This paper considers decentralized optimization of convex functions with mixed affine equality constraints involving both local and global variables. Constraints on global variables may vary across different nodes in the network, while local variables are subject to coupled and node-specific constraints. Such problem formulations arise in machine learning applications, including federated learning and multi-task learning, as well as in resource allocation and distributed control. We analyze this problem under smooth and non-smooth assumptions, considering both strongly convex and general convex objective functions. Our main contribution is an optimal algorithm for the smooth, strongly convex regime, whose convergence rate matches established lower complexity bounds. We further provide near-optimal methods for the remaining cases.
Decentralized optimization is a common paradigm used in distributed signal processing and sensing as well as privacy-preserving and large-scale machine learning. It is assumed that several computational entities locally hold objective functions and are connected by a network. The agents aim to commonly minimize the sum of the local objectives subject by making gradient updates and exchanging information with their immediate neighbors. Theory of decentralized optimization is pretty well-developed in the literature. In particular, it includes lower bounds and optimal algorithms. In this paper, w…
We consider the decentralized control of radial distribution systems with controllable photovoltaic inverters and energy storage resources. For such systems, we investigate the problem of designing fully decentralized controllers that minimize the expected cost of balancing demand, while guaranteeing the satisfaction of individual resource and distribution system voltage constraints. Employing a linear approximation of the branch flow model, we formulate this problem as the design of a decentralized disturbance-feedback controller that minimizes the expected value of a convex quadratic cost fu…
This work develops a proximal primal-dual decentralized strategy for multi-agent optimization problems that involve multiple coupled affine constraints, where each constraint may involve only a subset of the agents. The constraints are generally sparse, meaning that only a small subset of the agents are involved in them. This scenario arises in many applications including decentralized control formulations, resource allocation problems, and smart grids. Traditional decentralized solutions tend to ignore the structure of the constraints and lead to degraded performance. We instead develop a dec…
Modern power systems are now in continuous process of massive changes. Increased penetration of distributed generation, usage of energy storage and controllable demand require introduction of a new control paradigm that does not rely on massive information exchange required by centralized approaches. Distributed algorithms can rely only on limited information from neighbours to obtain an optimal solution for various optimization problems, such as optimal power flow, unit commitment etc. As a generalization of these problems we consider the problem of decentralized minimization of the smooth an…
We study the reformulation of integer linear programs by means of a mixed integer linear program with fewer integer variables. Such reformulations can be solved efficiently with mixed integer linear programming techniques. We exhibit examples that demonstrate how integer programs can be reformulated using far fewer integer variables. To this end, we introduce a generalization of total unimodularity called the \emph{affine TU-dimension} of a matrix and study related theory and algorithms for determining the affine TU-dimension of a matrix. We also present bounds on the number of integer variabl…
We consider the decentralized control of a discrete-time time-varying linear system subject to additive disturbances and polyhedral constraints on the state and input trajectories. The underlying system is composed of a finite collection of dynamically coupled subsystems, where each subsystem is assumed to have a dedicated local controller. The decentralization of information is expressed according to sparsity constraints on the state measurements that each local controller has access to. We investigate the design of decentralized controllers that are affinely parameterized in their measuremen…
This paper studies the mixed $H_-/H_{\infty}$ fault detection filtering of Itô-type nonlinear stochastic systems. Mixed $H_-/H_{\infty}$ filtering combines the system robustness to the external disturbance and the sensitivity to the fault of the residual signal. Firstly, for Itô-type affine nonlinear stochastic systems, some sufficient criteria are obtained for the existence of $H_-/H_{\infty}$ filter in terms of Hamilton-Jacobi inequalities (HJIs). Secondly, for a class of quasi-linear Itô systems, a sufficient condition is given for the existence of $H_-/H_{\infty}$ filter by means of linear…
We consider the decentralized control of a discrete-time, linear system subject to exogenous disturbances and polyhedral constraints on the state and input trajectories. The underlying system is composed of a finite collection of dynamically coupled subsystems, where each subsystem is assumed to have a dedicated local controller. The decentralization of information is expressed according to sparsity constraints on the state measurements that each local controller has access to. In this context, we investigate the design of decentralized controllers that are affinely parameterized in their meas…
Piecewise affine functions are widely used to approximate nonlinear and discontinuous functions. However, most, if not all existing models only deal with fitting continuous functions. In this paper, we investigate the problem of fitting a discontinuous piecewise affine function to given data that lie in an orthogonal grid, where no restriction on the partition is enforced (i.e., its geometric shape can be nonconvex). This is useful for segmentation and denoising when data corresponding to images. We propose a novel Mixed Integer Program (MIP) formulation for the piecewise affine fitting proble…
We describe a convex programming approach to the calculation of lower bounds on the minimum cost of constrained decentralized control problems with nonclassical information structures. The class of problems we consider entail the decentralized output feedback control of a linear time-varying system over a finite horizon, subject to polyhedral constraints on the state and input trajectories, and sparsity constraints on the controller's information structure. As the determination of optimal control policies for such systems is known to be computationally intractable in general, considerable effo…
