17,377 research outputs found
The Value-of-Information in Matching with Queues
We consider the problem of \emph{optimal matching with queues} in dynamic
systems and investigate the value-of-information. In such systems, the
operators match tasks and resources stored in queues, with the objective of
maximizing the system utility of the matching reward profile, minus the average
matching cost. This problem appears in many practical systems and the main
challenges are the no-underflow constraints, and the lack of matching-reward
information and system dynamics statistics. We develop two online matching
algorithms: Learning-aided Reward optimAl Matching () and
Dual- () to effectively resolve both challenges.
Both algorithms are equipped with a learning module for estimating the
matching-reward information, while incorporates an additional
module for learning the system dynamics. We show that both algorithms achieve
an close-to-optimal utility performance for any
, while achieves a faster convergence speed and a
better delay compared to , i.e., delay and convergence under
compared to delay and convergence under
( and are maximum estimation errors for
reward and system dynamics). Our results reveal that information of different
system components can play very different roles in algorithm performance and
provide a systematic way for designing joint learning-control algorithms for
dynamic systems
Optimisation of stochastic networks with blocking: a functional-form approach
This paper introduces a class of stochastic networks with blocking, motivated
by applications arising in cellular network planning, mobile cloud computing,
and spare parts supply chains. Blocking results in lost revenue due to
customers or jobs being permanently removed from the system. We are interested
in striking a balance between mitigating blocking by increasing service
capacity, and maintaining low costs for service capacity. This problem is
further complicated by the stochastic nature of the system. Owing to the
complexity of the system there are no analytical results available that
formulate and solve the relevant optimization problem in closed form.
Traditional simulation-based methods may work well for small instances, but the
associated computational costs are prohibitive for networks of realistic size.
We propose a hybrid functional-form based approach for finding the optimal
resource allocation, combining the speed of an analytical approach with the
accuracy of simulation-based optimisation. The key insight is to replace the
computationally expensive gradient estimation in simulation optimisation with a
closed-form analytical approximation that is calibrated using a single
simulation run. We develop two implementations of this approach and conduct
extensive computational experiments on complex examples to show that it is
capable of substantially improving system performance. We also provide evidence
that our approach has substantially lower computational costs compared to
stochastic approximation
Joint Energy Efficient and QoS-aware Path Allocation and VNF Placement for Service Function Chaining
Service Function Chaining (SFC) allows the forwarding of a traffic flow along
a chain of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs, e.g., IDS, firewall, and NAT).
Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions can be used to support SFC reducing
the management complexity and the operational costs. One of the most critical
issues for the service and network providers is the reduction of energy
consumption, which should be achieved without impact to the quality of
services. In this paper, we propose a novel resource (re)allocation
architecture which enables energy-aware SFC for SDN-based networks. To this
end, we model the problems of VNF placement, allocation of VNFs to flows, and
flow routing as optimization problems. Thereafter, heuristic algorithms are
proposed for the different optimization problems, in order find near-optimal
solutions in acceptable times. The performance of the proposed algorithms are
numerically evaluated over a real-world topology and various network traffic
patterns. The results confirm that the proposed heuristic algorithms provide
near optimal solutions while their execution time is applicable for real-life
networks.Comment: Extended version of submitted paper - v7 - July 201
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