A resistance-based approach to consensus algorithm performance analysis

We study the well known linear consensus algorithm by means of a LQ-type performance cost. We want to understand how the communication topology influences this algorithm. In order to do this, we recall the analogy between Markov Chains and electrical resistive networks. By exploiting this analogy, we are able to rewrite the performance cost as the average effective resistance on a suitable network. We use this result to show that if the communication graph fulfills some local properties, then its behavior can be approximated with that of a suitable grid, over which the behavior of the cost is known.