Design of a multi-hop dynamic consensus algorithm over wireless sensor networks

In the last few years great attention has been concentrated on the consensus algorithm in a network of agents. A consensus problem in which the agreement value is a distributed estimation of some non-constant quantity of interest is referred to as a dynamic consensus. In practical applications an effective network architecture to support sensing and communication between agents is based on a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). This paper deals with the design of a fast dynamic consensus algorithm when it is implemented over the WSN. A sufficient stability condition of the dynamic consensus algorithm in the presence of heterogeneous time delays affecting communication through the multi hops of the WSN is introduced and used for consensus algorithm gain design. Moreover, the algorithm implementation by the standard AODV routing protocol is discussed and the best parameter setting to reduce the effect of packet collision phenomena on the performance of the consensus algorithm is indicated. Several trade-offs between network parameter setting, sensor node technology selection and application performance have to be taken into account by the designer in the implementation of the dynamic consensus algorithm. A representative simulation based design procedure is presented to validate through realistic simulation experiments the proposed design approach.