A Distributed Control Algorithm for Waterfilling of Networked Control Systems via Consensus

This letter presents a distributed waterfilling algorithm for networked control systems where users communicate with neighbors only. Waterfilling-a well-known optimization approach in communication systems-has inspired practical resolution methods for several control engineering and decision-making problems. This letter proposes a fully distributed solution for waterfilling of networked control systems. We consider multiple coupled waterlevels among users that locally communicate only with neighbors, without a central decision maker. We define two alternative versions (an exact one and an approximated one) of a novel distributed algorithm combining consensus, proximity, and the fixed point mapping theory, and show its convergence. We illustrate the technique by a case study on the charging of a fleet of electric vehicles.