A tale of two packing problems : improved algorithms and tighter bounds for online bin packing and the geometric knapsack problem

In this thesis, we deal with two packing problems: the online bin packing and the geometric knapsack problem. In online bin packing, the aim is to pack a given number of items of different size into a minimal number of containers. The items need to be packed one by one without knowing future items. For online bin packing in one dimension, we present a new family of algorithms that constitutes the first improvement over the previously best algorithm in almost 15 years. While the algorithmic ideas are intuitive, an elaborate analysis is required to prove its competitive ratio. We also give a lower bound for the competitive ratio of this family of algorithms. For online bin packing in higher dimensions, we discuss lower bounds for the competitive ratio and show that the ideas from the one-dimensional case cannot be easily transferred to obtain better two-dimensional algorithms. In the geometric knapsack problem, one aims to pack a maximum weight subset of given rectangles into one square container. For this problem, we consider online approximation algorithms. For geometric knapsack with square items, we improve the running time of the best known PTAS and obtain an EPTAS. This shows that large running times caused by some standard techniques for geometric packing problems are not always necessary and can be improved. Finally, we show how to use resource augmentation to compute optimal solutions in EPTAS-time, thereby improving upon the known PTAS for this case.In dieser Arbeit betrachten wir zwei Packungsprobleme: Online Bin Packing und das geometrische Rucksackproblem. Bei Online Bin Packing versucht man, eine gegebene Menge an Objekten verschiedener Größe in die kleinstmögliche Anzahl an Behältern zu packen. Die Objekte müssen eins nach dem anderen gepackt werden, ohne zukünftige Objekte zu kennen. Für eindimensionales Online Bin Packing beschreiben wir einen neuen Algorithmus, der die erste Verbesserung gegenüber dem bisher besten Algorithmus seit fast 15 Jahren darstellt. Während die algorithmischen Ideen intuitiv sind, ist eine ausgefeilte Analyse notwendig um das Kompetitivitätsverhältnis zu beweisen. Für Online Bin Packing in mehreren Dimensionen geben wir untere Schranken für das Kompetitivitätsverhältnis an und zeigen, dass die Ideen aus dem eindimensionalen Fall nicht direkt zu einer Verbesserung führen. Beim geometrischen Rucksackproblem ist es das Ziel, eine größtmögliche Teilmenge gegebener Rechtecke in einen einzelnen quadratischen Behälter zu packen. Für dieses Problem betrachten wir Approximationsalgorithmen. Für das Problem mit quadratischen Objekten verbessern wir die Laufzeit des bekannten PTAS zu einem EPTAS. Die langen Laufzeiten vieler Standardtechniken für geometrische Probleme können also vermieden werden. Schließlich zeigen wir, wie Ressourcenvergrößerung genutzt werden kann, um eine optimale Lösung in EPTAS-Zeit zu berechnen, was das bisherige PTAS verbessert.Google PhD Fellowshi

Approximating Geometric Knapsack via L-packings

We study the two-dimensional geometric knapsack problem (2DK) in which we are given a set of n axis-aligned rectangular items, each one with an associated profit, and an axis-aligned square knapsack. The goal is to find a (non-overlapping) packing of a maximum profit subset of items inside the knapsack (without rotating items). The best-known polynomial-time approximation factor for this problem (even just in the cardinality case) is (2 + \epsilon) [Jansen and Zhang, SODA 2004]. In this paper, we break the 2 approximation barrier, achieving a polynomial-time (17/9 + \epsilon) < 1.89 approximation, which improves to (558/325 + \epsilon) < 1.72 in the cardinality case. Essentially all prior work on 2DK approximation packs items inside a constant number of rectangular containers, where items inside each container are packed using a simple greedy strategy. We deviate for the first time from this setting: we show that there exists a large profit solution where items are packed inside a constant number of containers plus one L-shaped region at the boundary of the knapsack which contains items that are high and narrow and items that are wide and thin. As a second major and the main algorithmic contribution of this paper, we present a PTAS for this case. We believe that this will turn out to be useful in future work in geometric packing problems. We also consider the variant of the problem with rotations (2DKR), where items can be rotated by 90 degrees. Also, in this case, the best-known polynomial-time approximation factor (even for the cardinality case) is (2 + \epsilon) [Jansen and Zhang, SODA 2004]. Exploiting part of the machinery developed for 2DK plus a few additional ideas, we obtain a polynomial-time (3/2 + \epsilon)-approximation for 2DKR, which improves to (4/3 + \epsilon) in the cardinality case.Comment: 64pages, full version of FOCS 2017 pape

Beating the Harmonic lower bound for online bin packing

In the online bin packing problem, items of sizes in (0, 1] arrive online to be packed into bins of size 1. The goal is to minimize the number of used bins. Harmonic++ achieves a competitive ratio of 1.58889 and belongs to the Super Harmonic framework [Seiden, J. ACM, 2002]; a lower bound of Ramanan et al. shows that within this framework, no competitive ratio below 1.58333 can be achieved [Ramanan et al., J. Algorithms, 1989]. In this paper, we present an online bin packing algorithm with asymptotic performance ratio of 1.5815, which constitutes the first improvement in fifteen years and reduces the gap to the lower bound by roughly 15%. We make two crucial changes to the Super Harmonic framework. First, some of the decisions of the algorithm will depend on exact sizes of items, instead of only their types. In particular, for item pairs where the size of one item is in (1/3, 1/2] and the other is larger than 1/2 (a large item), when deciding whether to pack such a pair together in one bin, our algorithm does not consider their types, but only checks whether their total size is at most 1. Second, for items with sizes in (1/3, 1/2] (medium items), we try to pack the larger items of every type in pairs, while combining the smallest items with large items whenever possible. To do this, we postpone the coloring of medium items (i.e., the decision which items to pack in pairs and which to pack alone) where possible, and later select the smallest ones to be reserved for combining with large items. Additionally, in case such large items arrive early, we pack medium items with them whenever possible. This is a highly unusual idea in the context of Harmonic-like algorithms, which initially seems to preclude analysis (the ratio of items combined with large items is no longer a fixed constant). For the analysis, we carefully mark medium items depending on how they end up packed, enabling us to add crucial constraints to the linear program used by Seiden. We consider the dual, eliminate all but one variable and then solve it with the ellipsoid method using a separation oracle. Our implementation uses additional algorithmic ideas to determine previously hand set parameters automatically and gives certificates for easy verification of the results. We give a lower bound of 1.5766 for algorithms like ours. This shows that fundamentally different ideas will be required to make further improvements

Improved Lower Bounds for Online Hypercube Packing

Packing a given sequence of items into as few bins as possible in an online fashion is a widely studied problem. We improve lower bounds for packing hypercubes into bins in two or more dimensions, once for general algorithms (in two dimensions) and once for an important subclass, so-called Harmonic-type algorithms (in two or more dimensions). Lastly, we show that two adaptions of the ideas from the best known one-dimensional packing algorithm to square packing also do not help to break the barrier of 2