Error Bounds for Radial Network Topology Learning from Quantized Measurements

TL;DR

This paper provides probabilistic error bounds for learning radial network topologies from quantized sensor data, highlighting how quantization precision and sample size affect accuracy in power system estimation.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear measurement model incorporating sensor quantization effects and derives error bounds that depend on quantization bin width and sample size.

Findings

Error proportional to quantization bin width

Error grows sublinearly with number of nodes

Logarithmic samples per node suffice for accuracy

Abstract

We probabilistically bound the error of a solution to a radial network topology learning problem where both connectivity and line parameters are estimated. In our model, data errors are introduced by the precision of the sensors, i.e., quantization. This produces a nonlinear measurement model that embeds the operation of the sensor communication network into the learning problem, expanding beyond the additive noise models typically seen in power system estimation algorithms. We show that the error of a learned radial network topology is proportional to the quantization bin width and grows sublinearly in the number of nodes, provided that the number of samples per node is logarithmic in the number of nodes.