Stabilizability of Markov jump linear systems modeling wireless networked control scenarios

The communication channels used to convey information between the components of wireless networked control systems (WNCSs) are subject to packet losses due to time-varying fading and interference. The WNCSs with missing packets can be modeled as Markov jump linear systems with one time-step delayed mode observations. While the problem of the optimal linear quadratic regulation for such systems has been already solved, we derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for stabilizability. We also show, with an example considering a communication channel model based on WirelessHART (a on-the-market wireless communication standard specifically designed for process automation), that such conditions are essential to the analysis of WNCSs where packet losses are modeled with Bernoulli random variables representing the expected value of the real random process governing the channel.