{
  "abstract": "Timely state updates are essential for coordination and monitoring in multi-agent systems, such as teams of mobile robots exchanging state information. When agents share a wireless channel, collisions and slow convergence of distributed access schemes can degrade information freshness over finite operating periods. This paper proposes age-threshold frame-based random access (AFRA), a distributed medium access control protocol for minimizing age of information (AoI). Once its age reaches a threshold, an agent starts a local frame with a mandatory transmission and, if unsuccessful, makes one further attempt at a uniformly selected remaining slot. Each attempt carries a freshly generated update. AFRA requires only local state and acknowledgment feedback, with shared slot boundaries but independently timed local frames. We prove almost-sure convergence from any legal initial state to collision-free periodic operation when the frame length $L$ and age threshold $T$ satisfy $L\\ge T>N\\ge2$, where $N$ is the number of agents. We also derive closed-form expressions for steady-state throughput, average AoI, and average peak AoI. Simulations demonstrate that AFRA combines rapid convergence at small age thresholds with lower window-averaged AoI than the existing age-aware random access schemes evaluated in this study.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.32785",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Jiedan Tan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Fang Liu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2s5rgsst9b7db.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.32785",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2s5rgsst9b7db",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.32785",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cs.IT"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "math.IT"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1705|Age of Information Optimization"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223700313",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.32785",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-23",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2s5rgsst9b7db.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:35:19Z",
      "native_id": "2610.32785",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.32785"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "mathematics",
      "origin": "arxiv:math.IT",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "AFRA: Age-Threshold Frame-Based Random Access for Timely Communication in Multi-Agent Systems",
  "title_text": "AFRA: Age-Threshold Frame-Based Random Access for Timely Communication in Multi-Agent Systems",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:35:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2s5rgsst9b7db",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}