Distributed filtering of time-delay systems with redundant channels subject to uncertain packet dropout rates

This paper is concerned with the distributed H_∞ filtering problem for a class of discrete-time systems with time-varying delays. The data communications among sensor nodes are equipped with redundant channels subject to random packet dropouts that are modeled by mutually independent Bernoulli stochastic processes. The practical phenomenon of uncertain packet dropout rate is considered, and the norm-bounded uncertainty of the packet dropout rate is asymmetric to the nominal rate. Sufficient conditions on the existence of the desired distributed filters are established by employing the scaled small gain theorem to ensure that the closed-loop system is stochastically stable and achieves a prescribed average H_∞ performance index. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.