A Computational View of Interior-Point Methods for Linear Programming

Many issues that are crucial for an efficient implementation of an interior point algorithm are addressed in this paper. To start with, a prototype primal--dual algorithm is presented. Next, many tricks that make it so efficient in practice are discussed in detail. Those include: the preprocessing techniques, the initialization approaches, the methods of computing search directions (and lying behind them linear algebra techniques), centering strategies and methods of stepsize selection. Several reasons for the manifestations of numerical difficulties like e.g.: the primal degeneracy of optimal solutions or the lack of feasible solutions are explained in a comprehensive way. A motivation for obtaining an optimal basis is given and a practicable algorithm to perform this task is presented. Advantages of different methods to perform postoptimal analysis (applicable to interior point optimal solutions) are discussed. Important questions that still remain open in the implementations of inte..