Information Age-Controllability Trade-offs in Communication-Constrained Networks

2026-05-27

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of jointly optimizing control performance, channel access, and information freshness in wireless control networks under communication constraints. Focusing on multiple control systems sharing a stochastic random-access channel, the work proposes a block-level adaptive access mechanism that uniquely integrates block-wise controllability and timeliness—quantified by Age of Information—into a unified optimization framework. By dynamically adjusting each controller’s access probability to prioritize systems failing to meet controllability requirements, the approach leverages block controllability modeling, peak control delay analysis, and priority-based scheduling to derive closed-form performance expressions. The proposed method significantly enhances resource utilization efficiency in interference-limited scenarios while achieving an effective trade-off between the probability of satisfying controllability constraints and information age.

Abstract

We investigate the trade-off between controllability, channel access, and age-related performance in a wireless network of control systems. Controllers share a random-access channel to transmit control inputs to actuators over slotted blocks. We measure reliable control via block controllability, where a block is controllable if it contains a required number of consecutive successful transmissions. In parallel, we capture information freshness via the age of information. To enable efficient allocation of channel resources over time, we introduce adaptive access probabilities at the block level, prioritizing controllers that have not yet achieved controllability. We then derive closed-form expressions for block controllability probability, the peak latency between inter-block consecutive successes, and peak age of information. We further characterize the peak control latency, defined as the time between consecutive controllable blocks. Finally, we optimize access probabilities to jointly balance controllability and age-related metrics. Numerical results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive access policies in managing this trade-off in interference-limited wireless control networks.

Problem

• controllability
• age of information
• random-access channel
• communication-constrained networks
• control latency

Innovation

• block controllability
• age of information
• adaptive access probability
• control latency
• random-access channel