Stability of networked control systems with stochastic protocols

This paper introduces a new definition of stochastic protocols for networked control systems (NCS) and the stochastic analogue of the notion of uniform persistency of excitation of protocols first presented in [1]. Our framework applies directly to common wireless and wireline NCS, including those built on collision-sense multiple access (CSMA) style protocols, with Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g as prime examples of this class. We present conditions for a general class of nonlinear NCS with exogenous disturbances using stochastic protocols in the presence of packet dropouts, random packet transmission times and collisions that are sufficient for L-p stability from exogenous disturbance to NCS state with a linear finite expected gain.