Mathematical problems for complex networks

Copyright @ 2012 Zidong Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Complex networks do exist in our lives. The brain is a neural network. The global economy is a network of national economies. Computer viruses routinely spread through the Internet. Food-webs, ecosystems, and metabolic pathways can be represented by networks. Energy is distributed through transportation networks in living organisms, man-made infrastructures, and other physical systems. Dynamic behaviors of complex networks, such as stability, periodic oscillation, bifurcation, or even chaos, are ubiquitous in the real world and often reconfigurable. Networks have been studied in the context of dynamical systems in a range of disciplines. However, until recently there has been relatively little work that treats dynamics as a function of network structure, where the states of both the nodes and the edges can change, and the topology of the network itself often evolves in time. Some major problems have not been fully investigated, such as the behavior of stability, synchronization and chaos control for complex networks, as well as their applications in, for example, communication and bioinformatics

Global synchronization for discrete-time stochastic complex networks with randomly occurred nonlinearities and mixed time delays

Copyright [2010] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.In this paper, the problem of stochastic synchronization analysis is investigated for a new array of coupled discrete-time stochastic complex networks with randomly occurred nonlinearities (RONs) and time delays. The discrete-time complex networks under consideration are subject to: (1) stochastic nonlinearities that occur according to the Bernoulli distributed white noise sequences; (2) stochastic disturbances that enter the coupling term, the delayed coupling term as well as the overall network; and (3) time delays that include both the discrete and distributed ones. Note that the newly introduced RONs and the multiple stochastic disturbances can better reflect the dynamical behaviors of coupled complex networks whose information transmission process is affected by a noisy environment (e.g., Internet-based control systems). By constructing a novel Lyapunov-like matrix functional, the idea of delay fractioning is applied to deal with the addressed synchronization analysis problem. By employing a combination of the linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques, the free-weighting matrix method and stochastic analysis theories, several delay-dependent sufficient conditions are obtained which ensure the asymptotic synchronization in the mean square sense for the discrete-time stochastic complex networks with time delays. The criteria derived are characterized in terms of LMIs whose solution can be solved by utilizing the standard numerical software. A simulation example is presented to show the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed results

Robust synchronization of a class of coupled delayed networks with multiple stochastic disturbances: The continuous-time case

In this paper, the robust synchronization problem is investigated for a new class of continuous-time complex networks that involve parameter uncertainties, time-varying delays, constant and delayed couplings, as well as multiple stochastic disturbances. The norm-bounded uncertainties exist in all the network parameters after decoupling, and the stochastic disturbances are assumed to be Brownian motions that act on the constant coupling term, the delayed coupling term as well as the overall network dynamics. Such multiple stochastic disturbances could reflect more realistic dynamical behaviors of the coupled complex network presented within a noisy environment. By using a combination of the Lyapunov functional method, the robust analysis tool, the stochastic analysis techniques and the properties of Kronecker product, we derive several delay-dependent sufficient conditions that ensure the coupled complex network to be globally robustly synchronized in the mean square for all admissible parameter uncertainties. The criteria obtained in this paper are in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) whose solution can be easily calculated by using the standard numerical software. The main results are shown to be general enough to cover many existing ones reported in the literature. Simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed results

Recent advances on filtering and control for nonlinear stochastic complex systems with incomplete information: A survey

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2012 Hindawi PublishingSome recent advances on the filtering and control problems for nonlinear stochastic complex systems with incomplete information are surveyed. The incomplete information under consideration mainly includes missing measurements, randomly varying sensor delays, signal quantization, sensor saturations, and signal sampling. With such incomplete information, the developments on various filtering and control issues are reviewed in great detail. In particular, the addressed nonlinear stochastic complex systems are so comprehensive that they include conventional nonlinear stochastic systems, different kinds of complex networks, and a large class of sensor networks. The corresponding filtering and control technologies for such nonlinear stochastic complex systems are then discussed. Subsequently, some latest results on the filtering and control problems for the complex systems with incomplete information are given. Finally, conclusions are drawn and several possible future research directions are pointed out.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant nos. 61134009, 61104125, 61028008, 61174136, 60974030, and 61074129, the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province of China, the Project sponsored by SRF for ROCS of SEM of China, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC of the UK under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

Synchronization and state estimation for discrete-time complex networks with distributed delays

