Privacy Preserving Distributed Algorithm for Constrained Resource Allocation Problems with Communication Delays

ABSTRACT This article investigates a constraint‐coupled resource allocation problem, where each node has its own cost function and communicates with its neighbors to tackle the optimization problem cooperatively. However, the communication environment is non‐ideal, so the nodes will suffer from communication delay and potential information leakage. Therefore, a privacy‐preserving mismatch‐tracking algorithm with communication delay is proposed. To address communication delays, virtual nodes are introduced to transform the original delayed algorithm into a delay‐free augmented system. It is then proved that the algorithm can achieve a linear convergence rate with proper constant step size for strongly convex and smooth cost functions. Furthermore, the convergence accuracy and privacy level of the algorithm are characterized. Finally, a simulation example is provided to validate the theoretical results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.