105,808 research outputs found
Sensor Networks with Random Links: Topology Design for Distributed Consensus
In a sensor network, in practice, the communication among sensors is subject
to:(1) errors or failures at random times; (3) costs; and(2) constraints since
sensors and networks operate under scarce resources, such as power, data rate,
or communication. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is usually a main factor in
determining the probability of error (or of communication failure) in a link.
These probabilities are then a proxy for the SNR under which the links operate.
The paper studies the problem of designing the topology, i.e., assigning the
probabilities of reliable communication among sensors (or of link failures) to
maximize the rate of convergence of average consensus, when the link
communication costs are taken into account, and there is an overall
communication budget constraint. To consider this problem, we address a number
of preliminary issues: (1) model the network as a random topology; (2)
establish necessary and sufficient conditions for mean square sense (mss) and
almost sure (a.s.) convergence of average consensus when network links fail;
and, in particular, (3) show that a necessary and sufficient condition for both
mss and a.s. convergence is for the algebraic connectivity of the mean graph
describing the network topology to be strictly positive. With these results, we
formulate topology design, subject to random link failures and to a
communication cost constraint, as a constrained convex optimization problem to
which we apply semidefinite programming techniques. We show by an extensive
numerical study that the optimal design improves significantly the convergence
speed of the consensus algorithm and can achieve the asymptotic performance of
a non-random network at a fraction of the communication cost.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transaction
Distributed Detection and Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks
In this article we consider the problems of distributed detection and
estimation in wireless sensor networks. In the first part, we provide a general
framework aimed to show how an efficient design of a sensor network requires a
joint organization of in-network processing and communication. Then, we recall
the basic features of consensus algorithm, which is a basic tool to reach
globally optimal decisions through a distributed approach. The main part of the
paper starts addressing the distributed estimation problem. We show first an
entirely decentralized approach, where observations and estimations are
performed without the intervention of a fusion center. Then, we consider the
case where the estimation is performed at a fusion center, showing how to
allocate quantization bits and transmit powers in the links between the nodes
and the fusion center, in order to accommodate the requirement on the maximum
estimation variance, under a constraint on the global transmit power. We extend
the approach to the detection problem. Also in this case, we consider the
distributed approach, where every node can achieve a globally optimal decision,
and the case where the decision is taken at a central node. In the latter case,
we show how to allocate coding bits and transmit power in order to maximize the
detection probability, under constraints on the false alarm rate and the global
transmit power. Then, we generalize consensus algorithms illustrating a
distributed procedure that converges to the projection of the observation
vector onto a signal subspace. We then address the issue of energy consumption
in sensor networks, thus showing how to optimize the network topology in order
to minimize the energy necessary to achieve a global consensus. Finally, we
address the problem of matching the topology of the network to the graph
describing the statistical dependencies among the observed variables.Comment: 92 pages, 24 figures. To appear in E-Reference Signal Processing, R.
Chellapa and S. Theodoridis, Eds., Elsevier, 201
- …