License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2018.14
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-94182
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2018/9418/
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Huang, Zhiyi ; Kang, Ning ; Tang, Zhihao Gavin ; Wu, Xiaowei ; Zhang, Yuhao

Online Makespan Minimization: The Power of Restart

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LIPIcs-APPROX-RANDOM-2018-14.pdf (0.6 MB)

Abstract

We consider the online makespan minimization problem on identical machines. Chen and Vestjens (ORL 1997) show that the largest processing time first (LPT) algorithm is 1.5-competitive. For the special case of two machines, Noga and Seiden (TCS 2001) introduce the SLEEPY algorithm that achieves a competitive ratio of (5 - sqrt{5})/2 ~~ 1.382, matching the lower bound by Chen and Vestjens (ORL 1997). Furthermore, Noga and Seiden note that in many applications one can kill a job and restart it later, and they leave an open problem whether algorithms with restart can obtain better competitive ratios.
We resolve this long-standing open problem on the positive end. Our algorithm has a natural rule for killing a processing job: a newly-arrived job replaces the smallest processing job if 1) the new job is larger than other pending jobs, 2) the new job is much larger than the processing one, and 3) the processed portion is small relative to the size of the new job. With appropriate choice of parameters, we show that our algorithm improves the 1.5 competitive ratio for the general case, and the 1.382 competitive ratio for the two-machine case.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{huang_et_al:LIPIcs:2018:9418,
  author =	{Zhiyi Huang and Ning Kang and Zhihao Gavin Tang and Xiaowei Wu and Yuhao Zhang},
  title =	{{Online Makespan Minimization: The Power of Restart}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial  Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2018)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-085-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{116},
  editor =	{Eric Blais and Klaus Jansen and Jos{\'e} D. P. Rolim and David Steurer},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/9418},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-94182},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2018.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Online Scheduling, Makespan Minimization, Identical Machines}
}

Keywords: Online Scheduling, Makespan Minimization, Identical Machines
Collection: Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2018)
Issue Date: 2018
Date of publication: 13.08.2018

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