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A Rapid Algorithm for Optimal Allocation in Combinatorial Auctions  

송진우 (연세대학교 컴퓨터과학과)
양성봉 (연세대학교 컴퓨터과학과)
Publication Information
Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory / v.30, no.9, 2003 , pp. 477-486 More about this Journal
Abstract
In combinatorial auctions buyers nay bid for arbitrary combinations of goods. But determining the winners of combinatorial auctions who maximize the profit of a seller is known to be NP-complete. A branch-and-bound method can be one of practical algorithm for winner determination. However, bid selection heuristics play a very important role in the efficiency of a branch-and-bound method. In this paper, we designed and implemented an algorithm which used a branch-and-bound method and Linear Programming for winner determination in combinatorial auctions. We propose new bid selection heuristics which consider a branching bid and conflicting bids simultaneously to select a branching bid in the algorithm. In addition, upper bounds are reused to reduce the running time in specific cases. We evaluated the performance of the algorithm by experiments with five data distributions and compared our method with others. The algorithm using heuristics showed a superior efficiency in two data distributions and a similar efficiency in three distributions.
Keywords
Electronic commerce; Combinatorial auction; Branch and Bound; Linear programming;
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