The constrained minimum weighted sum of job completion times problem

We consider the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of job completion times on a single machine (subject to certain job weights) with an additional side constraint on the weighted sum of job completion times (with respect to different job weights). This problem is NP-hard, and we provide a polynomial time approximation scheme for this problem. Our method is based on Lagrangian relaxation mixed with carefully guessing the positions of certain jobs in the schedule. An earlier version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of the 10th International IPCO Conference.     

The simplified partial digest problem: Approximation and a graph-theoretic model

The goal of the simplified partial digest problem (SPDP) is motivated by the reconstruction of the linear structure of a DNA chain with respect to a given nucleotide pattern, based on the multiset of distances between the adjacent patterns (interpoint distances) and the multiset of distances between each pattern and the two unlabeled endpoints of the DNA chain (end distances). We consider optimization versions of the problem, called SPDP-Min and SPDP-Max. The aim of SPDP-Min (SPDP-Max) is to find a DNA linear structure with the same multiset of end distances and the minimum (maximum) number of incorrect (correct) interpoint distances. Results are presented on the worst-case efficiency of approximation algorithms for these problems. We suggest a graph-theoretic model for SPDP-Min and SPDP-Max, which can be used to reduce the search space for an optimal solution in either of these problems. We also present heuristic polynomial time algorithms based on this model. In computational experiments with randomly generated and real-life input data, our best algorithm delivered an optimal solution in 100% of the instances for a number of restriction sites not greater than 50.     

Approximation algorithms for combinatorial fractional programming problems

We are concerned with a combinatorial optimization problem which has the ratio of two linear functions as the objective function. This type of problems can be solved by an algorithm that uses an auxiliary problem with a parametrized linear objective function. Because of its combinatorial nature, however, it is often difficult to solve the auxiliary problem exactly. In this paper, we propose an algorithm which assumes that the auxiliary problems are solved only approximately, and prove that it gives an approximate solution to the original problem, of which the accuracy is at least as good as that of approximate solutions to the auxiliary problems. It is also shown that the time complexity is bounded by the square of the computation time of the approximate algorithm for the auxiliary problem. As an example of the proposed algorithm, we present a fully polynomial time approximation scheme for the fractional 0–1 knapsack problem.     

The flow shop problem with no-idle constraints: A review and approximation

The makespan minimization problem in flow shops with no-idle constraints on machines is considered. The latter means that each machine, once started, must process all its operations without intermediate idle time until all those operations are completed. The problem is known to be strongly NP-hard already for three machines. While being based on a geometrical approach, we propose several polynomial time heuristics (for the general case and for special cases of 3 and 4 machines) which provide asymptotically optimal solutions for the increasing number of jobs. A comprehensive review of relevant results is also presented.     

Approximation results for a min-max location-routing problem

This paper studies a min-max location-routing problem, which aims to determine both the home depots and the tours for a set of vehicles to service all the customers in a given weighted graph, so that the maximum working time of the vehicles is minimized. The min-max objective is motivated by the needs of balancing or fairness in vehicle routing applications. We have proved that unless NP=P, it is impossible for the problem to have an approximation algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio of less than 4/3. Thus, we have developed the first constant ratio approximation algorithm for the problem. Moreover, we have developed new approximation algorithms for several variants, which improve the existing best approximation ratios in the previous literature.     

On-line supply chain scheduling problems with preemption

We consider supply chain scheduling problems where customers release jobs to a manufacturer that has to process the jobs and deliver them to the customers. The jobs are released on-line, that is, at any time there is no information on the number, release and processing times of future jobs; the processing time of a job becomes known when the job is released. Preemption is allowed. To reduce the total costs, processed jobs are grouped into batches, which are delivered to customers as single shipments; we assume that the cost of delivering a batch does not depend on the number of jobs in the batch. The objective is to minimize the total cost, which is the sum of the total flow time and the total delivery cost. For the single-customer problem, we present an on-line two-competitive algorithm, and show that no other on-line algorithm can have a better competitive ratio. We also consider an extension of the algorithm for the case of m customers, and show that its competitive ratio is not greater than 2m if the delivery costs to different customers are equal.     

Approximation algorithm for the on-line multi-customer two-level supply chain scheduling problem

A manufacturer has to process jobs released on-line and deliver them to customers. Preemption is allowed. Jobs are grouped into batches for delivery. The sum of the total flow time and the total delivery cost is minimized. Deliveries to different customers cannot be combined. We present an on-line algorithm with the competitive ratio bounded by 3+α$3+\alpha$, where α$\alpha$ is the ratio of the largest processing time to the smallest processing time.     

