Online bin packing with lookahead

We first present a simple algorithm for bin-packing that is worst-case optimal among bounded-space algorithms. However, it is not an online algorithm. We present a new definition of lookahead for online algorithms, and show how to convert the simple algorithm into a more complicated optimal algorithm that is online with bounded lookahead. The main contribution of this paper may be the definition of online lookahead. Finally, we present experimental evidence showing that the basic approach works well on inputs drawn independently and uniformly from [0, 1) .