List Factoring and Relative Worst Order Analysis

Abstract: Relative worst order analysis is a supplement or alternative to competitive analysis which has been shown to give results more in accordance with observed behavior of online algorithms for a range of different online problems. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it adds the static list accessing problem to the collection of online problems where relative worst order analysis gives better results. Second, and maybe more interesting, it adds the non-trivial supplementary proof technique of list factoring to the theoretical toolbox for relative worst order analysis.