Jeroslow and Lowe gave an exact geometric characterization of subsets of $\mathbb{R}^n$ that are projections of mixed-integer linear sets, a.k.a MILP-representable sets. We give an alternate algebraic characterization by showing that a set is MILP-representable {\em if and only if} the set can be described as the intersection of finitely many {\em affine Chvátal inequalities}. These inequalities are a modification of a concept introduced by Blair and Jeroslow. This gives a sequential variable elimination scheme that, when applied to the MILP representation of a set, explicitly gives the affine…
Jeroslow and Lowe gave an exact geometric characterization of subsets of $\mathbb{R}^n$ that are projections of mixed-integer linear sets, also known as MILP-representable or MILP-R sets. We give an alternate algebraic characterization by showing that a set is MILP-R {\em if and only if} the set can be described as the intersection of finitely many {\em affine Chvatal inequalities} in continuous variables (termed AC sets). These inequalities are a modification of a concept introduced by Blair and Jeroslow. Unlike the case for linear inequalities, allowing for integer variables in Chvatal inequ…
We consider stochastic convex optimization problems with affine constraints and develop several methods using either primal or dual approach to solve it. In the primal case, we use a special penalization technique to make the initial problem more convenient for using optimization methods. We propose algorithms to solve it based on Similar Triangles Method with Inexact Proximal Step for the convex smooth and strongly convex smooth objective functions and methods based on Gradient Sliding algorithm to solve the same problems in the non-smooth case. We prove the convergence guarantees in the smoo…
In this paper, we propose a new method based on the Sliding Algorithm from Lan(2016, 2019) for the convex composite optimization problem that includes two terms: smooth one and non-smooth one. Our method uses the stochastic noised zeroth-order oracle for the non-smooth part and the first-order oracle for the smooth part. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method in the literature that uses such a mixed oracle for the composite optimization. We prove the convergence rate for the new method that matches the corresponding rate for the first-order method up to a factor proportional to…
We consider a class of linear-quadratic-Gaussian mean-field games with a major agent and considerable heterogeneous minor agents in the presence of mean-field interactions. The individual admissible controls are constrained in closed convex subsets $Γ_{k}$ of $\mathbb{R}^{m}.$ The decentralized strategies for individual agents and consistency condition system are represented in an unified manner through a class of mean-field forward-backward stochastic differential equations involving projection operators on $Γ_{k}$. The well-posedness of consistency system is established in both the local and…
We discuss an online decentralized decision making problem where the agents are coupled with affine inequality constraints. Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) is used as the computation engine and we discuss the convergence of the algorithm in an online setting. To be specific, when decisions have to be made sequentially with a fixed time step, there might not be enough time for the ADMM to converge before the scenario changes and the decision needs to be updated. In this case, a suboptimal solution is employed and we analyze the optimality gap given the convergence condition. …
We address the optimal design of a large scale multi-agent system where each agent has discrete and/or continuous decision variables that need to be set so as to optimize the sum of linear local cost functions, in presence of linear local and global constraints. The problem reduces to a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) that is here addressed according to a decentralized iterative scheme based on dual decomposition, where each agent determines its decision vector by solving a smaller MILP involving its local cost function and constraint given some dual variable, whereas a central unit enforc…
We consider multistage stochastic optimization problems involving multiple units. Each unit is a (small) control system. Static constraints couple units at each stage. We present a mix of spatial and temporal decompositions to tackle such large scale problems. More precisely, we obtain theoretical bounds and policies by means of two methods, depending whether the coupling constraints are handled by prices or by resources. We study both centralized and decentralized information structures. We report the results of numerical experiments on the management of urban microgrids. It appears that deco…
The objective of this paper is to analyze the existence of equilibria for a class of deterministic mean field games of controls. The interaction between players is due to both a congestion term and a price function which depends on the distributions of the optimal strategies. Moreover, final state and mixed state-control constraints are considered, the dynamics being nonlinear and affine with respect to the control. The existence of equilibria is obtained by Kakutani's theorem, applied to a fixed point formulation of the problem. Finally, uniqueness results are shown under monotonicity assumpt…
Decentralized Nonlinear Feedback Design with Separable Control Contraction Metrics
The Australian Centre for Field Robotics（澳大利亚野外机器人中心）；School of Aerospace Mechanical and Mechatronical Engineering, The University of Sydney（悉尼大学航空航天机械与机电工程学院）
This paper proposes an open-source distributed solver for solving Sparse Convex Optimization (SCO) problems over computational networks. Motivated by past algorithmic advances in mixed-integer optimization, the Sparse Convex Optimization Toolkit (SCOT) adopts a mixed-integer approach to find exact solutions to SCO problems. In particular, SCOT brings together various techniques to transform the original SCO problem into an equivalent convex Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) problem that can benefit from high-performance and parallel computing platforms. To solve the equivalent mixed-…
We consider a class of concave continuous games in which the corresponding admissible strategy profile of each player underlies affine coupling constraints. We propose a novel algorithm that leads the relevant population dynamic toward Nash equilibrium. This algorithm is based on a mirror ascent algorithm, which suits with the framework of no-regret online learning, and on the augmented Lagrangian method. The decentralization aspect of the algorithm corresponds to the aspects that the iterate of each player requires the local information about how she contributes to the coupling constraints an…
SPARKLE: A Unified Single-Loop Primal-Dual Framework for Decentralized Bilevel Optimization
Peking University（北京大学）；IBM Research（IBM研究院）；University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚大学）；National Engineering Labratory for Big Data Analytics and Applications（国家大数据分析与应用工程实验室）；AI for Science Institute（科学智能研究所）
