This paper deals with the problem of computing, in an online fashion, a maximum benefit multi-commodity flow (\ONMCF), where the flow demands may be bigger than the edge capacities of the network. We present an online, deterministic, centralized, all-or-nothing, bi-criteria algorithm. The competitive ratio of the algorithm is constant, and the algorithm augments the capacities by at most a logarithmic factor. The algorithm can handle two types of flow requests: (i) low demand requests that must be routed along a path, and (ii) high demand requests that may be routed using a multi-path flow. Two extensions are discussed: requests with known durations and machine scheduling.
@article{arxiv.1201.5030,
title = {Online Multi-Commodity Flow with High Demands},
author = {Guy Even and Moti Medina},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1201.5030},
year = {2012}
}