{
  "id": "oai:papers.qnfo.org:network-tracing-capacity-as-an-informational-event-horizon-a-delay-based-causal-",
  "slug": "network-tracing-capacity-as-an-informational-event-horizon-a-delay-based-causal-",
  "title": "Network Tracing Capacity as an Informational Event Horizon: A Delay-Based Causal Bound for Networked Control",
  "authors": [
    "Rowan Brad Quni-Gudzinas"
  ],
  "abstract": "Distributed control systems—power-electronics clusters, vehicle platoons, coordinated robot fleets—stabilize unstable plants through communication networks, and the latency of that communication, not the control law, frequently decides whether stabilization succeeds. Existing design practice treats this as a per-application tuning problem; no topology-level invariant is known that states, in one number, which instability rates a given communication topology can and cannot propagate. We propose such an invariant, the Network Tracing Capacity (NTC), defined for a benchmark class of scalar unstable modes under delayed feedback as Θ = 1/(hτ), where h is the controller-to-sensor hop count and τ the per-hop delay, and we conjecture that modes with growth rate λ > Θ are practically unobservable through the topology, a boundary we interpret as an informational analog of a relativistic event horizon. We build the correspondence mapping (instability rate, delay, hop count) onto (expansion rate, signal speed, metric scale), anchor its operational criteria in how the Event Horizon Telescope actually detects and is limited by horizons, and derive a worked example: a five-hop network with τ = 10 ms yields Θ = 20 mathrms^-1, so a plant with λ = 35 mathrms^-1 lies beyond the horizon at hop $3$ of $5$, with state growth factor e¹.75 ≈ 5.75 per delay interval. Reducing the per-hop delay to 2 ms restores Θ = 100 mathrms^-1 > λ. A complementary topology-attribute convention, based on boundary-crossing-path walk counts, is derived and compared. The result, if validated, converts latency budgets into hop-count-aware instability-rate budgets for control topology design.",
  "abstract_markdown": "Distributed control systems—power-electronics clusters, vehicle platoons, coordinated robot fleets—stabilize unstable plants through communication networks, and the latency of that communication, not the control law, frequently decides whether stabilization succeeds. Existing design practice treats this as a per-application tuning problem; no topology-level invariant is known that states, in one number, which instability rates a given communication topology can and cannot propagate. We propose such an invariant, the Network Tracing Capacity (NTC), defined for a benchmark class of scalar unstable modes under delayed feedback as $\\Theta = 1/(h\\tau)$, where $h$ is the controller-to-sensor hop count and $\\tau$ the per-hop delay, and we conjecture that modes with growth rate $\\lambda > \\Theta$ are practically unobservable through the topology, a boundary we interpret as an informational analog of a relativistic event horizon. We build the correspondence mapping (instability rate, delay, hop count) onto (expansion rate, signal speed, metric scale), anchor its operational criteria in how the Event Horizon Telescope actually detects and is limited by horizons, and derive a worked example: a five-hop network with $\\tau = 10\\,\\mathrm{ms}$ yields $\\Theta = 20\\,\\mathrm{s^{-1}}$, so a plant with $\\lambda = 35\\,\\mathrm{s^{-1}}$ lies beyond the horizon at hop $3$ of $5$, with state growth factor $e^{1.75} \\approx 5.75$ per delay interval. Reducing the per-hop delay to $2\\,\\mathrm{ms}$ restores $\\Theta = 100\\,\\mathrm{s^{-1}} > \\lambda$. A complementary topology-attribute convention, based on boundary-crossing-path walk counts, is derived and compared. The result, if validated, converts latency budgets into hop-count-aware instability-rate budgets for control topology design.",
  "date": "2026-10-17",
  "first_published": "2026-10-17",
  "last_revised": "2026-10-17T00:00:00Z",
  "modified": "2026-10-17T00:00:00Z",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "version_count": 1,
  "language": "en",
  "keywords": [],
  "quality_tags": [
    "High-quality scholarly research",
    "open-access scholarly work",
    "versioned research publication"
  ],
  "quality_label": "High-quality scholarly research",
  "quality_basis": "QNFO publisher classification for open-access, versioned research with a public revision history and reader correction channel; this is not a claim of independent peer review.",
  "quality_evidence_url": "https://qnfo.org/about",
  "peer_review_status": "Not independently peer-reviewed",
