Towards an “Effective Age” Concept

Since for Markov signals age minimization generally implies prediction error minimization, we pursue in this paper the potential connection between age and what we call effective age. Effective age is loosely defined as an age-related metric that captures both the information structure of the signal and the sampling pattern that is used, and that it is minimized when the error is minimized. We consider several options for sampling mecha nisms and signal models, and we evaluate age and prediction/estimation errors as steps in the quest for a meaningful effective age concept definition.