Abstract
We focus on the online problem of queue management in networks providing differentiated services. As in DiffServ, packets are divided into two priority groups. Low priority packets are assigned the value of 1 and high priority packets are assigned the value of α > 1. The goal is to maximize the total value of packets that are sent. Restricted to FIFO queues, the packets must be sent by the order of their arrival, however we are allowed to preempt packets from the queue.Several deterministic online algorithms for this model have been presented in previous papers. Currently, the best online algorithm known for this problem has a competitive ratio of 1.304 for the worst case α [17]. In this work we consider randomized online algorithms. Our main result is an online policy that outperforms any deterministic policy and achieves a competitive ratio of 1.25, by using a single random bit. This result is lower than the deterministic lower bound of 1.281 [19]. We then derive a general lower bound for randomized algorithms of 1.197.A natural extension of this model is to assign arbitrary packet values to the input packets. Currently, the best competitive ratio achieved for a deterministic policy is 1.75 [7]. We present a randomized comparison based online policy with the same competitive ratio. Since no deterministic comparison based policy is known to have a competitive ratio better than 2, we believe that this result demonstrates the potential of using randomization to outperform deterministic policies, as in the two value model.
Published Version
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