Dynamic Scheduling of a Multiclass Queue in the Halfin-Whitt Regime: A Computational Approach for High-Dimensional Problems

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Autori principali: Ata, Baris, Kasikaralar, Ebru
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Ata, Baris
Kasikaralar, Ebru
author_facet Ata, Baris
Kasikaralar, Ebru
contents We consider a multi-class queueing model of a telephone call center, in which a system manager dynamically allocates available servers to customer calls. Calls can terminate through either service completion or customer abandonment, and the manager strives to minimize the expected total of holding costs plus abandonment costs over a finite horizon. Focusing on the Halfin-Whitt heavy traffic regime, we derive an approximating diffusion control problem, and building on earlier work by Beck et al. (2021), develop a simulation-based computational method for solution of such problems, one that relies heavily on deep neural network technology. Using this computational method, we propose a policy for the original (pre-limit) call center scheduling problem. Finally, the performance of this policy is assessed using test problems based on publicly available call center data. For the test problems considered so far, our policy does as well as or better than the best benchmark we could find. Moreover, our method is computationally feasible at least up to dimension 500, that is, for call centers with 500 or more distinct customer classes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_18128
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dynamic Scheduling of a Multiclass Queue in the Halfin-Whitt Regime: A Computational Approach for High-Dimensional Problems
Ata, Baris
Kasikaralar, Ebru
Systems and Control
Machine Learning
Analysis of PDEs
Optimization and Control
We consider a multi-class queueing model of a telephone call center, in which a system manager dynamically allocates available servers to customer calls. Calls can terminate through either service completion or customer abandonment, and the manager strives to minimize the expected total of holding costs plus abandonment costs over a finite horizon. Focusing on the Halfin-Whitt heavy traffic regime, we derive an approximating diffusion control problem, and building on earlier work by Beck et al. (2021), develop a simulation-based computational method for solution of such problems, one that relies heavily on deep neural network technology. Using this computational method, we propose a policy for the original (pre-limit) call center scheduling problem. Finally, the performance of this policy is assessed using test problems based on publicly available call center data. For the test problems considered so far, our policy does as well as or better than the best benchmark we could find. Moreover, our method is computationally feasible at least up to dimension 500, that is, for call centers with 500 or more distinct customer classes.
title Dynamic Scheduling of a Multiclass Queue in the Halfin-Whitt Regime: A Computational Approach for High-Dimensional Problems
topic Systems and Control
Machine Learning
Analysis of PDEs
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.18128