Optimized rate allocation for state estimation over noisy channels

Optimal rate allocation in a networked control system with limited communication resources is instrumental to achieve satisfactory overall performance. In this paper, a practical rate allocation technique for state estimation in linear dynamic systems over a noisy channel is proposed. The method consists of two steps: (i) the overall distortion is expressed as a function of rates at all time instants by means of high-rate quantization theory, and (ii) a constrained optimization problem to minimize the overall distortion is solved by using Lagrange duality. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate the proposed scheme, which is shown to have good performance when compared to arbitrarily selected rate allocations.