Greedy Bipartite Matching in Random Type Poisson Arrival Model

We introduce a new random input model for bipartite matching which we call the Random Type Poisson Arrival Model. Just like in the known i.i.d. model (introduced by Feldman et al. [Feldman et al., 2009]), online nodes have types in our model. In contrast to the adversarial types studied in the known i.i.d. model, following the random graphs studied in Mastin and Jaillet [A. Mastin, 2013], in our model each type graph is generated randomly by including each offline node in the neighborhood of an online node with probability c/n independently. In our model, nodes of the same type appear consecutively in the input and the number of times each type node appears is distributed according to the Poisson distribution with parameter 1. We analyze the performance of the simple greedy algorithm under this input model. The performance is controlled by the parameter c and we are able to exactly characterize the competitive ratio for the regimes c = o(1) and c = omega(1). We also provide a precise bound on the expected size of the matching in the remaining regime of constant c. We compare our results to the previous work of Mastin and Jaillet who analyzed the simple greedy algorithm in the G_{n,n,p} model where each online node type occurs exactly once. We essentially show that the approach of Mastin and Jaillet can be extended to work for the Random Type Poisson Arrival Model, although several nontrivial technical challenges need to be overcome. Intuitively, one can view the Random Type Poisson Arrival Model as the G_{n,n,p} model with less randomness; that is, instead of each online node having a new type, each online node has a chance of repeating the previous type

A Simple PTAS for the Dual Bin Packing Problem and Advice Complexity of Its Online Version

Recently, Renault (2016) studied the dual bin packing problem in the per-request advice model of online algorithms. He showed that given O(1/eps) advice bits for each input item allows approximating the dual bin packing problem online to within a factor of 1+eps. Renault asked about the advice complexity of dual bin packing in the tape-advice model of online algorithms. We make progress on this question. Let s be the maximum bit size of an input item weight. We present a conceptually simple online algorithm that with total advice O((s + log n)/eps^2) approximates the dual bin packing to within a 1+eps factor. To this end, we describe and analyze a simple offline PTAS for the dual bin packing problem. Although a PTAS for a more general problem was known prior to our work (Kellerer 1999, Chekuri and Khanna 2006), our PTAS is arguably simpler to state and analyze. As a result, we could easily adapt our PTAS to obtain the advice-complexity result. We also consider whether the dependence on s is necessary in our algorithm. We show that if s is unrestricted then for small enough eps > 0 obtaining a 1+eps approximation to the dual bin packing requires Omega_eps(n) bits of advice. To establish this lower bound we analyze an online reduction that preserves the advice complexity and approximation ratio from the binary separation problem due to Boyar et al. (2016). We define two natural advice complexity classes that capture the distinction similar to the Turing machine world distinction between pseudo polynomial time algorithms and polynomial time algorithms. Our results on the dual bin packing problem imply the separation of the two classes in the advice complexity world

Temporal Separators with Deadlines

We study temporal analogues of the Unrestricted Vertex Separator problem from the static world. An $(s,z)$-temporal separator is a set of vertices whose removal disconnects vertex $s$ from vertex $z$ for every time step in a temporal graph. The $(s,z)$-Temporal Separator problem asks to find the minimum size of an $(s,z)$-temporal separator for the given temporal graph. We introduce a generalization of this problem called the $(s,z,t)$-Temporal Separator problem, where the goal is to find a smallest subset of vertices whose removal eliminates all temporal paths from $s$ to $z$ which take less than $t$ time steps. Let $\tau$ denote the number of time steps over which the temporal graph is defined (we consider discrete time steps). We characterize the set of parameters $\tau$ and $t$ when the problem is $\mathcal{NP}$-hard and when it is polynomial time solvable. Then we present a $\tau$-approximation algorithm for the $(s,z)$-Temporal Separator problem and convert it to a $\tau^2$-approximation algorithm for the $(s,z,t)$-Temporal Separator problem. We also present an inapproximability lower bound of $\Omega(\ln(n) + \ln(\tau))$ for the $(s,z,t)$-Temporal Separator problem assuming that \mathcal{NP}\not\subset\mbox{\sc Dtime}(n^{\log\log n}). Then we consider three special families of graphs: (1) graphs of branchwidth at most $2$, (2) graphs $G$ such that the removal of $s$ and $z$ leaves a tree, and (3) graphs of bounded pathwidth. We present polynomial-time algorithms to find a minimum $(s,z,t)$-temporal separator for (1) and (2). As for (3), we show a polynomial-time reduction from the Discrete Segment Covering problem with bounded-length segments to the $(s,z,t)$-Temporal Separator problem where the temporal graph has bounded pathwidth