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On the power of randomization in on-line algorithms

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Abstract

Against in adaptive adversary, we show that the power of randomization in on-line algorithms is severely limited! We prove the existence of an efficient “simulation” of randomized on-line algorithms by deterministic ones, which is best possible in general. The proof of the upper bound is existential. We deal with the issue of computing the efficient deterministic algorithm, and show that this is possible in very general cases.

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Communicated by Prabhakar Raghavan.

A previous version of this paper appeared in the22nd ACM STOC Conference Proceedings. Part of this research was performed while A. Borodin and A. Wigderson were visitors at the International Computer Science Institute, and while G. Tardos was a visitor at the Hebrew University.

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Ben-David, S., Borodin, A., Karp, R. et al. On the power of randomization in on-line algorithms. Algorithmica 11, 2–14 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01294260

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01294260

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