The complexity of a minimum reload cost diameter problem

We consider the minimum diameter spanning tree problem under the reload cost model which has been introduced by Wirth and Steffan [H.-C. Wirth, J. Steffan, Reload cost problems: Minimum diameter spanning tree, Discrete Appl. Math. 113 (2001) 73-85]. In this model an undirected edge-coloured graph G is given, together with a nonnegative symmetrical integer matrix R specifying the costs of changing from a colour to another one. The reload cost of a path in G arises at its internal nodes, when passing from the colour of one incident edge to the colour of the other. We prove that, unless P=NP, the problem of finding a spanning tree of G having a minimum diameter with respect to reload costs, when restricted to graphs with maximum degree 4, cannot be approximated within any constant α<2 if the reload costs are unrestricted, and cannot be approximated within any constant β<5/3 if the reload costs satisfy the triangle inequality. This solves a problem left open by Wirth and Steffan [H.-C. Wirth, J. Steffan, Reload cost problems: minimum diameter spanning tree, Discrete Appl. Math. 113 (2001) 73-85].     

Approximation algorithms for the minimum rainbow subgraph problem

We consider the minimum rainbow subgraph problem (MRS): given a graph G, whose edges are coloured with p colours. Find a subgraph F⊆G of G of minimum order and with p edges such that each colour occurs exactly once. For graphs with maximum degree Δ(G) there is a greedy polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the MRS problem with an approximation ratio of Δ(G). In this paper we present a polynomial-time approximation algorithm with an approximation ratio of for Δ≥2.     

Approximating a two-machine flow shop scheduling under discrete scenario uncertainty

This paper deals with the two machine permutation flow shop problem with uncertain data, whose deterministic counterpart is known to be polynomially solvable. In this paper, it is assumed that job processing times are uncertain and they are specified as a discrete scenario set. For this uncertainty representation, the min-max and min-max regret criteria are adopted. The min-max regret version of the problem is known to be weakly NP-hard even for two processing time scenarios. In this paper, it is shown that the min-max and min-max regret versions of the problem are strongly NP-hard even for two scenarios. Furthermore, the min-max version admits a polynomial time approximation scheme if the number of scenarios is constant and it is approximable with performance ratio of 2 and not (4/3 − ?)-approximable for any ? > 0 unless P = NP if the number of scenarios is a part of the input. On the other hand, the min-max regret version is not at all approximable even for two scenarios.     

Approximation algorithm for minimizing total latency in machine scheduling with deliveries

We study the problem of minimizing total latency in machine scheduling with deliveries, which is defined as follows. There is a set of n jobs to be processed by a single machine at a plant, where job J_i is associated with its processing time and a customer i located at location i to which the job is to be delivered. In addition, there is a single uncapacitated delivery vehicle available. All jobs (vehicle) are available for processing (delivery) at time 0. Our aim is to determine the sequence in which the jobs should be processed in the plant, the departure times of the vehicle from the plant, and the routing of the vehicle, so as to minimize the total latency (job delivery time). We present a 6e16.309691-approximation algorithm for the problem.     

Circular arrangements and cyclic broadcast scheduling

Motivated by a scheduling problem in multicast environments, we consider the problem of arranging a weighted graph around a circle so as to minimize the total weighted arc length. We describe the first polynomial-time approximation algorithms for this problem, and specifically an O(logn)-approximation algorithm for undirected circular arrangements and an -approximation algorithm for directed circular arrangements. We will also conduct an experimental evaluation of our algorithms and show that a simple heuristic has the best performance in simulations based on busy Web server logs.     

Approximation algorithms for scheduling on multi-core processor with shared speedup resources

We consider a joint resource partition and scheduling problem. We are given $m$ identical cores and discrete resources of total size $k$. We need to partition the resources among these cores. A set of jobs must be processed non-preemptively on these cores after the resource partition. The processing time of a job on a core depends on the size of resources allocated to that corresponding core. The resource allocation scheme is static, i.e., we cannot change the amount of resources that was allocated to a core during the whole scheduling. Hassidim et al. (2013) investigated this problem with a general processing time function, i.e., the processing time of a job is an arbitrary function of the level of resources allocated to that core. They provided an algorithm with approximation ratio of 36. In this paper, we improve the approximation ratio to 8 by presenting a new resource partition scheme. Next, we consider a special model where the core’s speed is proportional to its allocated resource, then we present two algorithms with improved approximation ratios.     

Two-agent scheduling to minimize the total cost

Two agents, each having his own set of jobs, compete to perform their own jobs on a common processing resource. Each job of the agents has a weight that specifies its importance. The cost of the first agent is the maximum weighted completion time of his jobs while the cost of the second agent is the total weighted completion time of his jobs. We consider the scheduling problem of determining the sequence of the jobs such that the total cost of the two agents is minimized. We provide a 2-approximation algorithm for the problem, show that the case where the number of jobs of the first agent is fixed is NP-hard, and devise a polynomial time approximation scheme for this case.     

