Latency-Reliability Tradeoffs for State Estimation

TL;DR

This paper explores the tradeoffs between latency and reliability in communication channels for dynamical system estimation, proposing a co-design methodology to optimize performance based on system dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a new abstraction of latency-reliability-rate tradeoffs and develops a co-design approach for code length selection in control systems.

Findings

Latency-reliability tradeoff curves are characterized for control channels.

A co-design methodology optimizes code length based on system dynamics.

Practical coding schemes inform the latency-reliability models.

Abstract

The emerging interest in low-latency high-reliability applications, such as connected vehicles, necessitates a new abstraction between communication and control. Thanks to advances in cyber-physical systems over the past decades, we understand this interface for classical bit-rate models of channels as well as packet-loss-type channels. This work proposes a new abstraction characterized as a tradeoff curve between latency, reliability and rate. Our aim is to understand: Do we (control engineers) prefer faster but less reliable communications (with shorter codes), or slower but more reliable communications (with longer codes)? In this paper we examine the tradeoffs between latency and reliability for the problem of estimating dynamical systems over communication channels. Employing different latency-reliability curves derived from practical coding schemes, we develop a co-design methodology, i.e., select the code length depending on the system dynamics to optimize system performance.