Constrained Average Cost Markov Decision Chains

Abstract

A Markov decision chain with denumerable state space incurs two types of costs — for example, an operating cost and a holding cost. The objective is to minimize the expected average operating cost, subject to a constraint on the expected average holding cost. We prove the existence of an optimal constrained randomized stationary policy, for which the two stationary policies differ on at most one state. The examples treated are a packet communication system with reject option and a single-server queue with service rate control.