Copyright [2008] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.In this paper, a synchronization problem is investigated for an array of coupled complex discrete-time networks with the simultaneous presence of both the discrete and distributed time delays. The complex networks addressed which include neural and social networks as special cases are quite general. Rather than the commonly used Lipschitz-type function, a more general sector-like nonlinear function is employed to describe the nonlinearities existing in the network. The distributed infinite time delays in the discrete-time domain are first defined. By utilizing a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and the Kronecker product, it is shown that the addressed discrete-time complex network with distributed delays is synchronized if certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are feasible. The state estimation problem is then studied for the same complex network, where the purpose is to design a state estimator to estimate the network states through available output measurements such that, for all admissible discrete and distributed delays, the dynamics of the estimation error is guaranteed to be globally asymptotically stable. Again, an LMI approach is developed for the state estimation problem. Two simulation examples are provided to show the usefulness of the proposed global synchronization and state estimation conditions. It is worth pointing out that our main results are valid even if the nominal subsystems within the network are unstable

State estimation for coupled uncertain stochastic networks with missing measurements and time-varying delays: The discrete-time case

Copyright [2009] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.This paper is concerned with the problem of state estimation for a class of discrete-time coupled uncertain stochastic complex networks with missing measurements and time-varying delay. The parameter uncertainties are assumed to be norm-bounded and enter into both the network state and the network output. The stochastic Brownian motions affect not only the coupling term of the network but also the overall network dynamics. The nonlinear terms that satisfy the usual Lipschitz conditions exist in both the state and measurement equations. Through available output measurements described by a binary switching sequence that obeys a conditional probability distribution, we aim to design a state estimator to estimate the network states such that, for all admissible parameter uncertainties and time-varying delays, the dynamics of the estimation error is guaranteed to be globally exponentially stable in the mean square. By employing the Lyapunov functional method combined with the stochastic analysis approach, several delay-dependent criteria are established that ensure the existence of the desired estimator gains, and then the explicit expression of such estimator gains is characterized in terms of the solution to certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Two numerical examples are exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed estimator design schemes

Time-and event-driven communication process for networked control systems: A survey

Copyright © 2014 Lei Zou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In recent years, theoretical and practical research topics on networked control systems (NCSs) have gained an increasing interest from many researchers in a variety of disciplines owing to the extensive applications of NCSs in practice. In particular, an urgent need has arisen to understand the effects of communication processes on system performances. Sampling and protocol are two fundamental aspects of a communication process which have attracted a great deal of research attention. Most research focus has been on the analysis and control of dynamical behaviors under certain sampling procedures and communication protocols. In this paper, we aim to survey some recent advances on the analysis and synthesis issues of NCSs with different sampling procedures (time-and event-driven sampling) and protocols (static and dynamic protocols). First, these sampling procedures and protocols are introduced in detail according to their engineering backgrounds as well as dynamic natures. Then, the developments of the stabilization, control, and filtering problems are systematically reviewed and discussed in great detail. Finally, we conclude the paper by outlining future research challenges for analysis and synthesis problems of NCSs with different communication processes.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61329301, 61374127, and 61374010, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

Robust passivity and passification of stochastic fuzzy time-delay systems

The official published version can be obtained from the link below.In this paper, the passivity and passification problems are investigated for a class of uncertain stochastic fuzzy systems with time-varying delays. The fuzzy system is based on the Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) model that is often used to represent the complex nonlinear systems in terms of fuzzy sets and fuzzy reasoning. To reflect more realistic dynamical behaviors of the system, both the parameter uncertainties and the stochastic disturbances are considered, where the parameter uncertainties enter into all the system matrices and the stochastic disturbances are given in the form of a Brownian motion. We first propose the definition of robust passivity in the sense of expectation. Then, by utilizing the Lyapunov functional method, the Itô differential rule and the matrix analysis techniques, we establish several sufficient criteria such that, for all admissible parameter uncertainties and stochastic disturbances, the closed-loop stochastic fuzzy time-delay system is robustly passive in the sense of expectation. The derived criteria, which are either delay-independent or delay-dependent, are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) that can be easily checked by using the standard numerical software. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed results.This work was supported by the Teaching and Research Fund for Excellent Young Teachers at Southeast University of China, the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education for New Teachers 200802861044, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 60804028 and the Royal Society of the United Kingdom