Learning-Augmented Online Packet Scheduling with Deadlines

Efficient and reliable data transmission over networks is crucial for businesses, governments, and individuals in today's interconnected world, particularly for time-sensitive applications requiring reliable and timely data transmission. In modern networks, Quality of Service (QoS) switches are used to manage traffic flow and ensure that critical traffic is prioritized over non-critical traffic. The Buffer Management in QoS Switches problem aims to develop effective algorithms to ensure critical traffic is not lost while minimizing the impact on non-critical traffic. The goal of the algorithm is to control which packets are discarded and which are transmitted at each step. Online algorithms are often evaluated based on competitive analysis; (i.e., the ratio of the optimal offline cost to the cost achieved by online algorithms over worst-case instances).