We study a general framework for broadcast gossip algorithms which use companion variables to solve the average consensus problem. Each node maintains an initial state and a companion variable. Iterative updates are performed asynchronously whereby one random node broadcasts its current state and companion variable and all other nodes receiving the broadcast update their state and companion variable. We provide conditions under which this scheme is guaranteed to converge to a consensus solution, where all nodes have the same limiting values, on any strongly connected directed graph. Under stronger conditions, which are reasonable when the underlying communication graph is undirected, we guarantee that the consensus value is equal to the average, both in expectation and in the mean-squared sense. Our analysis uses tools from non-negative matrix theory and perturbation theory. The perturbation results rely on a parameter being sufficiently small. We characterize the allowable upper bound as well as the optimal setting for the perturbation parameter as a function of the network topology, and this allows us to characterize the worst-case rate of convergence. Simulations illustrate that, in comparison to existing broadcast gossip algorithms, the approaches proposed in this paper have the advantage that they simultaneously can be guaranteed to converge to the average consensus and they converge in a small number of broadcasts.
A modified BGA is proposed by @cite_6 @cite_4 , where nodes maintain a companion (or surplus) variable in addition to the state variable they seek to average. By careful accounting of both the companion and state variables, a conservation principle is established, and simulation results suggest that the algorithm with companion variables converges to the average consensus for all sample paths, not just in expectation. However, no proof of convergence or theoretical convergence rate analysis is available for the algorithm of @cite_6 @cite_4 .
@cite_4 @cite_6
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In this paper, we study two related iterative randomized algorithms for distributed computation of averages. The first algorithm is the Broadcast Gossip Algorithm, in which at each iteration one randomly selected node broadcasts its own state to its neighbors. The second algorithm is a novel variation of the former, in which at each iteration every node is allowed to broadcast: hence, this algorithm, which we call Collision Broadcast Gossip Algorithm (CBGA), is affected by interference among messages. The performance of both algorithms is evaluated in terms of rate of convergence and asymptotical error: focusing on large Abelian Cayley networks, we highlight the role of topology and of design parameters. We show that on fully connected graphs the rate of convergence is bounded away from one, whereas the asymptotical error is bounded away from zero. On the contrary, on sparse graphs the rate of convergence goes to one and the asymptotical error goes to zero, as the size of the network grows larger. Our results also show that the performance of the CBGA is close to the performance of the BGA: this indicates the robustness of broadcast gossip algorithms to interferences. We study the average consensus problem of multiagent systems for general network topologies with unidirectional information flow. We propose a linear distributed algorithm which guarantees state averaging on arbitrary strongly connected digraphs. In particular, this graphical condition does not require that the network be balanced or symmetric, thereby extending the previous results in the literature. The novelty of our approach is the augmentation of an additional variable for each agent, called “surplus”, whose function is to locally record individual state updates. For convergence analysis, we employ graph-theoretic and nonnegative matrix tools, with the eigenvalue perturbation theory playing a crucial role. This paper considers the effect of stochasticity on the quality of convergence of genetic algorithms (GAs). In many problems, the variance of building-block fitness or so-called collateral noise is the major source of variance, and a population-sizing equation is derived to ensure that average signal-to-collateral-noise ratios are favorable to the discrimination of the best building blocks required to solve a problem of bounded deception. The sizing relation is modified to permit the inclusion of other sources of stochasticity, such as the noise of selection, the noise of genetic operators, and the explicit noise or nondeterminism of the objective function. In a test suite of five functions, the sizing relation proves to be a conservative predictor of average correct convergence, as long as all major sources of noise are considered in the sizing calculation. These results suggest how the sizing equation may be viewed as a coarse delineation of a boundary between what a physicist might call two distinct phases of GA behavior. At low population sizes the GA makes many errors of decision, and the quality of convergence is largely left to the vagaries of chance or the serial fixup of flawed results through mutation or other serial injection of diversity. At large population sizes, GAs can reliably discriminate between good and bad building blocks, and parallel processing and recombination of building blocks lead to quick solution of even difficult deceptive problems. Additionally, the paper outlines a number of extensions to this work, including the development of more refined models of the relation between generational average error and ultimate convergence quality, the development of online methods for sizing populations via the estimation of populations via the estimation of population-sizing parameters, and the investigation of populationsizing in the context of niching and other schemes designed for use in problems with high cardinality solution sets. The paper also discusses how these results may one day lead to rigorous proofs of convergence for recombinative G As operating on problems of bounded description. This paper is concerned with the convergence of a class of continuous-time nonlinear consensus algorithms for single integrator agents. In the consensus algorithms studied here, the control input of each agent is assumed to be a state-dependent combination of the relative positions of its neighbors in the information flow graph. Using a novel approach based on the smallest order of the nonzero derivative, it is shown that under some mild conditions the convex hull of the agents has a contracting property. A set-valued LaSalle-like approach is subsequently employed to show the convergence of the agents to a common point. The results are shown to be more general than the ones reported in the literature in some cases. An illustrative example demonstrates how the proposed convergence conditions can be verified.