We propose an optimization approach to design cost-effective electrical power transmission networks. That is, we aim to select both the network structure and the line conductances (line sizes) so as to optimize the trade-off between network efficiency (low power dissipation within the transmission network) and the cost to build the network. We begin with a convex optimization method based on the paper “Minimizing Effective Resistance of a Graph” [Ghosh, Boyd & Saberi]. We show that this (DC) resistive network method can be adapted to the context of AC power flow. However, that does not address the combinatorial aspect of selecting network structure. We approach this problem as selecting a subgraph within an over-complete network, posed as minimizing the (convex) network power dissipation plus a non-convex cost on line conductances that encourages sparse networks where many line conductances are set to zero. We develop a heuristic approach to solve this non-convex optimization problem using: (1) a continuation method to interpolate from the smooth, convex problem to the (non-smooth, non-convex) combinatorial problem, (2) the majorization-minimization algorithm to perform the necessary intermediate smooth but non-convex optimization steps. Ultimately, this involves solving a sequence of convex optimization problems in which we iteratively reweight a linear cost on line conductances to fit the actual non-convex cost. Several examples are presented which suggest that the overall method is a good heuristic for network design. We also consider how to obtain sparse networks that are still robust against failures of lines and or generators.
We consider the problem of determining optimal wire widths for a power or ground network, subject to limits on wire widths, voltage drops, total wire area, current density, and power dissipation. To account for the variation of the current demand, we model it as a random vector with known statistics, possibly including correlation between subsystem currents. Other researchers have shown that when the variation in the current is not taken into account, the optimal network topology is a tree. A tree topology is, however, almost never used in practice, because it is not robust with respect to variations in the lock currents. We show that when the current variation is taken into account, the optimal network is usually not a tree. We formulate a heuristic method based on minimizing a linear combination of total average power and total wire area. We show that this results in designs that obey the reliability constraints, occupy small area, and most importantly are robust against variations in block currents. The problem can be formulated as a nonlinear convex optimization problem that can be globally solved very effciently. The effective resistance between two nodes of a weighted graph is the electrical resistance seen between the nodes of a resistor network with branch conductances given by the edge weights. The effective resistance comes up in many applications and fields in addition to electrical network analysis, including, for example, Markov chains and continuous-time averaging networks. In this paper we study the problem of allocating edge weights on a given graph in order to minimize the total effective resistance, i.e., the sum of the resistances between all pairs of nodes. We show that this is a convex optimization problem and can be solved efficiently either numerically or, in some cases, analytically. We show that optimal allocation of the edge weights can reduce the total effective resistance of the graph (compared to uniform weights) by a factor that grows unboundedly with the size of the graph. We show that among all graphs with @math nodes, the path has the largest value of optimal total effective resistance and the complete graph has the least. The theory of compressive sensing has shown that sparse signals can be reconstructed exactly from many fewer measurements than traditionally believed necessary. In [1], it was shown empirically that using lscrp minimization with p < 1 can do so with fewer measurements than with p = 1. In this paper we consider the use of iteratively reweighted algorithms for computing local minima of the nonconvex problem. In particular, a particular regularization strategy is found to greatly improve the ability of a reweighted least-squares algorithm to recover sparse signals, with exact recovery being observed for signals that are much less sparse than required by an unregularized version (such as FOCUSS, [2]). Improvements are also observed for the reweighted-lscr1 approach of [3]. Several authors have shown recently that It is possible to reconstruct exactly a sparse signal from fewer linear measurements than would be expected from traditional sampling theory. The methods used involve computing the signal of minimum lscr1 norm among those having the given measurements. We show that by replacing the lscr1 norm with the lscrp norm with p < 1, exact reconstruction is possible with substantially fewer measurements. We give a theorem in this direction, and many numerical examples, both in one complex dimension, and larger-scale examples in two real dimensions. It is now well understood that (1) it is possible to reconstruct sparse signals exactly from what appear to be highly incomplete sets of linear measurements and (2) that this can be done by constrained l1 minimization. In this paper, we study a novel method for sparse signal recovery that in many situations outperforms l1 minimization in the sense that substantially fewer measurements are needed for exact recovery. The algorithm consists of solving a sequence of weighted l1-minimization problems where the weights used for the next iteration are computed from the value of the current solution. We present a series of experiments demonstrating the remarkable performance and broad applicability of this algorithm in the areas of sparse signal recovery, statistical estimation, error correction and image processing. Interestingly, superior gains are also achieved when our method is applied to recover signals with assumed near-sparsity in overcomplete representations—not by reweighting the l1 norm of the coefficient sequence as is common, but by reweighting the l1 norm of the transformed object. An immediate consequence is the possibility of highly efficient data acquisition protocols by improving on a technique known as Compressive Sensing. This paper deals with convex half-quadratic criteria and associated minimization algorithms for the purpose of image restoration. It brings a number of original elements within a unified mathematical presentation based on convex duality. Firstly, the Geman and Yang (1995) and Geman and Reynolds (1992) constructions are revisited, with a view to establishing the convexity properties of the resulting half-quadratic augmented criteria, when the original nonquadratic criterion is already convex. Secondly, a family of convex Gibbsian energies that incorporate interacting auxiliary variables is revealed as a potentially fruitful extension of the Geman and Reynolds construction. Most problems in frequentist statistics involve optimization of a function such as a likelihood or a sum of squares. EM algorithms are among the most effective algorithms for maximum likelihood estimation because they consistently drive the likelihood uphill by maximizing a simple surrogate function for the log-likelihood. Iterative optimization of a surrogate function as exemplified by an EM algorithm does not necessarily require missing data. Indeed, every EM algorithm is a special case of the more general class of MM optimization algorithms, which typically exploit convexity rather than missing data in majorizing or minorizing an objective function. In our opinion, MM algorithms deserve to be part of the standard toolkit of professional statisticians. This article explains the principle behind MM algorithms, suggests some methods for constructing them, and discusses some of their attractive features. We include numerous examples throughout the article to illustrate the concepts described. In addition t...