Stability Conditions for Remote State Estimation of Multiple Systems over Semi-Markov Fading Channels

TL;DR

This paper establishes stability conditions for remote state estimation of multiple systems over semi-Markov fading channels, highlighting how channel dynamics influence system stability and the potential advantages of fast fading.

Contribution

It introduces a general semi-Markov model for channel states and derives necessary and sufficient stability conditions for multi-system remote estimation.

Findings

Fast fading channels can be more stable than slow fading channels.

Stability conditions depend on channel holding periods and state transition dynamics.

The model applies to both fast and slow fading scenarios.

Abstract

This work studies remote state estimation of multiple linear time-invariant systems over shared wireless time-varying communication channels. We model the channel states by a semi-Markov process which captures both the random holding period of each channel state and the state transitions. The model is sufficiently general to be used in both fast and slow fading scenarios. We derive necessary and sufficient stability conditions of the multi-sensor-multi-channel system in terms of the system parameters. We further investigate how the delay of the channel state information availability and the holding period of channel states affect the stability. In particular, we show that, from a system stability perspective, fast fading channels may be preferable to slow fading ones.