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A particular timetable problem: terminal scheduling. (English) Zbl 0629.60010
This paper considers the problem of constructing an optimal time table for m users of $$\ell$$ identical machines (terminals of a computer) in n disjoint hours (a week) under the following conditions: a) Each user has the number of hours he would like to work and also the subset of hours he is able to work on a machine. b) The users have some other wishes: Some of them would like long intervals of time, some others may want their times to be uniformly distributed within n hours.
Firstly this paper points out that the problem of finding a feasible time table meeting condition a) (if exists) reduces to the well known max flow problem and hence can efficiently be solved by using alternating paths and minimal path algorithm. Secondly this paper proposes a fair reduction of user’s requests for the case that no feasible time table exists. The fair reduction of the request means that n disjoint hours are fairly distributed to each user in the ligth of the “favourized” function $$p_ u(d)$$ user u has for d assigned hours. An efficient algorithm for a fair time table is given. Thirdly, this paper proposes a heuristic algorithm for a good time table in the light of condition b). Lastly, this paper discusses the complexity of some extensions of this problem.
Reviewer: H.Kise
##### MSC:
 60B10 Convergence of probability measures 90C35 Programming involving graphs or networks
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##### References:
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