A polylogarithmic-competitive algorithm for the k-server problem

Nikhil Bansal, Niv Buchbinder, Aleksander Madry, Joseph Seffi Naor

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We give the first polylogarithmic-competitive randomized online algorithm for the k-server problem on an arbitrary finite metric space. In particular, our algorithm achieves a competitive ratio of O(log3 nlog2 k) for any metric space on n points. Our algorithm improves upon the deterministic (2k-1)-competitive algorithm of Koutsoupias and Papadimitriou [Koutsoupias and Papadimitriou 1995] for a wide range of n.

Original languageEnglish
Article number40
JournalJournal of the ACM
Volume62
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2015

Keywords

  • Competitive analysis
  • K-server problem
  • Randomization

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Artificial Intelligence

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A polylogarithmic-competitive algorithm for the k-server problem'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this