A novel use of value iteration for deriving bounds for threshold and switching curve optimal policies

Dwi Ertiningsih, Sandjai Bhulai, Flora Spieksma*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In this article, we develop a novel role for the initial function v0 in the value iteration algorithm. In case the optimal policy of a countable state Markovian queueing control problem has a threshold or switching curve structure, we conjecture, that one can tune the choice of v0 to generate monotonic sequences of n-stage threshold or switching curve optimal policies. We will show this for three queueing control models, the M/M/1 queue with admission and with service control, and the two-competing queues model with quadratic holding cost. As a consequence, we obtain increasingly tighter upper and lower bounds. After a finite number of iterations, either the optimal threshold, or the optimal switching curve values in a finite number of states is available. This procedure can be used to increase numerical efficiency.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)638-659
Number of pages22
JournalNaval Research Logistics
Volume65
Issue number8
Early online date28 Dec 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2018

Bibliographical note

Special Issue: Pete Veinott (Volume 1)

Keywords

  • deriving bounds
  • optimal policies
  • value iteraton

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