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Summary: Competitive Online Algorithms
Susanne Albers
Overview
Over the past ten years, online algorithms have re-
ceived considerable research interest. Online problems
had been investigated already in the seventies and early
eighties but an extensive, systematic study only started
when Sleator and Tarjan (1985) suggested comparing
an online algorithm to an optimal o ine algorithm and
Karlin, Manasse, Rudolphand Sleator(1988) coined the
term competitive analysis. In this article we give an in-
troduction to the theory of online algorithmsand survey
interesting application areas. We present important re-
sults and outline directions for future research.
Introduction
The traditional design and analysis of algorithms as-
sumes that an algorithm, which generates an output,
has complete knowledge of the entire input. However,
this assumption is often unrealistic in practical applica-
tions. Many of the algorithmic problems that arise in
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