# Learning to Branch: Accelerating Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a machine learning approach using imitation learning to accelerate the branch-and-bound algorithm for resource allocation in wireless networks, improving speed while maintaining optimality.

## Contribution

It develops a supervised learning method with problem-independent features and a novel neural network loss function to enhance B&B efficiency in D2D communications.

## Key findings

- Significant reduction in computational complexity.
- Maintains high solution optimality.
- Improves real-time resource allocation performance.

## Abstract

Resource allocation in wireless networks, such as device-to-device (D2D) communications, is usually formulated as mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems, which are generally NP-hard and difficult to get the optimal solutions. Traditional methods to solve these MINLP problems are all based on mathematical optimization techniques, such as the branch-and-bound (B&B) algorithm that converges slowly and has forbidding complexity for real-time implementation. Therefore, machine leaning (ML) has been used recently to address the MINLP problems in wireless communications. In this paper, we use imitation learning method to accelerate the B&B algorithm. With invariant problem-independent features and appropriate problem-dependent feature selection for D2D communications, a good auxiliary prune policy can be learned in a supervised manner to speed up the most time-consuming branch process of the B&B algorithm. Moreover, we develop a mixed training strategy to further reinforce the generalization ability and a deep neural network (DNN) with a novel loss function to achieve better dynamic control over optimality and computational complexity. Extensive simulation demonstrates that the proposed method can achieve good optimality and reduce computational complexity simultaneously.