Structural Parameters for Scheduling with Assignment Restrictions

Abstract: We consider scheduling on identical and unrelated parallel machines with job assignment restrictions. These problems are NP-hard and they do not admit polynomial time approximation algorithms with approximation ratios smaller than $1.5$ unless P$=$NP. However, if we impose limitations on the set of machines that can process a job, the problem sometimes becomes easier in the sense that algorithms with approximation ratios better than $1.5$ exist. We introduce three graphs, based on the assignment restrictions and study the computational complexity of the scheduling problem with respect to structural properties of these graphs, in particular their tree- and rankwidth. We identify cases that admit polynomial time approximation schemes or FPT algorithms, generalizing and extending previous results in this area.