Balanced canonical forms for system identification

In this paper parameterizations of linear state-space systems by balanced c anonical forms are considered. The structure, in particular the topological properties, of these parameterizations are investigated, Based on these re sults an algorithm for identification obtained by optimizing a likelihood-t ype criterion function is proposed and analyzed, In the algorithm both the estimation of real-valued parameters and of integer parameters (defining dy namic specification) is incorporated. The analysis of the algorithm emphasi zes consistency results.