlated. Under these conditions, without requiring the knowledge of the signal evolution model, but using only the first and second order moments of the processes involved in the observation model, recursive algorithms for the optimal linear distributed and centralized filters under the least-squares criterion are derived by an innovation approach. Firstly, local estimators based on the measurements received from each sensor are obtained and, after that, the distributed fusion filter is generated as the least-squares matrix-weighted linear combination of the local estimators. Also, a recursive algorithm for the optimal linear centralized filter is proposed. In order to compare the estimators performance, recursive formulas for the error covariance matrices are derived in all the algorithms. The effects of the delays in the filters accuracy are analyzed in a numerical example which also illustrates how some usual network-induced uncertainties can be dealt with using the current observation model described by random matrices

Gossip Algorithms for Distributed Signal Processing

Gossip algorithms are attractive for in-network processing in sensor networks because they do not require any specialized routing, there is no bottleneck or single point of failure, and they are robust to unreliable wireless network conditions. Recently, there has been a surge of activity in the computer science, control, signal processing, and information theory communities, developing faster and more robust gossip algorithms and deriving theoretical performance guarantees. This article presents an overview of recent work in the area. We describe convergence rate results, which are related to the number of transmitted messages and thus the amount of energy consumed in the network for gossiping. We discuss issues related to gossiping over wireless links, including the effects of quantization and noise, and we illustrate the use of gossip algorithms for canonical signal processing tasks including distributed estimation, source localization, and compression.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of the IEEE, 29 page

Linear Estimation in Interconnected Sensor Systems with Information Constraints

A ubiquitous challenge in many technical applications is to estimate an unknown state by means of data that stems from several, often heterogeneous sensor sources. In this book, information is interpreted stochastically, and techniques for the distributed processing of data are derived that minimize the error of estimates about the unknown state. Methods for the reconstruction of dependencies are proposed and novel approaches for the distributed processing of noisy data are developed