Online Leasing Problem with Price Fluctuations and Second-hand Transaction
Résumé
This paper proposes an online leasing problem considering both price fluctuation and second-hand transactions of required equipment. The price of the equipment varies in a predetermined interval over time, and such a fluctuation between two adjacent time is controlled within an acceptable range. Besides, the equipment can be sold after its end of use. The selling price in the second-hand transaction is assumed to vary along with the price fluctuations. The aim of this paper is to find the best possible online leasing strategy which generates a minimal cost for using the equipment. We present an online leasing algorithm for solving this problem and prove it to be the optimal online algorithm.