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Main Authors: Zhang, Keyuan, Liu, Zhongdong, Choi, Nakjung, Ji, Bo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06715
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author Zhang, Keyuan
Liu, Zhongdong
Choi, Nakjung
Ji, Bo
author_facet Zhang, Keyuan
Liu, Zhongdong
Choi, Nakjung
Ji, Bo
contents In this paper, we study the two-level ski-rental problem,where a user needs to fulfill a sequence of demands for multiple items by choosing one of the three payment options: paying for the on-demand usage (i.e., rent), buying individual items (i.e., single purchase), and buying all the items (i.e., combo purchase). Without knowing future demands, the user aims to minimize the total cost (i.e., the sum of the rental, single purchase, and combo purchase costs) by balancing the trade-off between the expensive upfront costs (for purchase) and the potential future expenses (for rent). We first design a robust online algorithm (RDTSR) that offers a worst-case performance guarantee. While online algorithms are robust against the worst-case scenarios, they are often overly cautious and thus suffer a poor average performance in typical scenarios. On the other hand, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms typically show promising average performance in various applications but lack worst-case performance guarantees. To harness the benefits of both methods, we develop a learning-augmented algorithm (LADTSR) by integrating ML predictions into the robust online algorithm, which outperforms the robust online algorithm under accurate predictions while ensuring worst-case performance guarantees even when predictions are inaccurate. Finally, we conduct numerical experiments on both synthetic and real-world trace data to corroborate the effectiveness of our approach.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_06715
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning-augmented Online Algorithm for Two-level Ski-rental Problem
Zhang, Keyuan
Liu, Zhongdong
Choi, Nakjung
Ji, Bo
Data Structures and Algorithms
Machine Learning
In this paper, we study the two-level ski-rental problem,where a user needs to fulfill a sequence of demands for multiple items by choosing one of the three payment options: paying for the on-demand usage (i.e., rent), buying individual items (i.e., single purchase), and buying all the items (i.e., combo purchase). Without knowing future demands, the user aims to minimize the total cost (i.e., the sum of the rental, single purchase, and combo purchase costs) by balancing the trade-off between the expensive upfront costs (for purchase) and the potential future expenses (for rent). We first design a robust online algorithm (RDTSR) that offers a worst-case performance guarantee. While online algorithms are robust against the worst-case scenarios, they are often overly cautious and thus suffer a poor average performance in typical scenarios. On the other hand, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms typically show promising average performance in various applications but lack worst-case performance guarantees. To harness the benefits of both methods, we develop a learning-augmented algorithm (LADTSR) by integrating ML predictions into the robust online algorithm, which outperforms the robust online algorithm under accurate predictions while ensuring worst-case performance guarantees even when predictions are inaccurate. Finally, we conduct numerical experiments on both synthetic and real-world trace data to corroborate the effectiveness of our approach.
title Learning-augmented Online Algorithm for Two-level Ski-rental Problem
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06715