Input-Output Stability Of Linear Consensus Processes

In a network of n agents, consensus means that all n agents reach an agreement on a specific value of some quantity via local interactions. A linear consensus process can typically be modeled by a discrete-time linear recursion equation or a continuous-time linear differential equation, whose equilibria include nonzero states of the form a 1 where a is a constant and 1 is a column vector in R n whose entries all equal 1. Using a suitably defined semi-norm, this paper extends the standard notion of input-output stability from linear systems to linear recursions and differential equations of this type. Sufficient conditions for input-output consensus stability are provided. Connections between uniform bounded-input, bounded-output consensus stability and uniform exponential consensus stability are established. Certain types of additive perturbation to a linear consensus process are considered.