A new policy evaluation algorithm for Markov decision processes with quasi birth-death structure

Abstract

This paper describes a new algorithm for policy evaluation for Markov decision processes (MDP) that possess a quasi birth-death structure. The proposed algorithm is based on matrix analytic methods which use probabilistic concepts associated with restricting the underlying Markov process to certain state subsets. A telecommunications application example shows that the method offers significant computational reduction compared to a standard MDP policy evaluation approach.