Synchronization of Two-Layer Multi-Weighted Networks by Finite-Time Privacy Protection

Yuhua Xu; Mengna Liu; Wei Xing Zheng; Xiaoqun Wu

doi:10.1109/JAS.2026.125936

Volume 13 Issue 9

Sep. 2026

IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica

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Article Navigation > IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica > 2026 > 13(9): 2049-2061

Y. Xu, M. Liu, W. X. Zheng, and X. Wu, “Synchronization of two-layer multi-weighted networks by finite-time privacy protection,” IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 13, no. 9, pp. 2049–2061, Sep. 2026. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2026.125936

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Y. Xu, M. Liu, W. X. Zheng, and X. Wu, “Synchronization of two-layer multi-weighted networks by finite-time privacy protection,” IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 13, no. 9, pp. 2049–2061, Sep. 2026. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2026.125936

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Synchronization of Two-Layer Multi-Weighted Networks by Finite-Time Privacy Protection

doi: 10.1109/JAS.2026.125936

Funds: This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62176127, 72342019, 62573301), the Major Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (24KJA120002), and the Open Project of Joint Laboratory for Statistics and Finance of Nanjing Audit University (NAU) (2025JLSF203)

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Author Bio:
Yuhua Xu received the Ph.D. degree in control theory and control engineering from Donghua University in 2011. From 2012 to 2014, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Computing, Wuhan University. Currently he is a Professor at the School of Statistics and Data Science, Nanjing Audit University. His current research interests include complex networks, nonlinear dynamics, nonlinear finance systems and chaos control. He has published over 50 SCI journal papers in these areas. He was a recipient of the Excellent Young Key Talent Plan in Hubei Province, China in 2011. The Young and middle-aged academic leaders of Qing-Lan Engineering in Jiangsu Province, China in 2017. The Talent Plan of Six Talents Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province, China in 2018

Mengna Liu received the B.Sc. degree in international economics and trade from Nanjing Institute of Technology in 2020, and the M.Sc. degree in finance from Nanjing Audit University in 2024. She is currently a Ph.D. degree candidate in statistics at the School of Statistics and Data Science, Nanjing Audit University. Her current research interests include complex networks, nonlinear ﬁnancial systems, and ﬁnancial risk management

Wei Xing Zheng (Fellow, IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree in applied mathematics in 1982, the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering in 1984, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1989, all from Southeast University. He is currently a Professor at Western Sydney University, Australia. Over the years he has also held various faculty/research/visiting positions at Southeast University, China; Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, UK; University of Western, Australia; Curtin University of Technology, Australia; Munich University of Technology, Germany; University of Virginia, USA; and University of California-Davis, USA. His research interests are in the areas of systems and controls, signal processing, and communications. Prof. Zheng served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-II: Express Briefs, and IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, and as a Guest Editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I: Regular Papers. Currently, he is an Associate Editor for Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (the second term), IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, and other scholarly journals. He is also an Associate Editor of IEEE Control Systems Society’s Conference Editorial Board. He has served as Publication Co-Chair of the 56th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Melbourne, Australia, December 2017

Xiaoqun Wu received the B.Sc. degree in applied mathematics and the Ph.D. degree in computational mathematics from Wuhan University in 2000 and 2005, respectively. She is currently a Professor with the College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University. She held several visiting positions in Hong Kong, China, Australia and America over the last few years. Her current research interests include complex networks, nonlinear dynamics, and chaos control. She has published over 70 SCI journal papers in these areas. She was a recipient of the Second Prize of the Natural Science Award from Hubei Province, China in 2006, the First Prize of the Natural Science Award from the Ministry of Education of China in 2007, and the First Prize of the Natural Science Award from Hubei Province, China in 2013. In 2017, she was awarded the 14th Chinese Young Women Scientists Fellowship and the Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hubei Province. She is serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II
Corresponding author: Yuhua Xu, e-mail: yuhuaxu@nau.edu.cn; Xiaoqun Wu, e-mail: xqwu@whu.edu.cn
Received Date: 2025-07-18
Revised Date: 2025-12-01
Accepted Date: 2026-01-24

Abstract

Abstract

Recently, privacy breaches caused by information exchange between networks have received increasing attention. This paper investigates finite-time synchronization (FntS) of a two-layer multi-weight network using privacy preserving (PP) methods. Initially, a novel finite-time (FnT) time-varying vanishing privacy mask function is developed. Secondly, FntS criterion for multi-weight network based on PP are proposed, and the upper bound of privacy level is estimated. Compared with existing FnT controllers, the designed simple controller can achieve FnT control without fractional power terms or even linear parts, and the designed control protocol eliminates the limitation in existing literature that each pair of adjacent nodes cannot have overlapping neighbor sets. In addition, by estimating the control energy consumption, it was found that PP may not increase additional control energy consumption, and the bilateral PP level is stronger than the unilateral PP level. Finally, the effectiveness of the provided control criteria was verified through a simple numerical simulation example.
- Finite-time control,
- privacy function,
- synchronization,
- two-layer network

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References(37)

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Synchronization of Two-Layer Multi-Weighted Networks by Finite-Time Privacy Protection

doi: 10.1109/JAS.2026.125936

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