Broadcast Communication Policies for Distributed Aeroacoustic Tracking

The behavior of any distributed estimation system is highly dependent on the information flow within the system. Broadcast communications simplify the information flow, even when they have limited range. But different policies for deciding what information should be broadcast (and when) produce different information flows and so different behavior. This paper examines several plausible broadcast communications policies for a particular distributed aeroacoustic tracking system (1). Two different scenarios are used, one involving a low velocity target (a helicopter) and the other a high velocity target (a jet aircraft). The examination focuses on message traffic, tracking accuracy, and the impact of lost or delayed messages.