Timeliness of Status Update System: The Effect of Parallel Transmission Using Heterogeneous Updating Devices
Zhengchuan Chen, K. Lang, Νικόλαος Παππάς, Howard Hua Yang, Min Wang, Zhong Tian, Tony Q. S. Quek · IEEE Transactions on Communications · 2024
Timely status updating is the premise of emerging interaction-based applications in the Internet of Things (IoT). Using redundant devices to update the status of interest is a promising method to improve the timeliness of information. However, parallel status updating leads to out-of-order arrivals at the monitor, significantly challenging timeliness analysis. This work studies the Age of Information (AoI) of a multi-queue status update system where multiple devices monitor the same physical process. Specifically, two systems are considered: theBasic System, which only has type-1 devices that are ad hoc devices located close to the source, and theHybrid System, which contains additional type-2 devices that are infrastructure-based devices located in fixed points compared to theBasic System. Using the Stochastic Hybrid Systems (SHS) framework, a mathematical model that combines discrete and continuous dynamics, we derive the expressions of the average AoI of the considered two systems in closed form. Numerical results verify the accuracy of the analysis. It is shown that when the number and parameters of the type-1 devices/type-2 devices are fixed, the logarithm of average AoI will linearly decrease with the logarithm of the total arrival rate of type-2 devices or that of the number of type-1 devices under specific condition. It has also been demonstrated that the proposed systems can significantly outperform the FCFS M/M/Nstatus update system.