A Tutorial on the Structure of Distributed Optimization Algorithms

TL;DR

This tutorial provides an overview of distributed optimization algorithms for multi-agent systems, focusing on their structure, communication, and computational aspects, supported by simulations illustrating key properties.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive overview of the structural aspects of distributed optimization algorithms, highlighting their design and properties through simulations.

Findings

Algorithms' structural properties are crucial for understanding their behavior.

Simulations demonstrate how communication and computation influence algorithm performance.

The tutorial clarifies the relationship between algorithm structure and convergence properties.

Abstract

We consider the distributed optimization problem for a multi-agent system. Here, multiple agents cooperatively optimize an objective by sharing information through a communication network and performing computations. In this tutorial, we provide an overview of the problem, describe the structure of its algorithms, and use simulations to illustrate some algorithmic properties based on this structure.