Classical approaches for asymptotic convergence to the global average in a
distributed fashion typically assume timely and reliable exchange of
information between neighboring components of a given multi-component system.
These assumptions are not necessarily valid in practical settings due to
varying delays that might affect transmissions at different times, as well as
possible changes in the underlying interconnection topology (e.g., due to
component mobility). In this work, we propose protocols to overcome these
limitations. We first consider a fixed interconnection topology (captured by a
- possibly directed - graph) and propose a discrete-time protocol that can
reach asymptotic average consensus in a distributed fashion, despite the
presence of arbitrary (but bounded) delays in the communication links. The
protocol requires that each component has knowledge of the number of its
outgoing links (i.e., the number of components to which it sends information).
We subsequently extend the protocol to also handle changes in the underlying
interconnection topology and describe a variety of rather loose conditions
under which the modified protocol allows the components to reach asymptotic
average consensus. The proposed algorithms are illustrated via examples.Comment: 37 page
