English

Solving Simple Stochastic Games with few Random Nodes faster using Bland's Rule

Data Structures and Algorithms 2019-01-17 v1 Computer Science and Game Theory

Abstract

The best algorithm so far for solving Simple Stochastic Games is Ludwig's randomized algorithm which works in expected 2O(n)2^{O(\sqrt{n})} time. We first give a simpler iterative variant of this algorithm, using Bland's rule from the simplex algorithm, which uses exponentially less random bits than Ludwig's version. Then, we show how to adapt this method to the algorithm of Gimbert and Horn whose worst case complexity is O(k!)O(k!), where kk is the number of random nodes. Our algorithm has an expected running time of 2O(k)2^{O(k)}, and works for general random nodes with arbitrary outdegree and probability distribution on outgoing arcs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1901.05316,
  title  = {Solving Simple Stochastic Games with few Random Nodes faster using Bland's Rule},
  author = {David Auger and Pierre Coucheney and Yann Strozecki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.05316},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

Article accepted at STACS 2019, include the proofs in the annexe

R2 v1 2026-06-23T07:13:26.253Z