A Survey on Distributed Online Optimization and Game

Abstract

Distributed online optimization and game have been increasingly researched in the last decade, mostly motivated by its wide applications in sensor networks, robotics (e.g., distributed target tracking and formation control), smart grids, deep learning, and so forth. In these problems, there is a network of agents who may be cooperative (i.e., distributed online optimization) or noncooperative (i.e., online game) through local information exchanges. And the local cost function of each agent is often time-varying in dynamic and even adversarial environments. At each time, a decision must be made by each agent based on historical information at hand without knowing future information on cost functions. For these problems, a comprehensive survey is still lacking. This paper aims to provide a thorough overview of distributed online optimization and game from the perspective of problem settings, communication, computation, algorithms, and performances. In addition, some potential future directions are also discussed.