Partial synchronization in stochastic dynamical networks with switching communication channels

In this paper, the partial synchronization problem of stochastic dynamical networks (SDNs) is investigated. Unlike the existing models, the SDN considered in this paper suffers from a class of communication constraint-only part of nodes' states can be transmitted. Thus, less nodes' states can be used to synchronize the SDN, which makes the analysis of the synchronization problem much harder. A set of channel matrices are introduced to reflect such kind of constraint. Furthermore, due to unpredictable environmental changes, the channel matrices can switch among some communication modes. The switching considered here is governed by a Markov process. To overcome the difficulty, a regrouping method is employed to derive our main results. The obtained conditions guarantee that partial synchronization can be achieved for SDNs under switching communication constraint. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results and how the communication constraint influences synchronization result. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3702576]