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Leah Epstein

Publications and source records attributed to Leah Epstein.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2016

Batch Coloring of Graphs

In graph coloring problems, the goal is to assign a positive integer color to each vertex of an input graph such that adjacent vertices do not receive the same color assignment. For classic graph coloring, the goal is to minimize the maximum color used, and for the sum coloring problem, the goal is to minimize the sum of colors assigned to all input vertices. In the offline variant, the entire graph is presented at once, and in online problems, one vertex is presented for coloring at each time, and the only information is the identity of its neighbors among previously known vertices. In batched graph coloring, vertices are presented in k batches, for a fixed integer k > 1, such that the vertices of a batch are presented as a set, and must be colored before the vertices of the next batch are presented. This last model is an intermediate model, which bridges between the two extreme scenarios of the online and offline models. We provide several results, including a general result for sum coloring and results for the classic graph coloring problem on restricted graph classes: We show tight bounds for any graph class containing trees as a subclass (e.g., forests, bipartite graphs, planar graphs, and perfect graphs), and a surprising result for interval graphs and k = 2, where the value of the (strict and asymptotic) competitive ratio depends on whether the graph is presented with its interval representation or not.

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arXiv2016

Online bin packing with cardinality constraints resolved

Cardinality constrained bin packing or bin packing with cardinality constraints is a basic bin packing problem. In the online version with the parameter k \geq 2, items having sizes in (0,1] associated with them are presented one by one to be packed into unit capacity bins, such that the capacities of bins are not exceeded, and no bin receives more than k items. We resolve the online problem in the sense that we prove a lower bound of 2 on the overall asymptotic competitive ratio. This closes this long standing open problem, since an algorithm of an absolute competitive ratio 2 is known. Additionally, we significantly improve the known lower bounds on the asymptotic competitive ratio for every specific value of k. The novelty of our constructions is based on full adaptivity that creates large gaps between item sizes. Thus, our lower bound inputs do not follow the common practice for online bin packing problems of having a known in advance input consisting of batches for which the algorithm needs to be competitive on every prefix of the input.

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arXiv2016

An algorithm for the weighted metric dimension of two-dimensional grids

A two-dimensional grid consists of vertices of the form (i,j) for 1 \leq i \leq m and 1 \leq j \leq n, for fixed m,n > 1. Two vertices are adjacent if the \ell_1 distance between their vectors is equal to 1. A landmark set is a subset of vertices L \subseteq V, such that for any distinct pair of vertices u,v \in V, there exists a vertex of L whose distances to u and v are not equal. We design an efficient algorithm for finding a minimum landmark set with respect to total cost in a grid graph with non-negative costs defined on the vertices.

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arXiv2015

The weighted 2-metric dimension of trees in the non-landmarks model

Let T=(V,E) be a tree graph with non-negative weights defined on the vertices. A vertex z is called a separating vertex for u and v if the distances of z to u and v are not equal. A set of vertices L\subseteq V is a feasible solution for the non-landmarks model (NL), if for every pair of distinct vertices, u,v \in V\setminus L, there are at least two vertices of L separating them. Such a feasible solution is called a "landmark set". We analyze the structure of landmark sets for trees and design a linear time algorithm for finding a minimum cost landmark set for a given tree graph.

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arXiv2014

Models for the k-metric dimension

For an undirected graph G=(V,E), a vertex x \in V separates vertices u and v (where u,v \in V, u \neq v) if their distances to x are not equal. Given an integer parameter k \geq 1, a set of vertices L \subseteq V is a feasible solution if for every pair of distinct vertices, u,v, there are at least k distinct vertices x_1,x_2,...,x_k \in L each separating u and v. Such a feasible solution is called a "landmark set", and the k-metric dimension of a graph is the minimal cardinality of a landmark set for the parameter k. The case k=1 is a classic problem, where in its weighted version, each vertex v has a non-negative weight, and the goal is to find a landmark set with minimal total weight. We generalize the problem for k \geq 2, introducing two models, and we seek for solutions to both the weighted version and the unweighted version of this more general problem. In the model of all-pairs (AP), k separations are needed for every pair of distinct vertices of V, while in the non-landmarks model (NL), such separations are required only for pairs of distinct vertices in V \setminus L. We study the weighted and unweighted versions for both models (AP and NL), for path graphs, complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs, and complete wheel graphs, for all values of k \geq 2. We present algorithms for these cases, thus demonstrating the difference between the two new models, and the differences between the cases k=1 and k \geq 2.

