Elementary Linear Programming with Applications

3 - Further Topics in Linear Programming

For many of us, modern-day linear programming (LP) started with the work of George Dantzig in 1947. However, it must be said that many other scientists have also made seminal contributions to the subject, and some would argue that the origins of LP predate Dantzig’s contribution. It is matter open to debate [36]. However, what is not open to debate is Dantzig’s key contribution to LP computation. In contrast to the economists of his time, Dantzig viewed LP not just as a qualitative tool in the analysis of economic phenomena, but as a method that could be used to compute actual answers to specific real-world problems. Consistent with that view, he proposed an algorithm for solving LPs, the simplex algorithm [12]. To this day the simplex algorithm remains a primary computational tool in linear and mixed-integer programming (MIP). In [11] it is reported that the first application of Dantzig’s simplex algorithm to the solution of a non-trivial LP was Laderman’s solution of a 21 constraint, 77 variable instance of the classical Stigler Diet Problem [41]. It is reported that the total computation time was 120 man-days! The first computer implementation of an at-least modestly general version of the simplex algorithm is reported to have been on the SEAC computer at the then National Bureau of Standards [25]. (There were apparently some slightly earlier implementations for dealing with models that were “triangular”, that is, where all the linear systems could be solved by simple addition and subtraction.) Orchard-Hays [35] reports that several small instances having as many as 10 constraints and 20 variables were solved with this implementation. The first systematic development of computer codes for the simplex algorithm began very shortly thereafter at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Dantzig’s initial LP work occurred at the Air Force following

Linear programming (LP) is an important field of optimization. Even though, interior point methods are polynomial algorithms, many LP practical problems are solved more efficiently by the primal and dual revised simplex methods (RSM); however, RSM has a poor performance in hard LP problems (HLPP) as in the Klee-Minty Cubes problem. Among LP methods, the hybrid method known as Simplex-Genetic (SG) is very robust to solve HLPP. The objective of SG is to obtain the optimal solution of a HLPP, taking advantages from each one of the combined methods -a genetic algorithm (GA) and the classical primal RSM-. In this paper a new SG method named Improved Simplex Genetic Method (ISG) is presented. ISG combines a GA (with special genetic operators) with both primal and dual RSM. Numerical experimentation using some instances of the Klee-Minty cubes problem shows that ISG has a better performance than both RSM and SG.

Chapter two - Linear programming

An experimental spacecraft control system will be incorporated into the Space Shuttle flight software and exercised during a forthcoming mission to evaluate its performance and handling qualities. The control system incorporates a 'phase space' control law to generate rate change requests and a linear programming jet select to compute jet firings. Posed as a linear programming problem, jet selection must represent the rate change request as a linear combination of jet acceleration vectors where the coefficients are the jet firing times, while minimizing the fuel expended in satisfying that request. This problem is solved in real time using a revised Simplex algorithm. In order to implement the jet selection algorithm in the Shuttle flight control computer, it was modified to accommodate certain practical features of the Shuttle such as limited computer throughput, lengthy firing times, and a large number of control jets. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first such application of linear programming. It was made possible by careful consideration of the jet selection problem in terms of the properties of linear programming and the Simplex algorithm. These modifications to the jet select algorithm may by useful for the design of reaction controlled spacecraft.

Linear programming algorithms have been widely used in Decision Support Systems. These systems have incorporated linear programming algorithms for the solution of the given problems. Yet, the special structure of each linear problem may take advantage of different linear programming algorithms or different techniques used in these algorithms. This paper proposes a web-based DSS that assists decision makers in the solution of linear programming problems with a variety of linear programming algorithms and techniques. Two linear programming algorithms have been included in the DSS: (i) revised simplex algorithm and (ii) exterior primal simplex algorithm. Furthermore, ten scaling techniques, five basis update methods and eight pivoting rules have been incorporated in the DSS. All linear programming algorithms and methods have been implemented using MATLAB and converted to Java classes using MATLAB Builder JA, while the web interface of the DSS has been designed using Java Server Pages.

