Monotonic Optimization in Communication and Networking Systems
By Ying Jun (Angela) Zhang, Department of Information Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, yjzhang@ie.cuhk.edu.hk | Liping Qian, College of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China, qianjoe@gmail.com | Jianwei Huang, Department of Information Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, jwhuang@ie.cuhk.edu.hk
Abstract
Optimization has been widely used in recent design of communication and networking systems. One major hurdle in this endeavor lies in the nonconvexity of many optimization problems that arise from practical systems. To address this issue, we observe that most nonconvex problems encountered in communication and networking systems exhibit monotonicity or hidden monotonicity structures. A systematic use of the monotonicity properties would substantially alleviate the difficulty in obtaining the global optimal solutions of the problems. This monograph provides a succinct and accessible introduction to monotonic optimization, including the formulation skills and solution algorithms. Through several application examples, we will illustrate modeling techniques and algorithm details of monotonic optimization in various scenarios. With this promising technique, many previously difficult problems can now be solved with great efficiency. With this monograph, we wish to spur new research activities in broadening the scope of application of monotonic optimization in communication and networking systems.
Monotonic Optimization in Communication and Networking Systems
Global data traffic reached 885 petabytes per month in 2012, which is more than ten times the global internet traffic in the entire year of 2000. This rapid growth in demand is driving the research community to develop evolutionary and revolutionary approaches that push communication and networking system performance towards new limits. To this end, optimization techniques have proven extremely useful. One major obstacle in this endeavor lies in the non-convexity of many optimization problems that arise from practical systems. Monotonic Optimization in Communication and Networking Systems observes, however, that most nonconvex problems encountered in communication and networking systems exhibit monotonicity or hidden monotonicity structures. Systematic use of the monotonicity properties can substantially alleviate the difficulty in obtaining global optimal solutions for these problems.
Monotonic Optimization in Communication and Networking Systems provides a succinct and accessible introduction to monotonic optimization, including formulation skills and solution algorithms. Through several application examples, it illustrates modeling techniques and algorithmic details of monotonic optimization in various scenarios. With this promising technique, many previously difficult problems can now be solved with great efficiency.
With Monotonic Optimization in Communication and Networking Systems, it is hoped that new research activities will be spurred on that will broaden the scope of application of monotonic optimization in communication and networking systems.
