Distributed Partitioned Big-Data Optimization via Asynchronous Dual Decomposition

In this paper we consider a novel partitioned framework for distributed optimization in peer-to-peer networks. In several important applications the agents of a network have to solve an optimization problem with two key features: (i) the dimension of the decision variable depends on the network size, and (ii) cost function and constraints have a sparsity structure related to the communication graph. For this class of problems a straightforward application of existing consensus methods would show two inefficiencies: poor scalability and redundancy of shared information. We propose an asynchronous distributed algorithm, based on dual decomposition and coordinate methods, to solve partitioned optimization problems. We show that, by exploiting the problem structure, the solution can be partitioned among the nodes, so that each node just stores a local copy of a portion of the decision variable (rather than a copy of the entire decision vector) and solves a small-scale local problem

A Distributed Asynchronous Method of Multipliers for Constrained Nonconvex Optimization

This paper presents a fully asynchronous and distributed approach for tackling optimization problems in which both the objective function and the constraints may be nonconvex. In the considered network setting each node is active upon triggering of a local timer and has access only to a portion of the objective function and to a subset of the constraints. In the proposed technique, based on the method of multipliers, each node performs, when it wakes up, either a descent step on a local augmented Lagrangian or an ascent step on the local multiplier vector. Nodes realize when to switch from the descent step to the ascent one through an asynchronous distributed logic-AND, which detects when all the nodes have reached a predefined tolerance in the minimization of the augmented Lagrangian. It is shown that the resulting distributed algorithm is equivalent to a block coordinate descent for the minimization of the global augmented Lagrangian. This allows one to extend the properties of the centralized method of multipliers to the considered distributed framework. Two application examples are presented to validate the proposed approach: a distributed source localization problem and the parameter estimation of a neural network.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1803.0648

Low-Complexity LP Decoding of Nonbinary Linear Codes

Linear Programming (LP) decoding of Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes has attracted much attention in the research community in the past few years. LP decoding has been derived for binary and nonbinary linear codes. However, the most important problem with LP decoding for both binary and nonbinary linear codes is that the complexity of standard LP solvers such as the simplex algorithm remains prohibitively large for codes of moderate to large block length. To address this problem, two low-complexity LP (LCLP) decoding algorithms for binary linear codes have been proposed by Vontobel and Koetter, henceforth called the basic LCLP decoding algorithm and the subgradient LCLP decoding algorithm. In this paper, we generalize these LCLP decoding algorithms to nonbinary linear codes. The computational complexity per iteration of the proposed nonbinary LCLP decoding algorithms scales linearly with the block length of the code. A modified BCJR algorithm for efficient check-node calculations in the nonbinary basic LCLP decoding algorithm is also proposed, which has complexity linear in the check node degree. Several simulation results are presented for nonbinary LDPC codes defined over Z_4, GF(4), and GF(8) using quaternary phase-shift keying and 8-phase-shift keying, respectively, over the AWGN channel. It is shown that for some group-structured LDPC codes, the error-correcting performance of the nonbinary LCLP decoding algorithms is similar to or better than that of the min-sum decoding algorithm.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Communications, 201

A Passivity-Based Distributed Reference Governor for Constrained Robotic Networks

This paper focuses on a passivity-based distributed reference governor (RG) applied to a pre-stabilized mobile robotic network. The novelty of this paper lies in the method used to solve the RG problem, where a passivity-based distributed optimization scheme is proposed. In particular, the gradient descent method minimizes the global objective function while the dual ascent method maximizes the Hamiltonian. To make the agents converge to the agreed optimal solution, a proportional-integral consensus estimator is used. This paper proves the convergence of the state estimates of the RG to the optimal solution through passivity arguments, considering the physical system static. Then, the effectiveness of the scheme considering the dynamics of the physical system is demonstrated through simulations and experiments.Comment: 8 pages, International Federation of Automatic Conference 2017, 8 figure