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Randomized truthful algorithms for scheduling selfish tasks on parallel machines. (English) Zbl 1234.68041

Summary: We study the problem of designing truthful algorithms for scheduling a set of tasks, each one owned by a selfish agent, to a set of parallel (identical or unrelated) machines in order to minimize the makespan. We consider the following process: at first the agents declare the length of their tasks, then given these bids, the protocol schedules the tasks on the machines. The aim of the protocol is to minimize the makespan, i.e. the maximum completion time of the tasks, while the objective of each agent is to minimize the completion time of its task and thus an agent may lie if by doing so, his task may finish earlier. In this paper, we show the existence of randomized truthful (non-polynomial-time) algorithms with an expected approximation ratio equal to 3/2 for different scheduling settings (identical machines with and without release dates and unrelated machines) and models of execution (strong or weak). Our result improves the best previously known result [the first two authors and F. Pascual, ibid. 369, No. 1–3, 157–168 (2006; Zbl 1140.90025)] for the problem with identical machines (\(P \parallel C_{\text{max}}\)) in the strong model of execution and reaches, asymptotically, the lower bound of G. Christodoulou, L. Gourvès and F. Pascual [Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 4598, 187–197 (2007; Zbl 1206.90041)]. In addition, this result can be transformed to a polynomial-time truthful randomized algorithm with an expected approximation ratio \(3/2+\epsilon \) (resp. \( \frac {11}{6} - \frac {1}{3m}\)) for \(Pm \parallel C_{\text{max}}\) (resp. \(P\parallel C_{\text{max}}\)).

MSC:

68M20 Performance evaluation, queueing, and scheduling in the context of computer systems
68W25 Approximation algorithms
68R10 Graph theory (including graph drawing) in computer science
Full Text: DOI

References:

[1] Angel, E.; Bampis, E.; Pascual, F., Truthful algorithms for scheduling selfish tasks on parallel machines, Theoretical Computer Science (short version in WINE 2005), 369, 157-168 (2006) · Zbl 1140.90025
[2] Angel, E.; Bampis, E.; Pascual, F.; Tchetgnia, A., On truthfulness and approximation for scheduling selfish tasks, Journal of Scheduling (2009) · Zbl 1177.90141
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[5] Christodoulou, G.; Gourvès, L.; Pascual, F., Scheduling selfish tasks: about the performance of truthful algorithms, (13th International Computing and Combinatorics Conference. 13th International Computing and Combinatorics Conference, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4598 (2007), Springer), 187-197 · Zbl 1206.90041
[6] Christodoulou, G.; Koutsoupias, E.; Nanavati, A., Coordination mechanisms, (Proceedings of the 31st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming. Proceedings of the 31st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming, ICALP. Proceedings of the 31st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming. Proceedings of the 31st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming, ICALP, LNCS, vol. 3142 (2004), Springer), 345-357 · Zbl 1098.91079
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