Non-Bayesian Quickest Detection with Stochastic Sample Right Constraints

TL;DR

This paper develops an optimal detection scheme for energy-harvesting sensors monitoring environmental changes, balancing detection delay and energy constraints, and introduces a low-complexity, asymptotically optimal approach.

Contribution

It proposes a simple energy allocation and detection scheme that is proven to be optimal or asymptotically optimal under different ARL constraints.

Findings

The scheme is optimal under algorithm level ARL constraint.

The scheme is asymptotically optimal under system level ARL constraint.

The method effectively balances energy use and detection delay.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the design and analysis of optimal detection scheme for sensors that are deployed to monitor the change in the environment and are powered by the energy harvested from the environment. In this type of applications, detection delay is of paramount importance. We model this problem as quickest change detection problem with a stochastic energy constraint. In particular, a wireless sensor powered by renewable energy takes observations from a random sequence, whose distribution will change at a certain unknown time. Such a change implies events of interest. The energy in the sensor is consumed by taking observations and is replenished randomly. The sensor cannot take observations if there is no energy left in the battery. Our goal is to design a power allocation scheme and a detection strategy to minimize the worst case detection delay, which is the difference between the time when an alarm is raised and the time when the change occurs. Two types of average run length (ARL) constraint, namely an algorithm level ARL constraint and an system level ARL constraint, are considered. We propose a low complexity scheme in which the energy allocation rule is to spend energy to take observations as long as the battery is not empty and the detection scheme is the Cumulative Sum test. We show that this scheme is optimal for the formulation with the algorithm level ARL constraint and is asymptotically optimal for the formulations with the system level ARL constraint.