How Much is Location Information Worth? A Competitive Analysis of the Online Traveling Salesman Problem with Two Disclosure Dates

Jordan Srour and Rob Zuidwijk

ERIM Report Series Research in Management from Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract: In this paper we derive the worst-case ratio of an online algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) with two disclosure dates. This problem, a variant of the online TSP with release dates, is characterized by the disclosure of a job’s location at one point in time followed by the disclosure of that job’s release date at a later point in time. We present an online algorithm for this problem restricted to the positive real number line. We then derive the worst-case ratio of our algorithm and show that it is best-possible in two contexts – the first, one in which the amount of time between the disclosure events and release time are fixed and equal for all jobs; and a second in which the time between disclosure events varies for each job. We conclude that the value of advanced information can be attributed to the location information alone – yielding an optimal solution in favorable instances.

Keywords: advanced information; competitive ratio; online routing; traveling salesman; worst-case ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C69 M M11 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-11-13
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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