Feedback control utilizing packet dropping network links

Abstract

The increasing availability of network connectivity has prompted the study of computer-based control methodologies that are implemented centrally or distributively using existing network infrastructure as the communications backbone. Recent work has looked at the stability of networked control systems (i.e., control systems in which feedback loops are closed through networks) and focused on performance guarantees under networked induced delays and varying data packet rates. In this work, we extend these ideas in a probabilistic setting by modeling a packet dropping network as an erasure channel and by developing bounded variance stabilization schemes.