Mechanism design for decentralized online machine scheduling

Traditional optimization models assume a central decision maker who optimizes a global system performance measure. However, problem data is often distributed among several agents, and agents take autonomous decisions. This gives incentives for strategic behavior of agents, possibly leading to sub-optimal system performance. Furthermore, in dynamic environments, machines are locally dispersed and administratively independent. Examples are found both in business and engineering applications. We investigate such issues for a parallel machine scheduling model where jobs arrive online over time. Instead of centrally assigning jobs to machines, each machine implements a local sequencing rule and jobs decide for machines themselves. In this context, we introduce the concept of a myopic best response equilibrium, a concept weaker than the classical dominant strategy equilibrium, but appropriate for online problems. Our main result is a polynomial time, online mechanism that |assuming rational behavior of jobs| results in an equilibrium schedule that is 3.281-competitive with respect to the maximal social welfare. This is only lightly worse than state-of-the-art algorithms with central coordination

Decentralization and Mechanism Design for Online Machine Scheduling

We study the online version of the classical parallel machine scheduling problem to minimize the total weighted completion time from a new perspective: We assume a strategic setting, where the data of each job j, namely its release date r(j) , its processing time p(j) and its weight w(j) is only known to the job itself, but not to the system. Furthermore, we assume a decentralized setting, where jobs choose the machine on which they want to be processed themselves. We study this setting from the perspective of algorithmic mechanism design and present a polynomial time decentralized online scheduling mechanism that induces rational jobs to select their machine in such a way that the resulting schedule is 3.281-competitive. The mechanism deploys an online payment scheme that induces rational jobs to truthfully report about their private data: with respect to release dates and processing times, truthfully reporting is a dominant strategy equilibrium, whereas truthfully reporting the weights is a myopic best response equilibrium. We also show that the local scheduling policy used in the mechanism cannot be extended to a mechanism where truthful reports with respect to weights constitute a dominant strategy equilibrium.operations research and management science;

Parameterized complexity of machine scheduling: 15 open problems

Machine scheduling problems are a long-time key domain of algorithms and complexity research. A novel approach to machine scheduling problems are fixed-parameter algorithms. To stimulate this thriving research direction, we propose 15 open questions in this area whose resolution we expect to lead to the discovery of new approaches and techniques both in scheduling and parameterized complexity theory.Comment: Version accepted to Computers & Operations Researc

A common framework and taxonomy for multicriteria scheduling problems with Interfering and competing Jobs: Multi-agent scheduling problems

Most classical scheduling research assumes that the objectives sought are common to all jobs to be scheduled. However, many real-life applications can be modeled by considering different sets of jobs, each one with its own objective(s), and an increasing number of papers addressing these problems has appeared over the last few years. Since so far the area lacks a uni ed view, the studied problems have received different names (such as interfering jobs, multi-agent scheduling, mixed-criteria, etc), some authors do not seem to be aware of important contributions in related problems, and solution procedures are often developed without taking into account existing ones. Therefore, the topic is in need of a common framework that allows for a systematic recollection of existing contributions, as well as a clear de nition of the main research avenues. In this paper we review multicriteria scheduling problems involving two or more sets of jobs and propose an uni ed framework providing a common de nition, name and notation for these problems. Moreover, we systematically review and classify the existing contributions in terms of the complexity of the problems and the proposed solution procedures, discuss the main advances, and point out future research lines in the topic

Competitive two-agent scheduling with deteriorating jobs on a single parallel-batching machine

We consider a scheduling problem in which the jobs are generated by two agents and have time-dependent proportional-linear deteriorating processing times. The two agents compete for a common single batching machine to process their jobs, and each agent has its own criterion to optimize. The jobs may have identical or different release dates. The batching machine can process several jobs simultaneously as a batch and the processing time of a batch is equal to the longest of the job processing times in the batch. The problem is to determine a schedule for processing the jobs such that the objective of one agent is minimized, while the objective of the other agent is maintained under a fixed value. For the unbounded model, we consider various combinations of regular objectives on the basis of the compatibility of the two agents. For the bounded model, we consider two different objectives for incompatible and compatible agents: minimizing the makespan of one agent subject to an upper bound on the makespan of the other agent and minimizing the number of tardy jobs of one agent subject to an upper bound on the number of tardy jobs of the other agent. We analyze the computational complexity of various problems by either demonstrating that the problem is intractable or providing an efficient exact algorithm for the problem. Moreover, for certain problems that are shown to be intractable, we provide efficient algorithms for certain special cases

Games and Mechanism Design in Machine Scheduling – An Introduction

In this paper, we survey different models, techniques, and some recent results to tackle machine scheduling problems within a distributed setting. In traditional optimization, a central authority is asked to solve a (computationally hard) optimization problem. In contrast, in distributed settings there are several agents, possibly equipped with private information that is not publicly known, and these agents need to interact in order to derive a solution to the problem. Usually the agents have their individual preferences, which induces them to behave strategically in order to manipulate the resulting solution. Nevertheless, one is often interested in the global performance of such systems. The analysis of such distributed settings requires techniques from classical Optimization, Game Theory, and Economic Theory. The paper therefore briefly introduces the most important of the underlying concepts, and gives a selection of typical research questions and recent results, focussing on applications to machine scheduling problems. This includes the study of the so-called price of anarchy for settings where the agents do not possess private information, as well as the design and analysis of (truthful) mechanisms in settings where the agents do possess private information.computer science applications;

AN AGENT-BASED COOPERATIVE MECHANISM FOR INTEGRATED PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

This paper presents a decentralized cooperative economic scheduling mechanism for a supply chain environment. For this purpose, we design autonomous agents that minimize the production or transportation costs and outsourcing costs incurred by the external execution of a task. The decentralized cooperative scheduling approach comprises two parts: the individual optimization an agent\u27s local schedule and the cooperative contract optimization, either by outsourcing the task or by (re-)contracting the release time and due time with the contract partners aiming to maximize their total profits. A negotiation mechanism based on trust accounts is employed to protect the agents against systematic exploitation by their partners

A survey of variants and extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem

The resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) consists of activities that must be scheduled subject to precedence and resource constraints such that the makespan is minimized. It has become a well-known standard problem in the context of project scheduling which has attracted numerous researchers who developed both exact and heuristic scheduling procedures. However, it is a rather basic model with assumptions that are too restrictive for many practical applications. Consequently, various extensions of the basic RCPSP have been developed. This paper gives an overview over these extensions. The extensions are classified according to the structure of the RCPSP. We summarize generalizations of the activity concept, of the precedence relations and of the resource constraints. Alternative objectives and approaches for scheduling multiple projects are discussed as well. In addition to popular variants and extensions such as multiple modes, minimal and maximal time lags, and net present value-based objectives, the paper also provides a survey of many less known concepts. --project scheduling,modeling,resource constraints,temporal constraints,networks

Production Scheduling Requirements to Smart Manufacturing

The production scheduling has attracted a lot of researchers for many years, however most of the approaches are not targeted to deal with real manufacturing environments, and those that are, are very particular for the case study. It is crucial to consider important features related with the factories, such as products and machines characteristics and unexpected disturbances, but also information such as when the parts arrive to the factory and when should be delivered. So, the purpose of this paper is to identify some important characteristics that have been considered independently in a lot of studies and that should be considered together to develop a generic scheduling framework to be used in a real manufacturing environment.authorsversionpublishe