Non-additive two-option ski rental

Amir Levi, Boaz Patt-Shamir

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

We consider a generalization of the classical problem of ski rental. There is a game that ends at an unknown time, and the algorithm needs to decide how to pay for the time until the game ends. There are two "payment plans" or "options," such that the cost of t time units under option i (for i = 1, 2) is given by ait + bi , where bi is a one-time cost to start using option i, and ai is the ongoing cost per time unit. We assume w.l.o.g. that a1 > a2 and b1 < b2. (The classical version is b1 = 0 and a 2 = 0, so that option 1 is "pure rent" and option 2 is "pure buy.") We give deterministic and randomized algorithms for the general setting and prove matching lower bounds on the competitive ratios for the problem. This is the first non-trivial result for the non-additive model of ski rental, which models non-refundable one-time costs.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationStructural Information and Communication Complexity - 20th International Colloquium, SIROCCO 2013, Revised Selected Papers
Pages80-91
Number of pages12
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event20th International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity, SIROCCO 2013 - Ischia, Italy
Duration: 1 Jul 20133 Jul 2013

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume8179 LNCS

Conference

Conference20th International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity, SIROCCO 2013
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityIschia
Period1/07/133/07/13

Keywords

  • Competitive analysis
  • Online computation

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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