Bounded State Estimation over Finite-State Channels: Relating Topological Entropy and Zero-Error Capacity

Abstract: We investigate state estimation of linear systems over channels having a finite state not known by the transmitter or receiver. We show that similar to memoryless channels, zero-error capacity is the right figure of merit for achieving bounded estimation errors. We then consider finite-state, worst-case versions of the common erasure and additive noise channels models, in which the noise is governed by a finite-state machine without any statistical structure. Upper and lower bounds on their zero-error capacities are derived, revealing a connection with the {\em topological entropy} of the channel dynamics. Separate necessary and sufficient conditions for bounded linear state estimation errors via such channels are obtained. These estimation conditions bring together the topological entropies of the linear system and the discrete channel.