Fundamental Issues in Networked Control Systems

Abstract--This paper provides a survey on modeling and theories of networked control systems （NCS）. In the first part, modeling of the different types of imperfections that affect NCS is discussed. These imperfections are quantization errors, packet dropouts, variable sampling/transmission intervals, vari- able transmission delays, and communication constraints. Then follows in the second part a presentation of several theories that have been applied for controlling networked systems. These theories include： input delay system approach, Markovian system approach, switched system approach, stochastic system approach, impulsive system approach, and predictive control approach. In the last part, some advanced issues in NCS including decentral- ized and distributed NCS, cloud control system, and co-design of NCS are reviewed. Index Terms--Decentralized networked control systems （NCS）, distributed networked control systems, network constraints, net- worked control system, quantization, time delays.

Performance Analysis of WLAN Medium Access Control Protocols in Simulcast Radio-Over-Fiber-Based Distributed Antenna Systems

The performance of three wireless local-area network(WLAN) media access control(MAC) protocols is investigated and compared in the context of simulcast radioover-fiber-based distributed antenna systems(RoF-DASs) where multiple remote antenna units(RAUs) are connected to one access point(AP) with different-length fiber links.The three WLAN MAC protocols under investigation are distributed coordination function(DCF) in basic access mode,DCF in request/clear to send(RTS/CTS) exchange mode,and point coordination function(PCF).In the analysis,the inter-RAU hidden nodes problems and fiber-length difference effect are both taken into account.Results show that adaptive PCF mechanism has better throughput performances than the other two DCF modes,especially when the inserted fiber length is short.

Model Reference Adaptive Control for Networked Distributed Systems with Strong Interconnections and Communication Delays

In recent years, networked distributed control systems（NDCS） have received research attention. Two of the main challenges that such systems face are possible delays in the communication network and the effect of strong interconnections between agents. This paper considers an NDCS that has delays in the communication network, as well as strong interconnections between its agents. The control objective is to make each agent track efficiently a reference model by attenuating the effect of strong interconnections via feedback based on the delayed information. First, the authors assume that each agent knows its own dynamics, as well as the interconnection parameters, but receives information about the states of its neighbors with some communication delay. The authors propose a distributed control scheme and prove that if the interconnections can be weakened and if the communication delays are small enough, then the proposed scheme guarantees that the tracking error of each agent is bounded with a bound that depends on the size of the weakened interconnections and delays, and reduces to zero as these uncertainties reduce to zero. The authors then consider a more realistic situation where the interconnections between agents are unknown despite the cooperation and sharing of state information. For this case the authors propose a distributed adaptive control scheme and prove that the proposed scheme guarantees that the tracking errors are bounded and small in the mean square sense with respect to the size of the weakened interconnections and delays, provided the weakened interconnections and time delays are small enough. The authors then consider the case that each agent knows neither its dynamics nor the interconnection matrices. For this case the authors propose a distributed adaptive control scheme and prove that the proposed scheme guarantees that the tracking errors are bounded and small in the mean square sense provided the weakened interconnections and time delays are small enough. Finally, the authors present an illustrative example to present the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed schemes.

Event-based Control and Filtering of Networked Systems:A Survey

In recent years, theoretical and practical research on event-based communication strategies has gained considerable research attention due primarily to their irreplaceable superiority in resource-constrained systems（especially networked systems）. For networked systems, event-based transmission scheme is capable of improving the efficiency in resource utilization and prolonging the lifetime of the network components compared with the widely adopted periodic transmission scheme. As such, it would be interesting to 1） examining how the event-triggering mechanisms affect the control or filtering performance for networked systems, and 2） developing some suitable approaches for the controller and filter design problems. In this paper, a bibliographical review is presented on event-based control and filtering problems for various networked systems. First, the event-driven communication scheme is introduced in detail according to its engineering background, characteristic, and representative research frameworks. Then, different event-based control and filtering（or state estimation） problems are categorized and then discussed. Finally, we conclude the paper by outlining future research challenges for event-based networked systems.