Drift Optimization of Regulated Stochastic Models Using Sample Average Approximation

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Hauptverfasser: Zhou, Zihe, Honnappa, Harsha, Pasupathy, Raghu
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Zhou, Zihe
Honnappa, Harsha
Pasupathy, Raghu
author_facet Zhou, Zihe
Honnappa, Harsha
Pasupathy, Raghu
contents This paper introduces a drift optimization model of stochastic optimization problems driven by regulated stochastic processes. A broad range of problems across operations research, machine learning, and statistics can be viewed as optimizing the "drift" associated with a process by minimizing a cost functional, while respecting path constraints imposed by a Lipschitz continuous regulator. Towards an implementable solution to such infinite-dimensional problems, we develop the fundamentals of a Sample Average Approximation (SAA) method that incorporates (i) path discretization, (ii) function-space discretization, and (iii) Monte Carlo sampling, and that is solved using an optimization recursion such as mirror descent. We start by constructing pathwise directional derivatives for use within the SAA method, followed by consistency and complexity calculations. The characterized complexity is expressed as a function of the number of optimization steps, and the computational effort involved in (i)--(iii), leading to guidance on how to trade-off the computational effort allocated to optimization steps versus the "dimension reduction" steps in (i)--(iii).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_06723
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Drift Optimization of Regulated Stochastic Models Using Sample Average Approximation
Zhou, Zihe
Honnappa, Harsha
Pasupathy, Raghu
Optimization and Control
Applications
90C15 (Primary) 93E20, 60H30 (Secondary)
This paper introduces a drift optimization model of stochastic optimization problems driven by regulated stochastic processes. A broad range of problems across operations research, machine learning, and statistics can be viewed as optimizing the "drift" associated with a process by minimizing a cost functional, while respecting path constraints imposed by a Lipschitz continuous regulator. Towards an implementable solution to such infinite-dimensional problems, we develop the fundamentals of a Sample Average Approximation (SAA) method that incorporates (i) path discretization, (ii) function-space discretization, and (iii) Monte Carlo sampling, and that is solved using an optimization recursion such as mirror descent. We start by constructing pathwise directional derivatives for use within the SAA method, followed by consistency and complexity calculations. The characterized complexity is expressed as a function of the number of optimization steps, and the computational effort involved in (i)--(iii), leading to guidance on how to trade-off the computational effort allocated to optimization steps versus the "dimension reduction" steps in (i)--(iii).
title Drift Optimization of Regulated Stochastic Models Using Sample Average Approximation
topic Optimization and Control
Applications
90C15 (Primary) 93E20, 60H30 (Secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06723