Resource Allocation in the Grid Using Reinforcement Learning

In this paper we study a minimalist decentralized algorithm for resource allocation in a simplified Grid-like environment. We consider a system consisting of large number of heterogenous reinforcement learning agents that share common resources for their computational needs. There is no communication between the agents: the only information that agents receive is the (expected) completion time of a job it submitted to a particular resource and which serves as a reinforcement signal for the agent. The results of our experiments suggest that reinforcement learning can be used to improve the quality of resource allocation in large scale heterogenous system. 1.