On Implementing Self-Regular Proximity Based Feasible IPMs

Self-regular based interior point methods present a unified novel approach for solving linear optimization and conic optimization problems. So far it was not known if the new Self-Regular IPMs can lead to similar advances in computational practice as shown in the theoretical analysis. In this paper, we present our experiences in developing the software package … Read more

A Server for Automated Performance Analysis of Benchmarking Data

As part of Performance World, we describe an automation server (PAVER: http://www.gamsworld.org/performance/paver) to help facilitate reproducible performance analysis of benchmarking data for optimization software. Although PAVER does not solve optimization problems, it automates the task of performance data analysis and visualization, taking into account various performance metrics. These include not only robustness and efficiency, but … Read more

An Active-Set Algorithm for Nonlinear Programming Using Linear Programming and Equality Constrained Subproblems

This paper describes an active-set algorithm for large-scale nonlinear programming based on the successive linear programming method proposed by Fletcher and Sainz de la Maza. The step computation is performed in two stages. In the first stage a linear program is solved to estimate the active set at the solution. The linear program is obtained … Read more

Numerical experience with solving MPECs as NLPs

This paper describes numerical experience with solving MPECs as NLPs on a large collection of test problems. The key idea is to use off-the-shelf NLP solvers to tackle large instances of MPECs. It is shown that SQP methods are very well suited to solving MPECs and at present outperform Interior Point solvers both in terms … Read more

CUTEr (and SifDec), a Constrained and Unconstrained Testing Environment, revisited

The initial release of CUTE, a widely used testing environment for optimization software was described by Bongartz, Conn, Gould and Toint. The latest version, now known as CUTEr, is presented. New features include reorganisation of the environment to allow simultaneous multi-platform installation, new tools for, and interfaces to, optimization packages, and a considerably simplified and … Read more

NLPQLP: A New Fortran Implementation of a Sequential Quadratic Programming Algorithm

The Fortran subroutine NLPQLP solves smooth nonlinear programming problems and is an extension of the code NLPQL. The new version is specifically tuned to run under distributed systems. A new input parameter l is introduced for the number of parallel machines, that is the number of function calls to be executed simultaneously. In case of … Read more

An Independent Benchmarking of SDP and SOCP Solvers

This work reports the results of evaluating all computer codes submitted to the Seventh DIMACS Implementation Challenge on Semidefinite and Related Optimization Problems. The codes were run on a standard platform and on all the benchmark problems provided by the organizers of the challenge. A total of ten codes were tested on fifty problems in … Read more

Benchmarking optimization software with performance profiles

We propose performance profiles — probability distribution functions for a performance metric — as a tool for benchmarking and comparing optimization software. We show that performance profiles combine the best features of other tools for performance evaluation. Citationbenchmarking, performance, evaluationArticleDownload View PDF

Assessing the Potential of Interior Methods for Nonlinear Optimization

A series of numerical experiments with interior point (LOQO, KNITRO) and active-set SQP codes (SNOPT, filterSQP) are reported and analyzed. The tests were performed with small, medium-size and moderately large problems, and are examined by problem classes. Detailed observations on the performance of the codes, and several suggestions on how to improve them are presented. … Read more