Adaptive Asynchronous Gossip Algorithms for Consensus in Heterogeneous Sensor Networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects a wide range of sensors and devices in environments that are often dynamic and resource-constrained, where efficient distributed solutions are essential for ensuring robust and scalable operation. This article presents a novel adaptive consensus algorithm, tailored for distributed signal processing in heterogeneous sensor networks, with a focus on distributed estimation and target tracking. The algorithm addresses the challenge posed by networks where intelligent sensors have limited sensing, computation, and communication capabilities, resulting in diverse quality of locally available information, and leading to neighbor-based information exchanges. It employs asynchronous gossip protocols to randomly exchange information between nodes, ensuring robustness to time synchronization and network topology uncertainties, while limiting computational and communication costs. The adaptation mechanism operates in two complementary ways. First, we account for variations in the quality of local processing results, ensuring that asymptotic behavior of the consensus scheme accurately reflects this diversity. Second, we introduce a novel adaptation of the rates at which nodes initiate communication, using the available local information. This enables fast information dissemination and provides a solution that is both effective and efficient. We show that, under appropriate network connectivity assumptions, the results obtained by the algorithm converge to the desired asymptotic values in the mean square sense. Numerical simulations demonstrate the algorithm’s properties and effectiveness, particularly in modeling visual surveillance networks where fixed cameras are augmented by moving drones to extend the coverage area.