Consensus networks with time-delays over finite fields

In this paper, we investigate the consensus problem in networks with time-delays over finite fields. The delays are categorised into three cases: single constant delay, multiple constant delays, and time-varying bounded delays. For all cases, some sufficient and necessary conditions for consensus are derived. Furthermore, assuming that the communication graph is strongly connected, some of the obtained necessary conditions reveal that the conditions for consensus with time-delays over finite fields depend not only on the diagonal entries but also on the off-diagonal entries, something that is intrinsically distinct from the case over real numbers (where having at least one nonzero diagonal entry is a sufficient and necessary condition to guarantee consensus). In addition, it is shown that delayed networks cannot achieve consensus when the interaction graph is a tree if the corresponding delay-free networks cannot reach consensus, which is consistent with the result over real numbers. As for average consensus, we show that it can never be achieved for delayed networks over finite fields, although it indeed can be reached under several conditions for delay-free networks over finite fields. Finally, networks with time-varying delays are discussed and one sufficient condition for consensus is presented by graph-theoretic method.