Combinatorial approximation algorithms: a comparative review

This paper is a comparative review of three related books:Giorgio Ausiello, Pierluigi Crescenzi, Giorgio Gambosi, Viggo Kann, Alberto Marchetti-Spaccamela, Marco Protasi, Complexity and Approximation (Combinatorial Optimization Problems and Their Approximability Properties), second printing, Springer, Berlin, 2003, ISBN 3-540-65431-3, 524 pp., €53.45 (first printing 1999).Juraj Hromkovi?, Algorithmics for Hard Problems (Introduction to Combinatorial Optimization, Randomization, Approximation, and Heuristics), second edition, Springer, Berlin, 2003, ISBN 3-540-44134-4, 544 pp., €53.45 (first printing 2001).Vijay Vazirani, Approximation Algorithms, second printing, Springer, Berlin, 2002, ISBN 3-540-65367-8, 380 pp., €37.40 (first printing 2001).     

Heuristic for a new multiobjective scheduling problem

We consider a telecommunication problem in which the objective is to schedule data transmission to be as fast and as cheap as possible. The main characteristic and restriction in solving this multiobjective optimization problem is the very limited computational capacity available. We describe a simple but efficient local search heuristic to solve this problem and provide some encouraging numerical test results. They demonstrate that we can develop a computationally inexpensive heuristic without sacrificing too much in the solution quality.     

A hybrid adaptively genetic algorithm for task scheduling problem in the phased array radar

A phased array radar (PAR) is used to detect new targets and update the information of those detected targets. Generally, a large number of tasks need to be performed by a single PAR in a finite time horizon. In order to utilize the limited time and the energy resources, it is necessary to provide an efficient task scheduling algorithm. However, the existing radar task scheduling algorithms can't be utilized to release the full potential of the PAR, because of those disadvantages such as full PAR task structure ignored, only good performance in one aspect considered and just heuristic or the meta-heuristic method utilized. Aiming at above issues, an optimization model for the PAR task scheduling and a hybrid adaptively genetic (HAGA) algorithm are proposed. The model considers the full PAR task structure and integrates multiple principles of task scheduling, so that multi-aspect performance can be guaranteed. The HAGA incorporates the improved GA to explore better solutions while using the heuristic task interleaving algorithm to utilize wait intervals to interleave subtasks and calculate fitness values of individuals in efficient manners. Furthermore, the efficiency and the effectiveness of the HAGA are both improved by adopting chaotic sequences for the population initialization, the elite reservation and the mixed ranking selection, as well as designing the adaptive crossover and the adaptive mutation operators. The simulation results demonstrate that the HAGA possesses merits of global exploration, faster convergence, and robustness compared with three state-of-art algorithms—adaptive GA, hybrid GA and highest priority and earliest deadline first heuristic (HPEDF) algorithm.     

A greedy approximation algorithm for the group Steiner problem

In the group Steiner problem we are given an edge-weighted graph G=(V,E,w) and m subsets of vertices . Each subset g_i is called a group and the vertices in ?_ig_i are called terminals. It is required to find a minimum weight tree that contains at least one terminal from every group.We present a poly-logarithmic ratio approximation for this problem when the input graph is a tree. Our algorithm is a recursive greedy algorithm adapted from the greedy algorithm for the directed Steiner tree problem [Approximating the weight of shallow Steiner trees, Discrete Appl. Math. 93 (1999) 265-285, Approximation algorithms for directed Steiner problems, J. Algorithms 33 (1999) 73-91]. This is in contrast to earlier algorithms that are based on rounding a linear programming based relaxation for the problem [A polylogarithmic approximation algorithm for the Group Steiner tree problem, J. Algorithms 37 (2000) 66-84, preliminary version in Proceedings of SODA, 1998 pp. 253-259, On directed Steiner trees, Proceedings of SODA, 2002, pp. 59-63]. We answer in positive a question posed in [A polylogarithmic approximation algorithm for the Group Steiner tree problem, J. Algorithms 37 (2000) 66-84, preliminary version in Proceedings of SODA, 1998 pp. 253-259] on whether there exist good approximation algorithms for the group Steiner problem that are not based on rounding linear programs. For every fixed constant ε>0, our algorithm gives an approximation in polynomial time. Approximation algorithms for trees can be extended to arbitrary undirected graphs by probabilistically approximating the graph by a tree. This results in an additional multiplicative factor of in the approximation ratio, where |V| is the number of vertices in the graph. The approximation ratio of our algorithm on trees is slightly worse than the ratio of O(log(max_i|g_i|)·logm) provided by the LP based approaches.