- Resource Allocation with Time Intervals Andreas Darmann (andreas.darmannuni-graz.at) Ulrich Pferschy (pferschyuni-graz.at) Joachim Schauer (joachim.schaueruni-graz.at) Abstract: We study a resource allocation problem where jobs have the following characteristics: Each job consumes some quantity of a bounded resource during a certain time interval and induces a given profit. We aim to select a subset of jobs with maximal total profit such that the total resource consumed at any point in time remains bounded by the given resource capacity. While this case is trivially $\mathcal{NP}$-hard in general and polynomially solvable for uniform resource consumptions, our main result shows the $\mathcal{NP}$-hardness for the case of general resource consumptions but uniform profit values, i.e.\ for the case of maximizing the number of performed jobs. This result applies even for proper time intervals. We also give a deterministic (1/2-\eps)$-- approximation algorithm for the general problem on proper intervals improving upon the currently known$1/3\$ ratio for general intervals. Finally, we study the worst-case performance ratio of a simple greedy algorithm. Keywords: resource allocation, proper intervals, unsplittable flow Category 1: Combinatorial Optimization Category 2: Applications -- OR and Management Sciences (Scheduling ) Citation: The final version of this article appeared in Theoretical Computer Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304397510004639 DOI: 10.1016/j.tcs.2010.08.028 Download: [PDF]Entry Submitted: 09/21/2009Entry Accepted: 09/21/2009Entry Last Modified: 12/01/2012Modify/Update this entry Visitors Authors More about us Links Subscribe, Unsubscribe Digest Archive Search, Browse the Repository Submit Update Policies Coordinator's Board Classification Scheme Credits Give us feedback Optimization Journals, Sites, Societies Optimization Online is supported by the Mathematical Optmization Society.