A Global Optimization Algorithm for K-Center Clustering of One Billion Samples
Abstract
This paper presents a practical global optimization algorithm for the K-center clustering problem, which aims to select K samples as the cluster centers to minimize the maximum within-cluster distance. This algorithm is based on a reduced-space branch and bound scheme and guarantees convergence to the global optimum in a finite number of steps by only branching on the regions of centers. To improve efficiency, we have designed a two-stage decomposable lower bound, the solution of which can be derived in a closed form. In addition, we also propose several acceleration techniques to narrow down the region of centers, including bounds tightening, sample reduction, and parallelization. Extensive studies on synthetic and real-world datasets have demonstrated that our algorithm can solve the K-center problems to global optimal within 4 hours for ten million samples in the serial mode and one billion samples in the parallel mode. Moreover, compared with the state-of-the-art heuristic methods, the global optimum obtained by our algorithm can averagely reduce the objective function by 25.8% on all the synthetic and real-world datasets.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2301.00061
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2301.00061
- Bibcode:
- 2023arXiv230100061R
- Keywords:
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- Mathematics - Optimization and Control;
- Computer Science - Machine Learning
- E-Print:
- 34 pages, 6 figures, and 5 tables