A Robust AFPTAS for Online Bin Packing with Polynomial Migration

In this paper we develop general LP and ILP techniques to find an approximate solution with improved objective value close to an existing solution. The task of improving an approximate solution is closely related to a classical theorem of Cook et al. in the sensitivity analysis for LPs and ILPs. This result is often applied in designing robust algorithms for online problems. We apply our new techniques to the online bin packing problem, where it is allowed to reassign a certain number of items, measured by the migration factor. The migration factor is defined by the total size of reassigned items divided by the size of the arriving item. We obtain a robust asymptotic fully polynomial time approximation scheme (AFPTAS) for the online bin packing problem with migration factor bounded by a polynomial in $\frac{1}{\epsilon}$. This answers an open question stated by Epstein and Levin in the affirmative. As a byproduct we prove an approximate variant of the sensitivity theorem by Cook at el. for linear programs

Online Bin Covering with Limited Migration

Semi-online models where decisions may be revoked in a limited way have been studied extensively in the last years. This is motivated by the fact that the pure online model is often too restrictive to model real-world applications, where some changes might be allowed. A well-studied measure of the amount of decisions that can be revoked is the migration factor beta: When an object o of size s(o) arrives, the decisions for objects of total size at most beta * s(o) may be revoked. Usually beta should be a constant. This means that a small object only leads to small changes. This measure has been successfully investigated for different, classical problems such as bin packing or makespan minimization. The dual of makespan minimization - the Santa Claus or machine covering problem - has also been studied, whereas the dual of bin packing - the bin covering problem - has not been looked at from such a perspective. In this work, we extensively study the bin covering problem with migration in different scenarios. We develop algorithms both for the static case - where only insertions are allowed - and for the dynamic case, where items may also depart. We also develop lower bounds for these scenarios both for amortized migration and for worst-case migration showing that our algorithms have nearly optimal migration factor and asymptotic competitive ratio (up to an arbitrary small epsilon). We therefore resolve the competitiveness of the bin covering problem with migration

Selfish Bin Covering

In this paper, we address the selfish bin covering problem, which is greatly related both to the bin covering problem, and to the weighted majority game. What we mainly concern is how much the lack of coordination harms the social welfare. Besides the standard PoA and PoS, which are based on Nash equilibrium, we also take into account the strong Nash equilibrium, and several other new equilibria. For each equilibrium, the corresponding PoA and PoS are given, and the problems of computing an arbitrary equilibrium, as well as approximating the best one, are also considered.Comment: 16 page

Online Strip Packing with Polynomial Migration

We consider the relaxed online strip packing problem, where rectangular items arrive online and have to be packed into a strip of fixed width such that the packing height is minimized. Thereby, repacking of previously packed items is allowed. The amount of repacking is measured by the migration factor, defined as the total size of repacked items divided by the size of the arriving item. First, we show that no algorithm with constant migration factor can produce solutions with asymptotic ratio better than 4/3. Against this background, we allow amortized migration, i.e. to save migration for a later time step. As a main result, we present an AFPTAS with asymptotic ratio 1 + O(epsilon) for any epsilon > 0 and amortized migration factor polynomial in 1/epsilon. To our best knowledge, this is the first algorithm for online strip packing considered in a repacking model

Fully Dynamic Bin Packing Revisited

We consider the fully dynamic bin packing problem, where items arrive and depart in an online fashion and repacking of previously packed items is allowed. The goal is, of course, to minimize both the number of bins used as well as the amount of repacking. A recently introduced way of measuring the repacking costs at each timestep is the migration factor, defined as the total size of repacked items divided by the size of an arriving or departing item. Concerning the trade-off between number of bins and migration factor, if we wish to achieve an asymptotic competitive ration of $1 + \epsilon$ for the number of bins, a relatively simple argument proves a lower bound of $\Omega(\frac{1}{\epsilon})$ for the migration factor. We establish a nearly matching upper bound of $O(\frac{1}{\epsilon}^4 \log \frac{1}{\epsilon})$ using a new dynamic rounding technique and new ideas to handle small items in a dynamic setting such that no amortization is needed. The running time of our algorithm is polynomial in the number of items $n$ and in $\frac{1}{\epsilon}$. The previous best trade-off was for an asymptotic competitive ratio of $\frac{5}{4}$ for the bins (rather than $1+\epsilon$) and needed an amortized number of $O(\log n)$ repackings (while in our scheme the number of repackings is independent of $n$ and non-amortized)

Über Struktur- und Sensitivitätsaussagen in Ganzzahligen Programmen und deren Anwendung in Kombinatorischer Optimierung

