This paper studies a distributed online convex optimization problem, where
agents in an unbalanced network cooperatively minimize the sum of their
time-varying local cost functions subject to a coupled inequality constraint.
To solve this problem, we propose a distributed dual subgradient tracking
algorithm, called DUST, which attempts to optimize a dual objective by means of
tracking the primal constraint violations and integrating dual subgradient and
push sum techniques. Different from most existing works, we allow the
underlying network to be unbalanced with a column stochastic mixing matrix. We
show that DUST achieves sublinear dynamic regret and constraint violations,
provided that the accumulated variation of the optimal sequence grows
sublinearly. If the standard Slater's condition is additionally imposed, DUST
acquires a smaller constraint violation bound than the alternative existing
methods applicable to unbalanced networks. Simulations on a plug-in electric
vehicle charging problem demonstrate the superior convergence of DUST