A stochastic assignment problem

Abstract

There are n boxes with box i having a quota value Balls arrive sequentially, with each ball having a binary vector attached to it, with the interpretation being that if Xi = 1 then that ball is eligible to be put in box i. A ball's vector is revealed when it arrives and the ball can be put in any alive box for which it is eligible, where a box is said to be alive if it has not yet met its quota. Assuming that the components of a vector are independent, we are interested in the policy that minimizes, either stochastically or in expectation, the number of balls that need arrive until all boxes have met their quotas. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 62:23–31, 2015

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Dec 11, 2014
Source ID
10.1002/nav.21611

Entities

People

  • David T. Wu
  • Sheldon M. Ross

Organizations

  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Army Research Laboratory
  • University of Southern California

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Mathematics

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Regression Analysis.
  • Tribology (the study of the boundary interaction between sliding surfaces, lubrication, wear and friction).