In this thesis we investigate properties of integer linear programs (ILPs) and their algorithmic use. Our main focus are ILP-formulations that come from concrete algorthmic problems like the bin packing problem or the scheduling problem on identical machines. Especially for this kind of ILPs we study structural properties as well as properties for their sensitivity. As a result, we are able to answer open algorithmical questions in the area of approximation and parameterized complexity. In the context of sensitivity we analyze how much an ILP solution has to be adjusted when the parameters of the ILP change. There is a classical results by Cook et al. which gave bounds for that question when optimal solutions are considered. However, in this thesis we investigate the sensitivity of ILPs when approximate solutions are allowed, i.e. solutions that differ by a factor of at most (1+ \epsilon) from the optimum value. We could apply the obtained results to the online bin packing problem, when an approximation guarantee with ratio $1+ \epsilon$ has to be fulfilled and repacking of already assigned items (limited by the so called migration factor) is allowed. In the context of structural results, we prove the existence (assuming the ILP is feasible) of solutions of a certain class of ILPs with a certain simplified structure. Specifically, in this thesis, we prove structure properties for ILPs that arise from formulations of bin packing or scheduling problems and natural generalization of those formulations. Based on the those structure properties, we develop an efficient approximation scheme for the scheduling problem on identical machines with a running time of 2^{\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon)} + poly}(n) and furthermore, we develop a structure theorem, which is applied to the bin packing problem when the number of different item sizes d is bounded.In dieser Dissertation werden Eigenschaften von ganzzahligen linearen Programmen (engl. integer linear programs, kurz: ILPs) untersucht. Von Interesse sind dabei hauptsächlich ILP-Formulierungen, welche sich aus dem Kontext von algorithmischen Problemstellungen ergeben, wie beispielsweise dem Bin Packing-Problem und dem Scheduling-Problem auf identischen Maschinen. Insbesondere für diese ILPs zeigen wir Strukturaussagen, sowie Aussagen über die Sensitivität und können so offene algorithmische Fragestellungen im Bereich von Approximation und parametrisierter Komplexität lösen. Im Kontext von Sensitivitätsaussagen wird untersucht, inwiefern Lösung des ILPs angepasst werden können, wenn sich die Parameter des ILPs leicht ändern. Ein klassisches Resultat von Cook u.a. gibt dabei für optimale Lösungen des ILPs Abschätzungen an. In dieser Arbeit betrachten wir Abschätzungen für die Senstivität wenn approximative Lösungen erlaubt sind, d.h. Lösungen deren Zielfunktionswert höchstens um einen Faktor 1+ \epsilon über dem optimalen Zielfunktionswert liegt. Diese Ergebnisse konnten wir auf das Online-Bin Packing-Problem anwenden, wenn eine approximative Lösung mit Güte 1+ \epsilon erreicht werden soll und in beschränktem Maße Items umgepackt werden dürfen. Im Kontext von Strukturaussagen wird in dieser Dissertation die Existenz von ILP-Lösungen bewiesen, welche eine bestimmte vereinfachte Struktur aufweisen. Insbesondere, konnten wir Strukturaussagen für ILPs entwickeln, welche sich aus Formulierungen des Bin Packing-Problems ergeben bzw. natürliche Verallgemeinerungen dieser Formulierung. Dadurch ist es uns zum einen gelungen ein effizientes Approximationsschemata für das Scheduling-Problem auf identischen Maschinen mit einer Laufzeit von 2^{\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon)} + poly(n) zu entwicklen und außerdem konnten wir eine Strukturaussage entwickeln, welche unter anderem Anwendung im Bin Packung-Problem fand, wenn die Anzahl der unterschiedlichen Itemgrößen d beschränkt ist

Fully-Dynamic Bin Packing with Little Repacking

We study the classic bin packing problem in a fully-dynamic setting, where new items can arrive and old items may depart. We want algorithms with low asymptotic competitive ratio while repacking items sparingly between updates. Formally, each item i has a movement cost c_i >= 0, and we want to use alpha * OPT bins and incur a movement cost gamma * c_i, either in the worst case, or in an amortized sense, for alpha, gamma as small as possible. We call gamma the recourse of the algorithm. This is motivated by cloud storage applications, where fully-dynamic bin packing models the problem of data backup to minimize the number of disks used, as well as communication incurred in moving file backups between disks. Since the set of files changes over time, we could recompute a solution periodically from scratch, but this would give a high number of disk rewrites, incurring a high energy cost and possible wear and tear of the disks. In this work, we present optimal tradeoffs between number of bins used and number of items repacked, as well as natural extensions of the latter measure

Cardinality Constrained Scheduling in Online Models

Makespan minimization on parallel identical machines is a classical and intensively studied problem in scheduling, and a classic example for online algorithm analysis with Graham's famous list scheduling algorithm dating back to the 1960s. In this problem, jobs arrive over a list and upon an arrival, the algorithm needs to assign the job to a machine. The goal is to minimize the makespan, that is, the maximum machine load. In this paper, we consider the variant with an additional cardinality constraint: The algorithm may assign at most $k$ jobs to each machine where $k$ is part of the input. While the offline (strongly NP-hard) variant of cardinality constrained scheduling is well understood and an EPTAS exists here, no non-trivial results are known for the online variant. We fill this gap by making a comprehensive study of various different online models. First, we show that there is a constant competitive algorithm for the problem and further, present a lower bound of $2$ on the competitive ratio of any online algorithm. Motivated by the lower bound, we consider a semi-online variant where upon arrival of a job of size $p$, we are allowed to migrate jobs of total size at most a constant times $p$. This constant is called the migration factor of the algorithm. Algorithms with small migration factors are a common approach to bridge the performance of online algorithms and offline algorithms. One can obtain algorithms with a constant migration factor by rounding the size of each incoming job and then applying an ordinal algorithm to the resulting rounded instance. With this in mind, we also consider the framework of ordinal algorithms and characterize the competitive ratio that can be achieved using the aforementioned approaches.Comment: An extended abstract will appear in the proceedings of STACS'2