In this paper we propose randomized first-order algorithms for solving bilinear saddle points problems. Our developments are motivated by the need for sublinear time algorithms to solve large-scale parametric bilinear saddle point problems where cheap online assessment of solution quality is crucial. We present the theoretical efficiency estimates of our algorithms and discuss a number of applications, primarily to the problem of $\ell_1$ minimization arising in sparsity-oriented Signal Processing. We demonstrate, both theoretically and by numerical examples, that when seeking for medium-accuracy solutions of large-scale $\ell_1$ minimization problems, our randomized algorithms outperform significantly (and progressively as the sizes of the problem grow) the state-of-the art deterministic methods.
Citation
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technolofy, 765 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta GA 30332 USA, May 2010