Competitive Strategies for Online Cloud Resource Allocation with Discounts: The 2-Dimensional Parking Permit Problem

Xinhui Hu, Arne Ludwig, Andrea Richa, Stefan Schmid

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cloud computing heralded an era where resources can be scaled up and down elastically and in an online manner. This paper initiates the study of cost-effective cloud resource allocation algorithms under price discounts, using a competitive analysis approach. We show that for a single resource, the online resource renting problem can be seen as a 2-dimensional variant of the classic online parking permit problem, and we formally introduce the PPP⊃ problem accordingly. Our main contribution is an online algorithm for PPP⊃ which achieves a deterministic competitive ratio of k (under a certain set of assumptions), where k is the number of resource bundles. This is almost optimal, as we also prove a lower bound of k/3 for any deterministic online algorithm. Our online algorithm makes use of an optimal offline algorithm, which may be of independent interest since it is the first optimal offline algorithm for the 1D and 2D versions of the parking permit problem. Finally, we show that our algorithms and results also generalize to multiple resources (i.e., Multi-dimensional parking permit problems).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2015 IEEE 35th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, ICDCS 2015
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages93-102
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781467372145
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 22 2015
Event35th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, ICDCS 2015 - Columbus, United States
Duration: Jun 29 2015Jul 2 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings - International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems
Volume2015-July

Conference

Conference35th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, ICDCS 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityColumbus
Period6/29/157/2/15

Keywords

  • Cloud Computing
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Online Algorithm
  • Resource Allocation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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