Online Resource Allocation for Reusable Resources

Abstract: We study a general model on reusable resource allocation under model uncertainty. A heterogeneous population of customers arrive at the decision maker's (DM's) platform sequentially. Upon observing a customer's type, the DM selects an allocation decision, which leads to rewards earned and resources occupied. Each resource unit is occupied for a random duration, and the unit is available for another allocation after the usage duration. Our model captures numerous applications involving admission control and assortment planning. The DM aims to simultaneously maximize multiple types of rewards, while satisfying the resource constraints and being uncertain about the customers' arrival process. We develop a near-optimal algorithm that achieves $(1-\epsilon)$ fraction of the optimal expected rewards, where the error parameter $\epsilon$ decays to zero as the resource capacity units and the length of the horizon grow. The algorithm iteratively applies the Multiplicative Weight Update algorithm in a novel manner, which balances the trade-off among the amounts of rewards earned, resources occupied and usage durations.