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arXiv2014

Colorful bin packing

We study a variant of online bin packing, called colorful bin packing. In this problem, items that are presented one by one are to be packed into bins of size 1. Each item i has a size s_i \in [0,1] and a color c_i \in C, where C is a set of colors (that is not necessarily known in advance). The total size of items packed into a bin cannot exceed its size, thus an item i can always be packed into a new bin, but an item cannot be packed into a non-empty bin if the previous item packed into that bin has the same color, or if the occupied space in it is larger than 1-s_i. This problem generalizes standard online bin packing and online black and white bin packing (where |C|=2). We prove that colorful bin packing is harder than black and white bin packing in the sense that an online algorithm for zero size items that packs the input into the smallest possible number of bins cannot exist for C \geq 3, while it is known that such an algorithm exists for |C|=2. We show that natural generalizations of classic algorithms for bin packing fail to work for the case |C| \geq 3 and moreover, algorithms that perform well for black and white bin packing do not perform well either, already for the case |C|=3. Our main results are a new algorithm for colorful bin packing that we design and analyze, whose absolute competitive ratio is 4, and a new lower bound of 2 on the asymptotic competitive ratio of any algorithm, that is valid even for black and white bin packing.

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arXiv2014

Online bin packing with cardinality constraints revisited

Bin packing with cardinality constraints is a bin packing problem where an upper bound k \geq 2 on the number of items packed into each bin is given, in addition to the standard constraint on the total size of items packed into a bin. We study the online scenario where items are presented one by one. We analyze it with respect to the absolute competitive ratio and prove tight bounds of 2 for any k \geq 4. We show that First Fit also has an absolute competitive ratio of 2 for k=4, but not for larger values of k, and we present a complete analysis of its asymptotic competitive ratio for all values of k \geq 5. Additionally, we study the case of small $k$ with respect to the asymptotic competitive ratio and the absolute competitive ratio.

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arXiv2014

Minimum total weighted completion time: Faster approximation schemes

We study classic scheduling problems on uniformly related machines. Efficient polynomial time approximation schemes (EPTAS's) are fast and practical approximation schemes. New methods and techniques are essential in developing such improved approximation schemes, and their design is a primary goal of this research agenda. We present EPTAS's for the scheduling problem of a set of jobs on uniformly related machines so as to minimize the total weighted completion time, both for the case with release dates and its special case without release dates. These problems are NP-hard in the strong sense, and therefore EPTAS's are the best possible approximation schemes unless P=NP. Previously, only PTAS's were known for these two problems, while an EPTAS was known only for the special case of identical machines without release dates.

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arXiv2012

A unified approach to truthful scheduling on related machines

We present a unified framework for designing deterministic monotone polynomial time approximation schemes (PTAS's) for a wide class of scheduling problems on uniformly related machines. This class includes (among others) minimizing the makespan, maximizing the minimum load, and minimizing the l_p norm of the machine loads vector. Previously, this kind of result was only known for the makespan objective. Monotone algorithms have the property that an increase in the speed of a machine cannot decrease the amount of work assigned to it. The key idea of our novel method is to show that for goal functions that are sufficiently well-behaved functions of the machine loads, it is possible to compute in polynomial time a highly structured nearly optimal schedule. Monotone approximation schemes have an important role in the emerging area of algorithmic mechanism design. In the game-theoretical setting of these scheduling problems there is a social goal, which is one of the objective functions that we study. Each machine is controlled by a selfish single-parameter agent, where its private information is its cost of processing a unit sized job, which is also the inverse of the speed of its machine. Each agent wishes to maximize its own profit, defined as the payment it receives from the mechanism minus its cost for processing all jobs assigned to it, and places a bid which corresponds to its private information. For each one of the problems, we show that we can calculate payments that guarantee truthfulness in an efficient manner. Thus, there exists a dominant strategy where agents report their true speeds, and we show the existence of a truthful mechanism which can be implemented in polynomial time, where the social goal is approximated within a factor of 1+epsilon for every epsilon>0.

