1BP: extending by small items

Dependencies:

  1. Bin packing and Knapsack

Let $I$ be a 1D bin packing instance.

Let $I_L = \{s \in I: s > \epsilon\}$ and $I_S = \{s \in I: s \le \epsilon\}$. Let there be a packing of $I_L$ into $m$ bins. Then we can use that packing to get a packing of $I$ into at most $\max(m, \frac{1}{1-\epsilon}\operatorname{size}(I)+1)$ bins.

Proof

The first-fit algorithm packs items into the first bin in which the item can be packed. We'll take the packing of $I_L$ and add small items using the first-fit algorithm. Let $m'$ be the number of bins used.

If all small items fit without using any new bins, then $m' = m$.

If some new bins had to be opened to fit some small items, then every bin except that last must have empty space $< \epsilon$. Therefore, \[ \operatorname{size}(I) \ge (m'-1)(1-\epsilon) \implies m' \le \frac{1}{1-\epsilon}\operatorname{size}(I)+1 \]

Therefore, $m' \le \max(m, \frac{1}{1-\epsilon}\operatorname{size}(I)+1)$.

Dependency for:

  1. 1BP: APTAS
  2. 1BP: Karmarkar-Karp algorithm (broken)

Info:

Transitive dependencies:

  1. Bin packing and Knapsack