Learning payoffs while routing in skill-based queues

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: van Kempen, Sanne, Sanders, Jaron, Sloothaak, Fiona, Wolf, Maarten G.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866910743908057088
author van Kempen, Sanne
Sanders, Jaron
Sloothaak, Fiona
Wolf, Maarten G.
author_facet van Kempen, Sanne
Sanders, Jaron
Sloothaak, Fiona
Wolf, Maarten G.
contents Motivated by applications in service systems, we consider queueing systems where each customer must be handled by a server with the right skill set. We focus on optimizing the routing of customers to servers in order to maximize the total payoff of customer--server matches. In addition, customer--server dependent payoff parameters are assumed to be unknown a priori. We construct a machine learning algorithm that adaptively learns the payoff parameters while maximizing the total payoff and prove that it achieves polylogarithmic regret. Moreover, we show that the algorithm is asymptotically optimal up to logarithmic terms by deriving a regret lower bound. The algorithm leverages the basic feasible solutions of a static linear program as the action space. The regret analysis overcomes the complex interplay between queueing and learning by analyzing the convergence of the queue length process to its stationary behavior. We also demonstrate the performance of the algorithm numerically, and have included an experiment with time-varying parameters highlighting the potential of the algorithm in non-static environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_10168
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning payoffs while routing in skill-based queues
van Kempen, Sanne
Sanders, Jaron
Sloothaak, Fiona
Wolf, Maarten G.
Machine Learning
Probability
60K25, 93E35, 90C27
Motivated by applications in service systems, we consider queueing systems where each customer must be handled by a server with the right skill set. We focus on optimizing the routing of customers to servers in order to maximize the total payoff of customer--server matches. In addition, customer--server dependent payoff parameters are assumed to be unknown a priori. We construct a machine learning algorithm that adaptively learns the payoff parameters while maximizing the total payoff and prove that it achieves polylogarithmic regret. Moreover, we show that the algorithm is asymptotically optimal up to logarithmic terms by deriving a regret lower bound. The algorithm leverages the basic feasible solutions of a static linear program as the action space. The regret analysis overcomes the complex interplay between queueing and learning by analyzing the convergence of the queue length process to its stationary behavior. We also demonstrate the performance of the algorithm numerically, and have included an experiment with time-varying parameters highlighting the potential of the algorithm in non-static environments.
title Learning payoffs while routing in skill-based queues
topic Machine Learning
Probability
60K25, 93E35, 90C27
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10168