Improved Randomized Results for That Interval Selection Problem

Online interval selection is a problem in which intervals arrive one by one, sorted by their left endpoints. Each interval has a length and a non-negative weight associated with it. The goal is to select a non-overlapping set of intervals with maximal total weight and run them to completion. The decision regarding a possible selection of an arriving interval must be done immediately upon its arrival. The interval may be preempted later in favor of selecting an arriving overlapping interval, in which case the weight of the preempted interval is lost. We follow Woeginger [10] and study the same models. The type of instances we consider are C-benevolent instances, where the weight of an interval in a monotonically increasing (convex) function of the length, and D-benevolent instances, where the weight of an interval in a monotonically decreasing function of the length. Some of our results can be extended to the case of unit length intervals with arbitrary costs. We signicantly improve th...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ESA
• Authors: Leah Epstein, Asaf Levin
• Keywords: Algorithms, ESA 2008, Online Interval Selection, Overlapping Interval, Preempted Interval