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arXiv2012

Improved Bounds for Online Preemptive Matching

When designing a preemptive online algorithm for the maximum matching problem, we wish to maintain a valid matching M while edges of the underlying graph are presented one after the other. When presented with an edge e, the algorithm should decide whether to augment the matching M by adding e (in which case e may be removed later on) or to keep M in its current form without adding e (in which case e is lost for good). The objective is to eventually hold a matching M with maximum weight. The main contribution of this paper is to establish new lower and upper bounds on the competitive ratio achievable by preemptive online algorithms: 1. We provide a lower bound of 1+ln 2~1.693 on the competitive ratio of any randomized algorithm for the maximum cardinality matching problem, thus improving on the currently best known bound of e/(e-1)~1.581 due to Karp, Vazirani, and Vazirani [STOC'90]. 2. We devise a randomized algorithm that achieves an expected competitive ratio of 5.356 for maximum weight matching. This finding demonstrates the power of randomization in this context, showing how to beat the tight bound of 3 +2\sqrt{2}~5.828 for deterministic algorithms, obtained by combining the 5.828 upper bound of McGregor [APPROX'05] and the recent 5.828 lower bound of Varadaraja [ICALP'11].

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arXiv2012

An efficient polynomial time approximation scheme for load balancing on uniformly related machines

We consider basic problems of non-preemptive scheduling on uniformly related machines. For a given schedule, defined by a partition of the jobs into m subsets corresponding to the m machines, C_i denotes the completion time of machine i. Our goal is to find a schedule which minimizes or maximizes \sum_{i=1}^m C_i^p for a fixed value of p such that 0 1 the minimization problem is equivalent to the well-known problem of minimizing the \ell_p norm of the vector of the completion times of the machines, and for 0<p<1 the maximization problem is of interest. Our main result is an efficient polynomial time approximation scheme (EPTAS) for each one of these problems. Our schemes use a non-standard application of the so-called shifting technique. We focus on the work (total size of jobs) assigned to each machine and introduce intervals of forbidden work. These intervals are defined so that the resulting effect on the goal function is sufficiently small. This allows the partition of the problem into sub-problems (with subsets of machines and jobs) whose solutions are combined into the final solution using dynamic programming. Our results are the first EPTAS's for this natural class of load balancing problems.

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arXiv2012

Generalized selfish bin packing

Standard bin packing is the problem of partitioning a set of items with positive sizes no larger than 1 into a minimum number of subsets (called bins) each having a total size of at most 1. In bin packing games, an item has a positive weight, and given a valid packing or partition of the items, each item has a cost or a payoff associated with it. We study a class of bin packing games where the payoff of an item is the ratio between its weight and the total weight of items packed with it, that is, the cost sharing is based linearly on the weights of items. We study several types of pure Nash equilibria: standard Nash equilibria, strong equilibria, strictly Pareto optimal equilibria, and weakly Pareto optimal equilibria. We show that any game of this class admits all these types of equilibria. We study the (asymptotic) prices of anarchy and stability (PoA and PoS) of the problem with respect to these four types of equilibria, for the two cases of general weights and of unit weights. We show that while the case of general weights is strongly related to the well-known First Fit algorithm, and all the four PoA values are equal to 1.7, this is not true for unit weights. In particular, we show that all of them are strictly below 1.7, the strong PoA is equal to approximately 1.691 (another well-known number in bin packing) while the strictly Pareto optimal PoA is much lower. We show that all the PoS values are equal to 1, except for those of strong equilibria, which is equal to 1.7 for general weights, and to approximately 1.611824 for unit weights. This last value is not known to be the (asymptotic) approximation ratio of any well-known algorithm for bin packing. Finally, we study convergence to equilibria.

