On Age and Value of Information in Status Update Systems

Abstract: Motivated by the inherent value of packets arising in many cyber-physical applications (e.g., due to precision of the information content or an alarm message), we consider status update systems with update packets carrying values as well as their generation time stamps. Once generated, a status update packet has a random initial value and a deterministic deadline after which it is not useful (ultimate staleness). In our model, value of a packet decreases in time (even after reception) starting from its generation to ultimate staleness when it vanishes. The value of information (VoI) at the receiver is additive in that the VoI is the sum of the current values of all packets held by the receiver. We investigate various queuing disciplines under potential dependence between value and service time and provide closed form expressions for average VoI at the receiver. Numerical results illustrate the average VoI for different scenarios and the contrast between average age of information (AoI) and average VoI.