An Efficient Pessimistic-Optimistic Algorithm for Stochastic Linear Bandits with General Constraints

Xin Liu, Bin Li, Pengyi Shi, Lei Ying

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper considers stochastic linear bandits with general nonlinear constraints. The objective is to maximize the expected cumulative reward over horizon T subject to a set of constraints in each round τ ď T . We propose a pessimistic-optimistic algorithm for this problem, which is efficient in two aspects. First, the algorithm yields Õ´´ K 0δ.75 ` d¯ ?τ ¯ (pseudo) regret in round τ ď T, where K is the number of constraints, d is the dimension of the reward feature space, and δ is a Slater’s constant; and zero constraint violation in any round τ ą τ1, where τ1 is independent of horizon T. Second, the algorithm is computationally efficient. Our algorithm is based on the primal-dual approach in optimization and includes two components. The primal component is similar to unconstrained stochastic linear bandits (our algorithm uses the linear upper confidence bound algorithm (LinUCB)). The computational complexity of the dual component depends on the number of constraints, but is independent of the sizes of the contextual space, the action space, and the feature space. Thus, the computational complexity of our algorithm is similar to LinUCB for unconstrained stochastic linear bandits.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems 34 - 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NeurIPS 2021
EditorsMarc'Aurelio Ranzato, Alina Beygelzimer, Yann Dauphin, Percy S. Liang, Jenn Wortman Vaughan
PublisherNeural information processing systems foundation
Pages24075-24086
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781713845393
StatePublished - 2021
Event35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NeurIPS 2021 - Virtual, Online
Duration: Dec 6 2021Dec 14 2021

Publication series

NameAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems
Volume29
ISSN (Print)1049-5258

Conference

Conference35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NeurIPS 2021
CityVirtual, Online
Period12/6/2112/14/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems
  • Signal Processing

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