On the Age of Information in Status Update Systems With Packet Management

TLDR

We consider a communication system where timestamped status updates sampled from a random process are transmitted from a source to a destination, and the age of information is defined as the elapsed time since the last received update was generated. The study models the source‑destination link as an M/M/1 queue with exponentially distributed service times and aims to characterize the average age of information. The authors analyze the age of information under packet management that discards stale updates to avoid wasting network resources. They propose a peak age metric that quantifies the maximum age immediately before receiving an update.

Abstract

We consider a communication system in which status updates arrive at a source node, and should be transmitted through a network to the intended destination node. The status updates are samples of a random process under observation, transmitted as packets, which also contain the time stamp to identify when the sample was generated. The age of the information available to the destination node is the time elapsed, since the last received update was generated. In this paper, we model the source-destination link using the queuing theory, and we assume that the time it takes to successfully transmit a packet to the destination is an exponentially distributed service time. We analyze the age of information in the case that the source node has the capability to manage the arriving samples, possibly discarding packets in order to avoid wasting network resources with the transmission of stale information. In addition to characterizing the average age, we propose a new metric, called peak age, which provides information about the maximum value of the age, achieved immediately before receiving an update.