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Auteurs principaux: Grosof, Isaac, Maguluri, Siva Theja, Srikant, R.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.05274
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author Grosof, Isaac
Maguluri, Siva Theja
Srikant, R.
author_facet Grosof, Isaac
Maguluri, Siva Theja
Srikant, R.
contents A wide variety of queueing systems can be naturally modeled as infinite-state Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). In the reinforcement learning (RL) context, a variety of algorithms have been developed to learn and optimize these MDPs. At the heart of many popular policy-gradient based learning algorithms, such as natural actor-critic, TRPO, and PPO, lies the Natural Policy Gradient (NPG) policy optimization algorithm. Convergence results for these RL algorithms rest on convergence results for the NPG algorithm. However, all existing results on the convergence of the NPG algorithm are limited to finite-state settings. We study a general class of queueing MDPs, and prove a $O(1/\sqrt{T})$ convergence rate for the NPG algorithm, if the NPG algorithm is initialized with the MaxWeight policy. This is the first convergence rate bound for the NPG algorithm for a general class of infinite-state average-reward MDPs. Moreover, our result applies to a beyond the queueing setting to any countably-infinite MDP satisfying certain mild structural assumptions, given a sufficiently good initial policy. Key to our result are state-dependent bounds on the relative value function achieved by the iterate policies of the NPG algorithm.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_05274
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Convergence of Natural Policy Gradient for a Family of Infinite-State Queueing MDPs
Grosof, Isaac
Maguluri, Siva Theja
Srikant, R.
Machine Learning
A wide variety of queueing systems can be naturally modeled as infinite-state Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). In the reinforcement learning (RL) context, a variety of algorithms have been developed to learn and optimize these MDPs. At the heart of many popular policy-gradient based learning algorithms, such as natural actor-critic, TRPO, and PPO, lies the Natural Policy Gradient (NPG) policy optimization algorithm. Convergence results for these RL algorithms rest on convergence results for the NPG algorithm. However, all existing results on the convergence of the NPG algorithm are limited to finite-state settings. We study a general class of queueing MDPs, and prove a $O(1/\sqrt{T})$ convergence rate for the NPG algorithm, if the NPG algorithm is initialized with the MaxWeight policy. This is the first convergence rate bound for the NPG algorithm for a general class of infinite-state average-reward MDPs. Moreover, our result applies to a beyond the queueing setting to any countably-infinite MDP satisfying certain mild structural assumptions, given a sufficiently good initial policy. Key to our result are state-dependent bounds on the relative value function achieved by the iterate policies of the NPG algorithm.
title Convergence of Natural Policy Gradient for a Family of Infinite-State Queueing MDPs
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.05274