Tighter bounds for online bipartite matching

Abstract: We study the online bipartite matching problem, introduced by Karp, Vazirani and Vazirani [1990]. For bipartite graphs with matchings of size $n$, it is known that the Ranking randomized algorithm matches at least $(1 - \frac{1}{e})n$ edges in expectation. It is also known that no online algorithm matches more than $(1 - \frac{1}{e})n + O(1)$ edges in expectation, when the input is chosen from a certain distribution that we refer to as $D_n$. This upper bound also applies to fractional matchings. We review the known proofs for this last statement. In passing we observe that the $O(1)$ additive term (in the upper bound for fractional matching) is $\frac{1}{2} - \frac{1}{2e} + O(\frac{1}{n})$, and that this term is tight: the online algorithm known as Balance indeed produces a fractional matching of this size. We provide a new proof that exactly characterizes the expected cardinality of the (integral) matching produced by Ranking when the input graph comes from the support of $D_n$. This expectation turns out to be $(1 - \frac{1}{e})n + 1 - \frac{2}{e} + O(\frac{1}{n!})$, and serves as an upper bound on the performance ratio of any online (integral) matching algorithm.