Performance of state estimate fusion in long-haul sensor networks with message retransmission

We consider a long-haul network in which sensors are remotely deployed and tasked to send state estimates of a dynamic target to the fusion center via satellite links. Due to severe loss and delay inherent in satellite channels, the number of estimates successfully arriving at the fusion center can be quite limited. A certain retransmission-based transport protocol can be applied so that lost messages can be recovered over time. However, excess delay may be incurred with message retransmission that can potentially violate the deadline for reporting the estimate. In this work, we analyze the recovery rate and the arrival time performances of the state estimates with message retransmission and time cutoff. We are particularly interested in exploring the extent to which message retransmission can potentially improve the system performance. Results of simulation studies of a ballistic target tracking application are shown in the end to complement our analysis.