9 research outputs found
The Query-commit Problem
In the query-commit problem we are given a graph where edges have distinct
probabilities of existing. It is possible to query the edges of the graph, and
if the queried edge exists then its endpoints are irrevocably matched. The goal
is to find a querying strategy which maximizes the expected size of the
matching obtained. This stochastic matching setup is motivated by applications
in kidney exchanges and online dating.
In this paper we address the query-commit problem from both theoretical and
experimental perspectives. First, we show that a simple class of edges can be
queried without compromising the optimality of the strategy. This property is
then used to obtain in polynomial time an optimal querying strategy when the
input graph is sparse. Next we turn our attentions to the kidney exchange
application, focusing on instances modeled over real data from existing
exchange programs. We prove that, as the number of nodes grows, almost every
instance admits a strategy which matches almost all nodes. This result supports
the intuition that more exchanges are possible on a larger pool of
patient/donors and gives theoretical justification for unifying the existing
exchange programs. Finally, we evaluate experimentally different querying
strategies over kidney exchange instances. We show that even very simple
heuristics perform fairly well, being within 1.5% of an optimal clairvoyant
strategy, that knows in advance the edges in the graph. In such a
time-sensitive application, this result motivates the use of committing
strategies
Ignorance is Almost Bliss: Near-Optimal Stochastic Matching With Few Queries
The stochastic matching problem deals with finding a maximum matching in a
graph whose edges are unknown but can be accessed via queries. This is a
special case of stochastic -set packing, where the problem is to find a
maximum packing of sets, each of which exists with some probability. In this
paper, we provide edge and set query algorithms for these two problems,
respectively, that provably achieve some fraction of the omniscient optimal
solution.
Our main theoretical result for the stochastic matching (i.e., -set
packing) problem is the design of an \emph{adaptive} algorithm that queries
only a constant number of edges per vertex and achieves a
fraction of the omniscient optimal solution, for an arbitrarily small
. Moreover, this adaptive algorithm performs the queries in only a
constant number of rounds. We complement this result with a \emph{non-adaptive}
(i.e., one round of queries) algorithm that achieves a
fraction of the omniscient optimum. We also extend both our results to
stochastic -set packing by designing an adaptive algorithm that achieves a
fraction of the omniscient optimal solution, again
with only queries per element. This guarantee is close to the best known
polynomial-time approximation ratio of for the
\emph{deterministic} -set packing problem [Furer and Yu, 2013]
We empirically explore the application of (adaptations of) these algorithms
to the kidney exchange problem, where patients with end-stage renal failure
swap willing but incompatible donors. We show on both generated data and on
real data from the first 169 match runs of the UNOS nationwide kidney exchange
that even a very small number of non-adaptive edge queries per vertex results
in large gains in expected successful matches
Beating Greedy for Stochastic Bipartite Matching
We consider the maximum bipartite matching problem in stochastic settings,
namely the query-commit and price-of-information models. In the query-commit
model, an edge e independently exists with probability . We can query
whether an edge exists or not, but if it does exist, then we have to take it
into our solution. In the unweighted case, one can query edges in the order
given by the classical online algorithm of Karp, Vazirani, and Vazirani to get
a -approximation. In contrast, the previously best known algorithm in
the weighted case is the -approximation achieved by the greedy algorithm
that sorts the edges according to their weights and queries in that order.
Improving upon the basic greedy, we give a -approximation algorithm
in the weighted query-commit model. We use a linear program (LP) to upper bound
the optimum achieved by any strategy. The proposed LP admits several structural
properties that play a crucial role in the design and analysis of our
algorithm. We also extend these techniques to get a -approximation
algorithm for maximum bipartite matching in the price-of-information model
introduced by Singla, who also used the basic greedy algorithm to give a
-approximation.Comment: Published in ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA19