We consider the problem of multiple subsystems, each with its own
controller, such that the dynamics of each subsystem may affect
those of other subsystems with some propagation delays, and the
controllers may communicate with each other with some transmission
delays. We wish to synthesize controllers to minimize a closed-loop
norm for the entire system. We show that if the transmission delays
satisfy the triangle inequality, then the simple condition that the
transmission delay between any two subsystems is less than the
propagation delay between those subsystems allows for the optimal
control problem to be recast as a convex optimization problem.