  "resource_type": "ScholarlyArticle",
  "doi": null,
  "doi_url": null,
  "url": "https://papers.qnfo.org/papers/network-tracing-capacity-as-an-informational-event-horizon-a-delay-based-causal-",
  "license_url": "https://legal.qnfo.org/",
  "license_spdx": null,
  "sha256": "f57e0a75dccbad3bb175197a1ca446e8bb7b41eb52206306657fb2093f2adfda",
  "version_url": "https://papers.qnfo.org/papers/network-tracing-capacity-as-an-informational-event-horizon-a-delay-based-causal-/v/1.0.0",
  "datacite": {
    "schemaVersion": "http://datacite.org/schema/kernel-4",
    "identifiers": [
      {
        "identifier": "https://papers.qnfo.org/papers/network-tracing-capacity-as-an-informational-event-horizon-a-delay-based-causal-",
        "identifierType": "URL"
      }
    ],
    "creators": [
      {
        "name": "Rowan Brad Quni-Gudzinas",
        "nameType": "Personal",
        "nameIdentifiers": [
          {
            "nameIdentifier": "https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4317-5604",
            "nameIdentifierScheme": "ORCID",
            "schemeUri": "https://orcid.org"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "titles": [
      {
        "title": "Network Tracing Capacity as an Informational Event Horizon: A Delay-Based Causal Bound for Networked Control"
      }
    ],
    "publisher": "QNFO",
    "publicationYear": "2026",
    "resourceType": {
      "resourceTypeGeneral": "Text",
      "resourceType": "ScholarlyArticle"
    },
    "subjects": [
      {
        "subject": "High-quality scholarly research",
        "subjectScheme": "QNFO publisher classification",
        "schemeUri": "https://qnfo.org/about"
      },
      {
        "subject": "open-access scholarly work",
        "subjectScheme": "QNFO publisher classification",
        "schemeUri": "https://qnfo.org/about"
      },
      {
        "subject": "versioned research publication",
        "subjectScheme": "QNFO publisher classification",
        "schemeUri": "https://qnfo.org/about"
      }
    ],
    "dates": [
      {
        "date": "2026-10-17",
        "dateType": "Issued"
      },
      {
        "date": "2026-10-17",
        "dateType": "Updated"
      }
    ],
    "language": "en",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "rightsList": [
      {
        "rightsUri": "https://legal.qnfo.org/"
      }
    ],
    "descriptions": [
      {
        "description": "Distributed control systems—power-electronics clusters, vehicle platoons, coordinated robot fleets—stabilize unstable plants through communication networks, and the latency of that communication, not the control law, frequently decides whether stabilization succeeds. Existing design practice treats this as a per-application tuning problem; no topology-level invariant is known that states, in one number, which instability rates a given communication topology can and cannot propagate. We propose such an invariant, the Network Tracing Capacity (NTC), defined for a benchmark class of scalar unstable modes under delayed feedback as Θ = 1/(hτ), where h is the controller-to-sensor hop count and τ the per-hop delay, and we conjecture that modes with growth rate λ > Θ are practically unobservable through the topology, a boundary we interpret as an informational analog of a relativistic event horizon. We build the correspondence mapping (instability rate, delay, hop count) onto (expansion rate, signal speed, metric scale), anchor its operational criteria in how the Event Horizon Telescope actually detects and is limited by horizons, and derive a worked example: a five-hop network with τ = 10 ms yields Θ = 20 mathrms^-1, so a plant with λ = 35 mathrms^-1 lies beyond the horizon at hop $3$ of $5$, with state growth factor e¹.75 ≈ 5.75 per delay interval. Reducing the per-hop delay to 2 ms restores Θ = 100 mathrms^-1 > λ. A complementary topology-attribute convention, based on boundary-crossing-path walk counts, is derived and compared. The result, if validated, converts latency budgets into hop-count-aware instability-rate budgets for control topology design.",
        "descriptionType": "Abstract"
      },
      {
        "description": "Publisher quality classification: High-quality scholarly research. QNFO publisher classification for open-access, versioned research with a public revision history and reader correction channel; this is not a claim of independent peer review.",
        "descriptionType": "Other"
      },
      {
        "description": "Peer review status: Not independently peer-reviewed",
        "descriptionType": "Other"
      }
    ],
    "formats": [
      "text/html"
    ]
  }
}