Popt4jlib: A Parallel/Distributed Optimization Library for Java

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and implementation details of popt4jlib, an open-source Java library offering parallel and distributed meta-heuristic and exact optimization algorithms, focusing on infrastructure to aid developers.

Contribution

It provides a detailed architectural overview and key implementation insights for a Java library enabling parallel/distributed optimization algorithms.

Findings

Speedup and efficiency analysis of algorithms

Design decisions for parallel/distributed infrastructure

Facilitates development of custom parallel algorithms

Abstract

This paper describes the architectural design as well as key implementation details of the Open Source popt4jlib library (https://githhub.org/ioannischristou/popt4jlib) that contains a fairly large number of meta-heuristic and other exact optimization algorithms parallel/distributed Java implementations. Although we report on speedup and efficiency issues on some of the algorithms in the library, our main concern is to detail the design decisions for the key parallel/distributed infrastructure built into the library, so as to make it easier for developers to develop their own parallel implementations of the algorithms of their choice, rather than simply using it as an off-the-self application library.