We present a parallelization of the revised simplex method for large extensive forms of two-stage stochastic linear programming (LP) problems. These problems have been considered too large to solve with the simplex method; instead, decomposition approaches based on Benders decomposition or, more recently, interior-point methods are generally used. However, these approaches do not provide optimal basic solutions, which allow for efficient hot-starts (e.g., in a branch-and-bound context) and can provide important sensitivity information. Our approach exploits the dual block-angular structure of these problems inside the linear algebra of the revised simplex method in a manner suitable for high-performance distributed-memory clusters or supercomputers. While this paper focuses on stochastic LPs, the work is applicable to all problems with a dual block-angular structure. Our implementation is competitive in serial with highly efficient sparsity-exploiting simplex codes and achieves significant relative speed-ups when run in parallel. Additionally, very large problems with hundreds of millions of variables have been successfully solved to optimality. This is the largest-scale parallel sparsity-exploiting revised simplex implementation that has been developed to date and the first truly distributed solver. It is built on novel analysis of the linear algebra for dual block-angular LP problems when solved by using the revised simplex method and a novel parallel scheme for applying product-form updates.

Secure multiparty computation is a basic concept of growing interest in modern cryptography. It allows a set of mutually distrusting parties to perform a computation on their private information in such a way that as little as possible is revealed about each private input. The early results of multiparty computation have only theoretical signi??cance since they are not able to solve computationally complex functions in a reasonable amount of time. Nowadays, e??ciency of secure multiparty computation is an important topic of cryptographic research. As a case study we apply multiparty computation to solve the problem of secure linear programming. The results enable, for example in the context of the EU-FP7 project SecureSCM, collaborative supply chain management. Collaborative supply chain management is about the optimization of the supply and demand con??guration of a supply chain. In order to optimize the total bene??t of the entire chain, parties should collaborate by pooling their sensitive data. With the focus on e??ciency we design protocols that securely solve any linear program using the simplex algorithm. The simplex algorithm is well studied and there are many variants of the simplex algorithm providing a simple and e??cient solution to solving linear programs in practice. However, the cryptographic layer on top of any variant of the simplex algorithm imposes restrictions and new complexity measures. For example, hiding the number of iterations of the simplex algorithm has the consequence that the secure implementations have a worst case number of iterations. Then, since the simplex algorithm has exponentially many iterations in the worst case, the secure implementations have exponentially many iterations in all cases. To give a basis for understanding the restrictions, we review the basic theory behind the simplex algorithm and we provide a set of cryptographic building blocks used to implement secure protocols evaluating basic variants of the simplex algorithm. We show how to balance between privacy and e??ciency; some protocols reveal data about the internal state of the simplex algorithm, such as the number of iterations, in order to improve the expected running times. For the sake of simplicity and e??ciency, the protocols are based on Shamir's secret sharing scheme. We combine and use the results from the literature on secure random number generation, secure circuit evaluation, secure comparison, and secret indexing to construct e??cient building blocks for secure simplex. The solutions for secure linear programming in this thesis can be split into two categories. On the one hand, some protocols evaluate the classical variants of the simplex algorithm in which numbers are truncated, while the other protocols evaluate the variants of the simplex algorithms in which truncation is avoided. On the other hand, the protocols can be separated by the size of the tableaus. Theoretically there is no clear winner that has both the best security properties and the best performance.

