cloud resource schedulers

Abstract: We study learning-augmented online bipartite allocation with multiple stages. In the $k$-stage vertex-weighted fractional bipartite matching problem, demand vertices arrive in $k$ stages, and the algorithm receives possibly inaccurate predictions of the allocation in each stage. While tight consistency-robustness tradeoffs were known for the two-stage case, no nontrivial tradeoff was known for an arbitrary number of stages. Our main result is the first consistency-robustness tradeoff for $k$-stage vertex-weighted fractional bipartite matching with predictions, for every $k\ge2$. Let $R_k=1-(1-1/k)^k$. For every $R\in[0,R_k]$, our algorithm is $R$-robust and $C_k(R)$-consistent, where $C_k(R)=k(1-R)^{1/k}+R-(k-1)$. This simultaneously recovers the known tight two-stage tradeoff and the optimal prediction-free $k$-stage competitive guarantee $R_k = C_k(R_k)$, while strictly dominating the natural randomized coin-flip baseline between these endpoints. We also present an algorithm for the classical online setting, where demands arrive one by one and the number of demands is unknown in advance. It has a consistency ratio of at least $C_\infty(R)=1+R+\ln(1-R)$ for a given robustness $R\in[0,1-1/e]$, improving the best previously known tradeoff for this problem. Finally, we extend the framework to fractional AdWords and fractional predictions. Our algorithms are based on stage-wise convex programs with carefully calibrated vertex-dependent penalties. The penalties maintain a dynamic safety reserve for each supply vertex, balancing protection against adversarial future arrivals with the ability to exploit the predicted allocation.

Abstract: We study the fair allocation of $m$ indivisible chores to $n$ agents with subadditive cost functions arriving online in an arbitrary order. Upon an agent's arrival, we are informed of her cost function and must irrevocably assign her a set of chores. We focus on the Maximin Share (MMS) fairness notion and aim to compute an allocation in which all items are assigned, and no agent incurs a cost more than $α$ times her MMS. Without any prior information about the instance (other than $n$ and $m$), we design an algorithm with a competitive ratio of $O(\min\{n, k\log^{1+ε}k, \log m\})$ for any constant $ε> 0$, where $k$ denotes the number of cost function types. Our bound matches the best known offline approximation guarantees for MMS under subadditive costs and is nearly optimal with respect to all three parameters: we show that even for binary additive cost functions, no online algorithm can achieve a competitive ratio of $o(\min\{n, k\log k, \log m\})$. We then consider the setting in which the $k$ cost function types are known in advance (though the realized types of arriving agents are not). For additive cost functions, we provide an algorithm with a competitive ratio of $O(\min\{\log k, \log(kn)/\log\log(kn)\})$, and show that constant-competitive algorithms do not exist for general $k$, even for the binary additive setting. For binary additive functions when $k \le n$, we propose a $3$-competitive algorithm and establish a lower bound of $2$.