cs.LGFeb 20, 2026

Non-Stationary Online Resource Allocation: Learning from a Single Sample

Authors: Yiding Feng, Jiashuo Jiang, Yige Wang

Organizations: Department of Industrial Engineering & Decision Analytics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Abstract

We study online resource allocation under non-stationary demand with a minimum offline data requirement. In this problem, a decision-maker must allocate multiple types of resources to sequentially arriving queries over a finite horizon. Each query belongs to a finite set of types with fixed resource consumption and a stochastic reward drawn from an unknown, type-specific distribution. Critically, the environment exhibits arbitrary non-stationarity -- arrival distributions may shift unpredictably-while the algorithm requires only one historical sample per period to operate effectively. We distinguish two settings based on sample informativeness: (i) reward-observed samples containing both query type and reward realization, and (ii) the more challenging type-only samples revealing only query type information. We propose a novel type-dependent quantile-based meta-policy that decouples the problem into modular components: reward distribution estimation, optimization of target service probabilities via fluid relaxation, and real-time decisions through dynamic acceptance thresholds. For reward-observed samples, our static threshold policy achieves O~(T)\tilde{O}(\sqrt{T}) regret. For type-only samples, we first establish that sublinear regret is impossible without additional structure; under a mild minimum-arrival-probability assumption, we design both a partially adaptive policy attaining the same O~(T)\tilde{O}({T}) bound and, more significantly, a fully adaptive resolving policy with careful rounding that achieves the first poly-logarithmic regret guarantee of O((log⁡T)3)O((\log T)^3) for non-stationary multi-resource allocation. Our framework advances prior work by operating with minimal offline data (one sample per period), handling arbitrary non-stationarity without variation-budget assumptions, and supporting multiple resource constraints.

Figures & tables

Explore similar work

Mar 15, 2026

A Single-Sample Polylogarithmic Regret Bound for Nonstationary Online Linear Programming

We study nonstationary Online Linear Programming (OLP), where nn orders arrive sequentially with reward-resource consumption pairs that form a sequence of independent, but not necessarily identically distributed, random vectors. At the beginning of the planning horizon, the decision-maker is provided with a resource endowment that is sufficient to fulfill a significant portion of the requests. The decision-maker seeks to maximize the expected total reward by making immediate and irrevocable acceptance or rejection decisions for each order, subject to this resource endowment. We focus on the challenging single-sample setting, where only one sample from each of the nn distributions is available at the start of the planning horizon. We propose a novel re-solving algorithm that integrates a dynamic programming perspective with the dual-based frameworks traditionally employed in stationary environments. In the large-resource regime, where the resource endowment scales linearly with the number of orders, we prove that our algorithm achieves O((log⁡n)2)O((\log n)^2) regret across a broad class of nonstationary distribution sequences. Our results demonstrate that polylogarithmic regret is attainable even under significant environmental shifts and minimal data availability, bridging the gap between stationary OLP and more volatile real-world resource allocation problems.
Oct 7, 2026

Online Resource Allocation with an Endogenous Markov State: Fewer LP Solves Earn More

We study finite-horizon online resource allocation with i.i.d. requests and an endogenous Markov state on a finite state space: each action affects the transition of the state that governs future rewards and resource consumption. In this problem, a transient fluid LP benchmark upper bounds the expected reward of every nonanticipating policy, while a stationary LP supplies randomized state-dependent controls. We assume that the stationary LP has a unique optimum and identify primal nondegeneracy and irreducibility of the optimal induced kernel as important regularity conditions in this framework. With a known request prior, we show that, under nondegeneracy and irreducibility, both frequent and infrequent re-solving attain O(1)O(1) regret. However, under a degenerate optimum, irreducibility yields the sharp worst-case Θ(T)Θ(\sqrt{T}) rate for infrequent re-solving, while frequent re-solving can incur Ω(T)Ω(T) regret. Thus, more frequent optimization can perform asymptotically worse. With an unknown request prior, we develop a three-phase U-shaped infrequent re-solving policy that coordinates learning and inventory correction with O(log⁡log⁡T)O(\log\log T) LP solves. When the optimal induced kernel is irreducible and the algorithm is given the optimal target state class and a constant-cost entrance policy, it attains O(1)O(1) regret under nondegeneracy and O(T)O(\sqrt{T}) regret under degeneracy. Without the target-class information, linear minimax regret is unavoidable. Numerical experiments further illustrate the instability of round-by-round re-solving relative to epoch-wise infrequent re-solving, show that thresholding greatly mitigates its loss, and find that infrequent schemes remain dominant under both known and estimated priors.
Sep 5, 2026

A First-Order Learning Algorithm for Online Resource Allocation with Constant Regret

We study a finite-horizon online resource allocation problem with initial resource capacities proportional to the horizon. In each period, a request type is observed and one action is chosen from a finite menu. Each action earns a reward and consumes a vector of resources. We present a primal first-order learning policy that, in each period, performs one gradient ascent update of the action coordinates associated with one request type, for a fluid relaxation in which resource overuse incurs a quadratic penalty. The policy achieves O(1)O(1) expected additive regret relative to the hindsight optimum, with a bound independent of the horizon TT, under a general arrival model. This model includes independent and identically distributed arrivals with unknown probabilities, independent nonstationary arrivals with known probabilities, independent nonstationary arrivals with unknown probabilities and one historical sample path, and Markov-modulated arrivals with an unknown Markov chain. The policy does not solve any linear program, and the regret bound does not require a nondegeneracy assumption on the fluid linear program.