Nonnegative Matrix Inequalities and their Application to Nonconvex Power Control Optimization

Maximizing the sum rates in a multiuser Gaussian channel by power control is a nonconvex NP-hard problem that finds engineering application in code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless communication network. In this paper, we extend and apply several fundamental nonnegative matrix inequalities initiated by Friedland and Karlin in a 1975 paper to solve this nonconvex power control optimization problem. Leveraging tools such as the Perron–Frobenius theorem in nonnegative matrix theory, we (1) show that this problem in the power domain can be reformulated as an equivalent convex maximization problem over a closed unbounded convex set in the logarithmic signal-to-interference-noise ratio domain, (2) propose two relaxation techniques that utilize the reformulation problem structure and convexification by Lagrange dual relaxation to compute progressively tight bounds, and (3) propose a global optimization algorithm with ϵ-suboptimality to compute the optimal power control allocation. A byproduct of our analysis is the application of Friedland–Karlin inequalities to inverse problems in nonnegative matrix theory

An Approximate Shapley-Folkman Theorem

The Shapley-Folkman theorem shows that Minkowski averages of uniformly bounded sets tend to be convex when the number of terms in the sum becomes much larger than the ambient dimension. In optimization, Aubin and Ekeland [1976] show that this produces an a priori bound on the duality gap of separable nonconvex optimization problems involving finite sums. This bound is highly conservative and depends on unstable quantities, and we relax it in several directions to show that non convexity can have a much milder impact on finite sum minimization problems such as empirical risk minimization and multi-task classification. As a byproduct, we show a new version of Maurey's classical approximate Carath\'eodory lemma where we sample a significant fraction of the coefficients, without replacement, as well as a result on sampling constraints using an approximate Helly theorem, both of independent interest.Comment: Added constraint sampling result, simplified sampling results, reformat, et