Minimizing Maximum Flow-time on Related Machines

We consider the online problem of minimizing the maximum flow-time on related machines. This is a natural generalization of the extensively studied makespan minimization problem to the setting where jobs arrive over time. Interestingly, natural algorithms such as Greedy or Slowfit that work for the simpler identical machines case or for makespan minimization on related machines, are not O(1)-competitive. Our main result is a new O(1)-competitive algorithm for the problem. Previously, O(1)-competitive algorithms were known only with resource augmentation, and in fact no O(1) approximation was known even in the offline case. 1998 ACM Subject Classification F.2.2 Nonnumerical Algorithms and Problems Keywords and phrases Related machines scheduling, Maximum flow-time minimization, On-line algorithm, Approximation algorithm Digital Object Identifier 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2015.85

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: APPROX
• Authors: Nikhil Bansal, Bouke Cloostermans
• Keywords: Algorithms, APPROX 2015