The min-cost matching with concave delays problem

Yossi Azar, Runtian Ren, Danny Vainstein

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider the problem of online min-cost perfect matching with concave delays. We begin with the single location variant. Specifically, requests arrive in an online fashion at a single location. The algorithm must then choose between matching a pair of requests or delaying them to be matched later on. The cost is defined by a concave function on the delay. Given linear or even convex delay functions, matching any two available requests is trivially optimal. However, this does not extend to concave delays. We solve this by providing an O(1)-competitive algorithm that is defined through a series of delay counters. Thereafter we consider the problem given an underlying n-points metric. The cost of a matching is then defined as the connection cost (as defined by the metric) plus the delay cost. Given linear delays, this problem was introduced by Emek et al. and dubbed the Min-cost perfect matching with linear delays (MPMD) problem. Liu et al. considered convex delays and subsequently asked whether there exists a solution with small competitive ratio given concave delays. We show this to be true by extending our single location algorithm and proving O(log n) competitiveness. Finally, we turn our focus to the bichromatic case, wherein requests have polarities and only opposite polarities may be matched. We show how to alter our former algorithms to again achieve O(1) and O(log n) competitiveness for the single location and for the metric case.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Thirty-Second Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms
EditorsDaniel Marx
PublisherSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
Pages301-320
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9781611976465
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event32nd Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, SODA 2021 - Alexandria, Virtual, United States
Duration: 10 Jan 202113 Jan 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms
ISSN (Print)1071-9040
ISSN (Electronic)1557-9468

Conference

Conference32nd Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, SODA 2021
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAlexandria, Virtual
Period10/01/2113/01/21

Funding

FundersFunder number
Israel Science Foundation2304/20, 1506/16

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