Distributed consensus algorithms for estimation of parameters or detection of events in wireless sensor networks have attracted considerable attention in recent years. A necessary condition to achieve a consensus on the average of the initial values is that the topology of the underlying graph is balanced or symmetric at every time instant. However, communication impairments can make the topology vary randomly in time, and instantaneous link symmetry between pairs of nodes is not guaranteed unless an acknowledgment protocol or an equivalent approach is implemented. In this paper, we evaluate the convergence of the consensus algorithm in the mean square sense in wireless sensor networks with random asymmetric topologies. For the case of links with equal probability of connection, a closed form expression for the mean square error of the state along with the dynamical range and the optimum value of the link weights that guarantee convergence are derived. For the case of links with different probabilities of connection, an upper bound for the mean square error of the state is derived. This upper bound can be computed for any time instant and can be employed to compute a link weight that reduces the convergence time of the algorithm.

We address the problem of distributed estimation of a parameter from a set of noisy observations collected by a sensor network, assuming that some sensors may be subject to data failures and report only noise. In such scenario, simple schemes such as the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator result in an error floor in moderate and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), whereas previously proposed methods based on hard decisions on data failure events degrade as the SNR decreases. Aiming at optimal performance within the whole range of SNRs, we adopt a Maximum Likelihood framework based on the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The statistical model and the iterative nature of the EM method allow for a diffusion-based distributed implementation, whereby the information propagation is embedded in the iterative update of the parameters. Numerical examples show that the proposed algorithm practically attains the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound at all SNR values and compares favorably with other approaches.

This contribution studies the convergence of consensus algorithms in random wireless sensor networks with spatially correlated links. Aiming at reducing the convergence time, we adopt an optimization criterion based on the minimization of the spectral radius of a matrix for which we derive closed-form expressions for both directed and undirected topologies. We show that the minimization of the spectral radius assuming constant link weights is a convex optimization problem. The expressions derived subsume known protocols found in literature.

Brain dynamics depicts an extremely complex energy landscape that changes over time, and its characterisation is a central unsolved problem in neuroscience. We approximate the non-stationary landscape sustained by the human brain through a novel mathematical formalism that allows us characterise the attractor structure, i.e. the stationary points and their connections. Due to its time-varying nature, the structure of the global attractor and the corresponding number of energy levels changes over time. We apply this formalism to distinguish quantitatively between the different human brain states of wakefulness and different stages of sleep, as a step towards future clinical applications.

A popular way to analyze resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) and magneto encephalography (MEG) data is to treat them as a functional network in which sensors are identified with nodes and the interaction between channel time series and the network connections. Although conceptually appealing, the network-theoretical approach to sensor-level EEG and MEG data is challenged by the fact that EEG and MEG time series are mixtures of source activity. It is, therefore, of interest to assess the relationship between functional networks of source activity and the ensuing sensor-level networks. Since these topological features are of high interest in experimental studies, we address the question of to what extent the network topology can be reconstructed from sensor-level functional connectivity (FC) measures in case of MEG data. Simple simulations that consider only a small number of regions do not allow to assess network properties; therefore, we use a diffusion magnetic resonance imaging-constrained whole-brain computational model of resting-state activity. Our motivation lies behind the fact that still many contributions found in the literature perform network analysis at sensor level, and we aim at showing the discrepancies between source- and sensor-level network topologies by using realistic simulations of resting-state cortical activity. Our main findings are that the effect of field spread on network topology depends on the type of interaction (instantaneous or lagged) and leads to an underestimation of lagged FC at sensor level due to instantaneous mixing of cortical signals, instantaneous interaction is more sensitive to field spread than lagged interaction, and discrepancies are reduced when using planar gradiometers rather than axial gradiometers. We, therefore, recommend using lagged interaction measures on planar gradiometer data when investigating network properties of resting-state sensor-level MEG data.

In numerical linear algebra, students encounter early the iterative power method, which finds eigenvectors of a matrix from an arbitrary starting point through repeated normalization and multiplications by the matrix itself. In practice, more sophisticated methods are used nowadays, threatening to make the power method a historical and pedagogic footnote. However, in the context of communication over a time-division duplex (TDD) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel, the power method takes a special position. It can be viewed as an intrinsic part of the uplink and downlink communication switching, enabling estimation of the eigenmodes of the channel without extra overhead. Generalizing the method to vector subspaces, communication in the subspaces with the best receive and transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is made possible. In exploring this intrinsic subspace convergence (ISC), we show that several published and new schemes can be cast into a common framework where all members benefit from the ISC