Online energy efficient packet scheduling for a common deadline with and without energy harvesting

TL;DR

This paper proposes online algorithms for energy-efficient packet scheduling under a common deadline, considering both traditional and hybrid energy sources, with competitive ratios logarithmic in the number of packets.

Contribution

It introduces a novel online scheduling algorithm with proven logarithmic competitive ratio for both conventional and hybrid energy scenarios.

Findings

Algorithm achieves logarithmic competitive ratio.

Effective energy minimization with hybrid energy sources.

Applicable to arbitrary packet arrival times within a deadline.

Abstract

The problem of online packet scheduling to minimize the required conventional grid energy for transmitting a fixed number of packets given a common deadline is considered. The total number of packets arriving within the deadline is known, but the packet arrival times are unknown, and can be arbitrary. The proposed algorithm tries to finish the transmission of each packet assuming all future packets are going to arrive at equal time intervals within the left-over time. The proposed online algorithm is shown to have competitive ratio that is logarithmic in the number of packet arrivals. The hybrid energy paradigm is also considered, where in addition to grid energy, energy is also available via extraction from renewable sources. The objective here is to minimize the grid energy use. A suitably modified version of the previous algorithm is also shown to have competitive ratio that is logarithmic in the number of packet arrivals.