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On-Line Maximizing the Number of Items Packed in Variable-Sized Bins

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Computing and Combinatorics (COCOON 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2387))

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Abstract

We study an on-line bin packing problem. A fixed number n of bins, possibly of different sizes, are given. The items arrive on-line, and the goal is to pack as many items as possible. It is known that there exists a legal packing of the whole sequence in the n bins. We consider fair algorithms that reject an item, only if it does not fit in the empty space of any bin. We show that the competitive ratio of any fair, deterministic algorithm lies between 1/2 and 2/3, and that a class of algorithms including Best-Fit has a competitive ratio of exactly n/2n−1.

Research supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation, (grant No. 250/01-1)

Supported in part by the Danish Natural Science Research Council (SNF) and in part by the Future and Emerging Technologies program of the EU under contract number IST-1999-14186 (ALCOM-FT).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Interdisciplinary Center, School of Computer Science, Herzliya, Israel

    Leah Epstein

  2. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern, Denmark

    Lene M. Favrholdt

Authors
  1. Leah Epstein
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  2. Lene M. Favrholdt
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA

    Oscar H. Ibarra

  2. Department of Mathematics, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, 117543

    Louxin Zhang

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Epstein, L., Favrholdt, L.M. (2002). On-Line Maximizing the Number of Items Packed in Variable-Sized Bins. In: Ibarra, O.H., Zhang, L. (eds) Computing and Combinatorics. COCOON 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2387. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45655-4_50

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45655-4_50

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43996-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45655-1

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