Age of information in relativistic communication systems
(2026) p.13-21- Abstract
- Age of Information (AoI) is a widely used metric to quantify the freshness of updates in communication systems. Existing AoI analyses implicitly assume a shared or synchronized notion of time between transmitter and receiver, thereby neglecting distortions arising from relative motion and gravitational effects. In this paper, we investigate the impact of relativistic time dilation on information freshness and introduce a relativistic formulation of peak Age of Information (pAoI). We first study a special-relativistic setting in which a transmitter moves at constant velocity relative to a receiver, showing that naive timestamp comparison leads to systematic errors in pAoI evaluation, even at moderate velocities. When transmitter velocity is... (More)
- Age of Information (AoI) is a widely used metric to quantify the freshness of updates in communication systems. Existing AoI analyses implicitly assume a shared or synchronized notion of time between transmitter and receiver, thereby neglecting distortions arising from relative motion and gravitational effects. In this paper, we investigate the impact of relativistic time dilation on information freshness and introduce a relativistic formulation of peak Age of Information (pAoI). We first study a special-relativistic setting in which a transmitter moves at constant velocity relative to a receiver, showing that naive timestamp comparison leads to systematic errors in pAoI evaluation, even at moderate velocities. When transmitter velocity is unknown, we characterize the uncertainty induced by velocity estimation and demonstrate that a polynomial estimator can accurately reconstruct the generation time in the receiver reference frame. We then extend the framework to general relativity using a weak-field approximation that jointly accounts for gravitational and kinematic clock-rate distortions. Leveraging established satellite clock modeling techniques, we show that local polynomial approximation enables effective recovery of information freshness despite unknown relativistic effects. Numerical results validate the proposed estimators across all velocity and orbital regimes. This work establishes a first connection between relativistic time modeling and AoI, providing a foundation for freshness analysis in satellite, deep-space, and high-mobility communication systems relevant to space communications and navigation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/bfde4889-63f9-4580-8cde-50895341c6ac
- author
- Franco, Antonio LU and Landfeldt, Björn LU
- organization
- alternative title
- AoI i relativistiska kommunikationssystem
- publishing date
- 2026-05-24
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- SPACOMM 2026 : The Eighteenth International Conference on Advances in Satellite and Space Communications - The Eighteenth International Conference on Advances in Satellite and Space Communications
- article number
- 20018
- pages
- 9 pages
- publisher
- IARIA
- ISBN
- 978-1-68558-391-0
- project
- ELLIIT LU P01: WP2 Networking solutions
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- bfde4889-63f9-4580-8cde-50895341c6ac
- alternative location
- https://www.thinkmind.org/library/SPACOMM/SPACOMM_2026/spacomm_2026_1_30_20018.html
- date added to LUP
- 2026-03-26 12:42:08
- date last changed
- 2026-05-26 10:41:33
@inproceedings{bfde4889-63f9-4580-8cde-50895341c6ac,
abstract = {{Age of Information (AoI) is a widely used metric to quantify the freshness of updates in communication systems. Existing AoI analyses implicitly assume a shared or synchronized notion of time between transmitter and receiver, thereby neglecting distortions arising from relative motion and gravitational effects. In this paper, we investigate the impact of relativistic time dilation on information freshness and introduce a relativistic formulation of peak Age of Information (pAoI). We first study a special-relativistic setting in which a transmitter moves at constant velocity relative to a receiver, showing that naive timestamp comparison leads to systematic errors in pAoI evaluation, even at moderate velocities. When transmitter velocity is unknown, we characterize the uncertainty induced by velocity estimation and demonstrate that a polynomial estimator can accurately reconstruct the generation time in the receiver reference frame. We then extend the framework to general relativity using a weak-field approximation that jointly accounts for gravitational and kinematic clock-rate distortions. Leveraging established satellite clock modeling techniques, we show that local polynomial approximation enables effective recovery of information freshness despite unknown relativistic effects. Numerical results validate the proposed estimators across all velocity and orbital regimes. This work establishes a first connection between relativistic time modeling and AoI, providing a foundation for freshness analysis in satellite, deep-space, and high-mobility communication systems relevant to space communications and navigation.}},
author = {{Franco, Antonio and Landfeldt, Björn}},
booktitle = {{SPACOMM 2026 : The Eighteenth International Conference on Advances in Satellite and Space Communications}},
isbn = {{978-1-68558-391-0}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
pages = {{13--21}},
publisher = {{IARIA}},
title = {{Age of information in relativistic communication systems}},
url = {{https://www.thinkmind.org/library/SPACOMM/SPACOMM_2026/spacomm_2026_1_30_20018.html}},
year = {{2026}},
}