This paper investigates the problem of scheduling jobs on multiple speedscaled processors without migration, i.e., we have constant α > 1 such that running a processor at speed s results in energy consumption s α per time unit. We consider the general case where each job has a monotonously increasing cost function that penalizes delay. This includes the so far considered cases of deadlines and flow time. For any type of delay cost functions, we obtain the following results: Any β-approximation algorithm for a single processor yields a randomized βB α -approximation algorithm for multiple processors without migration, where B α is the αth Bell number, that is, the number of partitions of a set of size α. Analogously, we show that any β-competitive online algorithm for a single processor yields a βB α -competitive online algorithm for multiple processors without migration. Finally, we show that any β-approximation algorithm for multiple processors with migration yields a deterministic βB α -approximation algorithm for multiple processors without migration. These facts improve several approximation ratios and lead to new results. For instance, we obtain the first constant factor online and offline approximation algorithm for multiple processors without migration for arbitrary release times, deadlines, and job sizes.

This paper investigates the problem of scheduling jobs on multiple speedscaled processors without migration, i.e., we have constant α > 1 such that running a processor at speed s results in energy consumption s α per time unit. We consider the general case where each job has a monotonously increasing cost function that penalizes delay. This includes the so far considered cases of deadlines and flow time. For any type of delay cost functions, we obtain the following results: Any β-approximation algorithm for a single processor yields a randomized βB α -approximation algorithm for multiple processors without migration, where B α is the αth Bell number, that is, the number of partitions of a set of size α. Analogously, we show that any β-competitive online algorithm for a single processor yields a βB α -competitive online algorithm for multiple processors without migration. Finally, we show that any β-approximation algorithm for multiple processors with migration yields a deterministic βB α -approximation algorithm for multiple processors without migration. These facts improve several approximation ratios and lead to new results. For instance, we obtain the first constant factor online and offline approximation algorithm for multiple processors without migration for arbitrary release times, deadlines, and job sizes.

The objective of the classical Joint Replenishment Problem (JRP) is to minimize ordering costs by combining orders in two stages, first at some retailers, and then at a warehouse. These orders are needed to satisfy demands that appear over time at the retailers. We investigate the natural special case that each demand has a deadline until when it needs to be satisfied. For this case, we present a randomized 5/3-approximation algorithm. We moreover prove that JRP with deadlines is APX-hard. Finally, we extend the known hardness results by showing that JRP with linear delay cost functions is NP-hard, even if each retailer has to satisfy only three demands.

Memory management is a fundamental problem in computer architecture and operating systems. We consider a two-level memory system with fast, but small cache and slow, but large main memory. The underlying theoretical problem is known as the paging problem. A sequence of requests to pages has to be served by making each requested page available in the cache. A paging strategy replaces pages in the cache with requested ones. The aim is to minimize the number of page faults that occur whenever a requested page is not in the cache.Experience shows that the paging strategy Least-Recently-Used (LRU) usually achieves a factor around 2 to 3 compared to the optimum number of faults. This contrasts the theoretical worst case, in which this factor can be as large as the cache size k.One difficulty in analyzing the paging problem was the lack of an appropriate lower bound for the minimum number of page faults. We address this issue and propose a general lower bound which provides insight into the global structure of a given request sequence. In addition, we derive a characterization for the number of faults incurred by LRU.We give a theoretical explanation why LRU performs well in practice. We classify the set of all request sequences according to certain parameters and prove a bound on the competitive ratio of LRU, which depends on them. This bound varies between 2 and k, i.e., it includes the worstcase, but explains for which sequences LRU achieves constant competitive ratio. The classification is motivated from the structure of request sequences of practical applications: locality of reference and characteristic data access patterns. We argue that this structure yields values around 2 for our bound. Indeed, it is between 2 and 5 in extensive practical experiments.Furthermore, we study the paging problem with variable cache size, which was already considered previously. We show that this approach is not appropriate to explain the usual good performance of LRU. We measure the perfor-Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. E[opt] and the expected performance ratio E ¢ alg opt £ in a diffuse adversary model and compare both measures. Our analysis yields that the expected competitive ratio gives a misleading answer.

We consider the classical problem of scheduling preemptible jobs, that arrive over time, on identical parallel machines. The goal is to minimize the total completion time of the jobs. In standard scheduling notation of Graham et al. [5], this problem is denoted P | rj, pmtn | P j cj . A popular algorithm called SRPT, which always schedules the unfinished jobs with shortest remaining processing time, is known to be 2-competitive, see Phillips et al. [13,14]. This is also the best known competitive ratio for any online algorithm. However, it is conjectured that the competitive ratio of SRPT is significantly less than 2. Even breaking the barrier of 2 is considered a significant step towards the final answer of this classical online problem. We improve on this open problem by showing that SRPT is 1.86-competitive. This result is obtained using the following method, which might be of general interest: We define two dependent random variables that sum up to the difference between the cost of an SRPT schedule and the cost of an optimal schedule. Then we bound the sum of the expected values of these random variables with respect to the cost of the optimal schedule, yielding the claimed competitiveness. Furthermore, we show a lower bound of 21/19 for SRPT, improving on the previously best known 12/11 due to Lu et al. [11].