Dynamic TCP acknowledgement and other stories about e/(e-1)
Anna R. Karlin, Claire Kenyon, Dana Randall · 2001
We present the first optimal randomized online algorithms for the TCP acknowledgment problem [5] and the Bahncard problem [7]. These problems are well-known to be generalizations of the classical online ski rental problem, however, they appeared to be harder. In this paper, we demonstrate that a number of online algorithms which have optimal competitive ratios of e/(e-1), including these, are fundamentally no more complex than ski rental. Our results also suggest a clear paradigm for solving ski rental-like problems.