Publication details
Comparison of Algorithms for Simple Stochastic Games
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification, GandALF 2020, Brussels, Belgium, September 21-22, 2020. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.326.9 |
| Description | Simple stochastic games are turn-based 21/2-player zero-sum graph games with a reachability objective. The problem is to compute the winning probability as well as the optimal strategies of both players. In this paper, we compare the three known classes of algorithms - value iteration, strategy iteration and quadratic programming - both theoretically and practically. Further, we suggest several improvements for all algorithms, including the first approach based on quadratic programming that avoids transforming the stochastic game to a stopping one. Our extensive experiments show that these improvements can lead to significant speed-ups. We implemented all algorithms in PRISMgames 3.0, thereby providing the first implementation of quadratic programming for solving simple stochastic games. |