4 research outputs found
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 jobs to each machine where 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 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 , we are
allowed to migrate jobs of total size at most a constant times . 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
Parametrisierte Algorithmen für Ganzzahlige Lineare Programme und deren Anwendungen für Zuweisungsprobleme
This thesis is concerned with solving NP-hard problems. We consider two prominent strategies of coping with such computationally hard questions efficiently. The first approach aims to design approximation algorithms, that is, we are content to find good, but non-optimal solutions in polynomial time. The second strategy is called Fixed-Parameter Tractability (FPT) and considers parameters of the instance to capture the hardness of the problem and by that, obtain efficient algorithms with respect to the remaining input. This thesis employs both strategies jointly to develop efficient approximation and exact algorithms using parameterization and modeling the problem as structured integer linear programs (ILPs), which can be solved in FPT. In the first part of this work, we concentrate on these well-structured ILPs. On the one hand, we develop an efficient algorithm for block-structured integer linear programs called n-fold ILPs. On the other hand, we investigate the similarly block-structured 2-stage stochastic ILPs and prove conditional lower bounds regarding the running time of any algorithm solving them that match the best known upper bounds. We also prove the tightness of certain structural parameters called sensitivity and proximity for ILPs which arise from combinatorial questions such as allocation problems. The second part utilizes n-fold ILPs and structural properties to add to and improve upon known results for Scheduling and Bin Packing problems. We design exact FPT algorithms for the Scheduling With Clique Incompatibilities, Bin Packing, and Multiple Knapsack problems. Further, we provide constant-factor approximation algorithms and polynomial time approximation schemes (PTAS) for the Class Constraint Scheduling problems. Broadening our scope, we also investigate this problem and the closely related Cardinality Constraint Scheduling problem in the online setting and derive lower bounds for the approximation ratios as well as a PTAS for them. Altogether, this thesis contributes to the knowledge about structured ILPs, proves their limits and reaffirms their usefulness for a plethora of allocation problems. In doing so, various new and improved algorithms with respect to the running time or approximation quality emerge
Online cardinality constrained scheduling
In online load balancing problems, jobs arrive over a list. Upon arrival of a job, the algorithm is required to assign it immediately and irrevocably to a machine. We consider such a makespan minimization problem with an additional cardinality constraint, i.e., at most k jobs may be assigned to each machine, where k is a parameter of the problem. We present both upper and lower bounds on the competitive ratio of online algorithms for this problem with identical machines