On the Uncertainty of a Simple Estimator for Remote Source Monitoring over ALOHA Channels

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. Verfasser: Munari, Andrea
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866916595235815424
author Munari, Andrea
author_facet Munari, Andrea
contents Efficient remote monitoring of distributed sources is essential for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications. This work studies the uncertainty at the receiver when tracking two-state Markov sources over a slotted random access channel without feedback, using the conditional entropy as a performance indicator, and considering the last received value as current state estimate. We provide an analytical characterization of the metric, and evaluate three access strategies: (i) maximizing throughput, (ii) transmitting only on state changes, and (iii) minimizing uncertainty through optimized access probabilities. Our results reveal that throughput optimization does not always reduce uncertainty. Moreover, while reactive policies are optimal for symmetric sources, asymmetric processes benefit from mixed strategies allowing transmissions during state persistence.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_01482
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the Uncertainty of a Simple Estimator for Remote Source Monitoring over ALOHA Channels
Munari, Andrea
Information Theory
Efficient remote monitoring of distributed sources is essential for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications. This work studies the uncertainty at the receiver when tracking two-state Markov sources over a slotted random access channel without feedback, using the conditional entropy as a performance indicator, and considering the last received value as current state estimate. We provide an analytical characterization of the metric, and evaluate three access strategies: (i) maximizing throughput, (ii) transmitting only on state changes, and (iii) minimizing uncertainty through optimized access probabilities. Our results reveal that throughput optimization does not always reduce uncertainty. Moreover, while reactive policies are optimal for symmetric sources, asymmetric processes benefit from mixed strategies allowing transmissions during state persistence.
title On the Uncertainty of a Simple Estimator for Remote Source Monitoring over ALOHA Channels
topic Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.01482