Topology Design for Edge Sensing and Control: A Dynamic Observability Guaranteed Method

It is one of the most essential processes in the industrial cyber-physical system (ICPS) that multiple edge computing nodes (ECNs) collect field sensor information and cooperate for sensing and control. The exchange of sensing information on the edge side is critical for these ECNs that serve as multiple edge estimators and one edge controller. However, the limited transmission resources and the diverse performance demands of ECNs for sensing and control make it challenging to design the edge network topology delicately. For this issue, a novel dynamic observability (DO) condition is proposed to balance sensing-control performance and transmission cost under various demand settings. Based on the quantitative analysis of the relationship between overall transmission cost and each ECN's effective observability, DO gives the criterion for desirable network topologies with spatio-temporal dynamics. Then for the given performance demands, a dynamic observability guaranteed method (DOGM) is proposed to determine the network topology by triggering proper sensing links. In this way, the set of triggered sensing links may vary in a dynamic manner to satisfy the DO condition, and the overall performance of sensing and control is theoretically guaranteed. Finally, the comprehensive advantages of DOGM are demonstrated by the simulation study in the hot rolling laminar cooling process.