Average consensus with packet drop communication

The average consensus consists in determining the average of a number of quantities by means of a distributed algorithm. This is a simple instance of the problems which need to be faced when developing algorithms for the estimation of quantities from measures produced by sensor networks. Simple solutions based on linear estimators has already been proposed in the literature and their performance has been analyzed in detail. In this contribution the performance decay caused by data exchange through failing links is evaluated. In the model of the link proposed here at every time instant there is a certain probability that the data transmitted is lost by the link.