Improved Online Algorithms for Multiplexing Weighted Packets in Bounded Buffers

Motivated by providing differentiated services in the Internet, we consider online buffer management algorithms for quality-of-service network switches. We study a multi-buffer model . Packets have values and deadlines; they arrive at a switch over time. The switch consists of multiple buffers whose sizes are bounded. In each time step, only one pending packet can be sent. Our objective is to maximize the total value of the packets sent by their deadlines. We employ competitive analysis to measure an online algorithm's performance. In this paper, we first show that the lower bound of competitive ratio of a broad family of online algorithms is 2. Then we propose a ($3 + \sqrt{3} \approx 4.723$)-competitive deterministic algorithm, which is improved from the previously best-known result 9.82 (Azar and Levy. SWAT 2006).

[1]  Yossi Azar,et al.  Multiplexing Packets with Arbitrary Deadlines in Bounded Buffers , 2006, SWAT.

[2]  Allan Borodin,et al.  Online computation and competitive analysis , 1998 .

[3]  Matthias Englert,et al.  Considering suppressed packets improves buffer management in QoS switches , 2007, SODA '07.

[4]  Boaz Patt-Shamir,et al.  Buffer Overflow Management in QoS Switches , 2004, SIAM J. Comput..

[5]  Lars Arge,et al.  Algorithm Theory - SWAT 2006, 10th ScandinavianWorkshop on Algorithm Theory, Riga, Latvia, July 6-8, 2006, Proceedings , 2006, SWAT.

[6]  Bruce Hajek.  On the Competitiveness of On-Line Scheduling of Unit-Length Packets with Hard Deadlines in Slotted Time , 2001 .

[7]  Marek Chrobak,et al.  Online Scheduling of Equal-Length Jobs: Randomization and Restarts Help , 2007, SIAM J. Comput..

[8]  Marek Chrobak,et al.  Improved online algorithms for buffer management in QoS switches , 2004, ESA.

[9]  Clifford Stein,et al.  Introduction to Algorithms, 2nd edition. , 2001 .

[10]  Fei Li.  Competitive Scheduling of Packets with Hard Deadlines in a Finite Capacity Queue , 2009, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[11]  Ronald L. Rivest,et al.  Introduction to Algorithms , 1990 .

[12]  Francis Y. L. Chin,et al.  Online Scheduling with Partial Job Values: Does Timesharing or Randomization Help? , 2003, Algorithmica.

[13]  Fei Li,et al.  Better online buffer management , 2007, SODA '07.

[14]  Yishay Mansour,et al.  Competitive queueing policies for QoS switches , 2003, SODA '03.

[15]  Yishay Mansour,et al.  Competitive queue policies for differentiated services , 2000, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2000. Conference on Computer Communications. Nineteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (Cat. No.00CH37064).

[16]  Fei Li,et al.  An optimal online algorithm for packet scheduling with agreeable deadlines , 2005, SODA '05.