Communication-protocol-based distributed filtering for general systems over sensor networks: developments and challenges

During the past decades, the communication-protocol-based distributed filtering (DF) problems have received a great deal of research interest owing to their importance in networked systems. In this paper, we mainly present a timely review of DF problems under the influence of communication protocols (CPs). Firstly, we summarize the characteristics and advantages of the DF algorithm based on wireless sensor networks. According to the different types of noises or performance indices, the DF strategy can be generally categorized as the distributed recursive Kalman-type filtering, the distributed H∞ filtering, the distributed set-membership filtering and so on. Subsequently, the recent advances of various CPs including the event-based mechanism, the round-robin protocol, the weighted try-once-discard protocol, the stochastic CP and the redundant channel are discussed. After that, the DF schemes for complex dynamical systems under different CPs are reviewed in detail. In addition, several challenges faced in this survey are summarized and discussed. Finally, the conclusions are provided and several potential future research directions are mentioned.