Scheduling Service Updates: A Multi-arm Bandit Approach

Abstract

Software as a Service (SaaS) instances often use edge resources to serve their customers. The version of the service hosted at the edge needs to be periodically updated to maximize the utility derived by the customers. We focus on scheduling updates in the setting where the utility derived from a version is an unknown decreasing function of the time elapsed since the version was created. We map the scheduling problem to a multi-arm bandit and propose an update policy. We characterize its performance and compare it with the fundamental limit on the performance of any online policy.