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arXiv2009

Parametric packing of selfish items and the subset sum algorithm

The subset sum algorithm is a natural heuristic for the classical Bin Packing problem: In each iteration, the algorithm finds among the unpacked items, a maximum size set of items that fits into a new bin. More than 35 years after its first mention in the literature, establishing the worst-case performance of this heuristic remains, surprisingly, an open problem. Due to their simplicity and intuitive appeal, greedy algorithms are the heuristics of choice of many practitioners. Therefore, better understanding simple greedy heuristics is, in general, an interesting topic in its own right. Very recently, Epstein and Kleiman (Proc. ESA 2008) provided another incentive to study the subset sum algorithm by showing that the Strong Price of Anarchy of the game theoretic version of the bin-packing problem is precisely the approximation ratio of this heuristic. In this paper we establish the exact approximation ratio of the subset sum algorithm, thus settling a long standing open problem. We generalize this result to the parametric variant of the bin packing problem where item sizes lie on the interval (0,α] for some α\leq 1, yielding tight bounds for the Strong Price of Anarchy for all α\leq 1. Finally, we study the pure Price of Anarchy of the parametric Bin Packing game for which we show nearly tight upper and lower bounds for all α\leq 1.

cs.GT↗
arXiv2009

Improved approximation guarantees for weighted matching in the semi-streaming model

We study the maximum weight matching problem in the semi-streaming model, and improve on the currently best one-pass algorithm due to Zelke (Proc. of STACS2008, pages 669-680) by devising a deterministic approach whose performance guarantee is 4.91+epsilon. In addition, we study preemptive online algorithms, a sub-class of one-pass algorithms where we are only allowed to maintain a feasible matching in memory at any point in time. All known results prior to Zelke's belong to this sub-class. We provide a lower bound of 4.967 on the competitive ratio of any such deterministic algorithm, and hence show that future improvements will have to store in memory a set of edges which is not necessarily a feasible matching.

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arXiv2009

Bin packing with general cost structures

Following the work of Anily et al., we consider a variant of bin packing, called "bin packing with general cost structures" (GCBP) and design an asymptotic fully polynomial time approximation scheme (AFPTAS) for this problem. In the classic bin packing problem, a set of one-dimensional items is to be assigned to subsets of total size at most 1, that is, to be packed into unit sized bins. However, in GCBP, the cost of a bin is not 1 as in classic bin packing, but it is a non-decreasing and concave function of the number of items packed in it, where the cost of an empty bin is zero. The construction of the AFPTAS requires novel techniques for dealing with small items, which are developed in this work. In addition, we develop a fast approximation algorithm which acts identically for all non-decreasing and concave functions, and has an asymptotic approximation ratio of 1.5 for all functions simultaneously.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2009

AFPTAS results for common variants of bin packing: A new method to handle the small items

We consider two well-known natural variants of bin packing, and show that these packing problems admit asymptotic fully polynomial time approximation schemes (AFPTAS). In bin packing problems, a set of one-dimensional items of size at most 1 is to be assigned (packed) to subsets of sum at most 1 (bins). It has been known for a while that the most basic problem admits an AFPTAS. In this paper, we develop methods that allow to extend this result to other variants of bin packing. Specifically, the problems which we study in this paper, for which we design asymptotic fully polynomial time approximation schemes, are the following. The first problem is "Bin packing with cardinality constraints", where a parameter k is given, such that a bin may contain up to k items. The goal is to minimize the number of bins used. The second problem is "Bin packing with rejection", where every item has a rejection penalty associated with it. An item needs to be either packed to a bin or rejected, and the goal is to minimize the number of used bins plus the total rejection penalty of unpacked items. This resolves the complexity of two important variants of the bin packing problem. Our approximation schemes use a novel method for packing the small items. This new method is the core of the improved running times of our schemes over the running times of the previous results, which are only asymptotic polynomial time approximation schemes (APTAS).

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arXiv2006

Improved results for a memory allocation problem

We consider a memory allocation problem that can be modeled as a version of bin packing where items may be split, but each bin may contain at most two (parts of) items. A 3/2-approximation algorithm and an NP-hardness proof for this problem was given by Chung et al. We give a simpler 3/2-approximation algorithm for it which is in fact an online algorithm. This algorithm also has good performance for the more general case where each bin may contain at most k parts of items. We show that this general case is also strongly NP-hard. Additionally, we give an efficient 7/5-approximation algorithm.

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