The concept of linear programming (LP) was developed to find out the best solution among all feasible solutions in an optimization problem. This technique becomes much popular and attains great attention from researchers due to its wide application in engineering, computer science, marketing, military and industries. Nowadays, there are many commercial software that apply this technique to solve optimization problems, e.g. Excel Solver, TORA, AMPL, LINGO and MATLAB. In this paper, we aim to use MATLAB to develop a Graphical User Interface (GUI) solver for LPs, namely LpSolver. The LP methods that will be included in our solver are the simplex method, the Big-M method, the Two-Phase method and the Dual-Simplex method. We try to make our solver perform calculations in symbolic form so that the result will be free from rounding errors. Besides that, we added a few features such as creating animated 2-D graphs and generating a detailed tableau showing all intermediate iterative results; in which the user can use it to trace the convergence path that leads to the optimal solution. In the later part of this paper we test our solver with a simple classroom sized problem.

Recently, efficient algorithms have been proposed for finding all solutions of nonlinear equations using linear programming (LP). These algorithms are based on a simple test (termed the LP test) for nonexistence of a solution to a system of nonlinear equations in a given region. In the LP test, a system of nonlinear equations is transformed into an LP problem by surrounding component nonlinear functions by rectangles or right‐angled triangles. In this paper, an efficient algorithm is proposed for finding all solutions of weakly nonlinear equations, where component nonlinear functions are surrounded by parallelograms and then the dual simplex method is applied to the LP problem. Numerical examples are given to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 89(7): 1–7, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjc.20220

Linear programming: Mathematics, theory and algorithms: Michael J. Panik Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996, x + 496 pages

There are two important approaches based on linear ranking functions for solving linear programming problems with cost coefficients as an auxiliary problem to obtain a fuzzy solution of fuzzy variable linear programming problem. The first approach uses the primal simplex method that assumes an initial primal feasible basic solution is at hand. The second approach is based on dual simplex method that begins with a basic dual feasible basic solution and proceeds by pivoting through a series of dual basic solutions until the associated complementary primal basic fuzzy solution is feasible. In this paper, we propose a new method called the primal-dual algorithm, which is similar to the dual simplex method and begins with dual feasibility and proceeds to obtain primal feasibility while maintaining complementary slackness. An important difference between the dual simplex method and the primal-dual method is that the primal-dual algorithm does not require a dual feasible solution to be basic. This algorithm is useful specially for solving minimum fuzzy cost flow problem in which finding an initial dual feasible solution turns out to be a trivial task.

Our paper presents two new algorithms for solving linear programming problems. These algorithms are based on the convergent criss-cross method and on the idea of the “Hungarian Method”. Similarly to the primal-dual algorithm of Dantzig-Ford-Fulkerson, our algorithms improve a feasible (may be not basic) solution step by step, but we use Terlaky's convergent criss-cross method for solving the subproblems. Our algorithms solve linear programming problems in a finite number of steps (i.e. cycling cannot occur). We show that the primal and dual Simplex methods are special cases of our algorithms. In these Simplex methods we use Bland's pivoting rule only if the basic transformations are degenerate. By this we show how can one derive the primal or dual simplex method from Terlaky's criss-cross method.

This paper establishes a framework for solving some optimization problems with linear constraints using simplex-type methods. The problems include those found in linear programs, linear fractional programs, and generalized linear fractional programs. In this study, these problems refer to a standard form of minimizing a single parameter subject to parameterized linear equations. Based on the analysis of parameterized basis-based solutions, a unified simplex-type approach is proposed. The adaptability of the parameterized model and that of the solution procedure are discussed. In particular, the proposed algorithm can prevent cycling when compared with the conventional simplex method used for solving linear programs.

Abstract: Linear Programming (LPP) is a mathematical method used to optimize resource allocation systems with linear relationships, it aims to maximize or minimize a linear objective function while adhering to linear constraints. This paper showcase how to optimize linear programming problems through the simplex and graphical methods. The excel environment facilitates efficient modeling and solution generation. The simplex method is executed step – by – step, showcasing its versatility, while the graphical method provides visual insights. The solver add in automates the optimization process, adjusting decision variables within constraints. Comparative analysis reveals insights into the strengths of both the methods used in the process of the study. This research contributes to practical applications of LP, emphasizing the significance of excel and solver for real – world problem solving