Computing Atlas

How Computing Was Built
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Algorithm

Interior Point Method Algorithm

Optimization Algorithm

Interior point methods solve linear and certain nonlinear optimization problems by moving through the interior of the feasible region defined by the problem's constraints, rather than moving along the boundary edge by edge as the simplex method does, using a barrier function that penalizes points as they approach the boundary and gradually relaxing that penalty as the method converges toward an optimal solution. Narendra Karmarkar published the first practical polynomial-time interior point method for linear programming in 1984, a result that showed such methods could outperform the simplex method on certain large-scale problems. Interior point methods are now standard in commercial optimization software alongside simplex-based solvers.

Facts
Partially Attested
Credited To
Narendra Karmarkar 1
Karmarkar developed the polynomial-time linear programming method in 1984; the source says an interior point method was discovered earlier by I. I. Dikin in 1967 and reinvented in the mid-1980s
Time Complexity
Polynomial time 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Interior-point method
  • History, paragraph 1
    In 1984, Narendra Karmarkar developed a method for linear programming
  • Lead section, first bullet
    their run-time is polynomial
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.