Parallel Range, Segment and Rectangle Queries with Augmented Maps

“Why,” “what,” and “how” are basic questions to be answered in augmented map research as an intersecting direction. This study summarizes dynamic visual representations and true 3D interactions as characteristics of augmented maps from the cartographic perspective through analysis of the research progress in different disciplines. From secondary viewpoints of cognition and design, the augmented map cube is presented to establish the research framework in three directions: cognitive purposes, information dimensions, and interactive devices, in which map-based spatial cognition theory, augmented visualization, and interactive features are considered. The research evaluation is carried out to determine the reasonableness of the cube and then identify different research statuses in any one or two of the directions under the cube. Based on a literature search and classification, 30 typical studies were used for structural analysis to discover research trends and new directions that can be mined. The results show that the cube can be used to evaluate the coverage of an article or provide researchers with research trends and new possibilities. Our conclusions include but are not limited to the following: Research for retrieval purposes deserves attention, augmented visualization of specific individual elements is key to understanding maps, and interactive devices become more intangible.

Over the years many interesting and efficient parallel algorithms have been developed to solve a wide variety of problems, but not much attention has been paid to studying the inherent parallelism in sequential algorithms---i.e., understanding the depth of their dependence structure, and how shallow dependence structures might beused to develop efficient parallel implementations. In this talk I will describe recent work on analyzing the dependence depth of iterative sequential algorithms---ones that loop over a collection of elements. Many of these algorithms have deep dependence chains in the worst case, but shallow chains (polylog w.h.p.) if the elements are randomly ordered. Examples include many fundamental algorithms: the Knuth shuffle for random permutations, sorting by insertion into a binary search tree, greedy maximal independent set (MIS), greedy maximal matching, greedy graph-coloring, counting cycles in a permutation, incremental k-dimensional linear programming, and incremental 2d Delaunay triangulation. An advantage of the approach is that it can lead to very simple and efficient parallel algorithms. Our MIS algorithm, for example can be coded in a dozen or so lines, and is significantly faster than Luby's algorithm on modern multicore machines. Also the approach encourages snapping the view that sequential and parallel algorithms are distinct, and instead thinking of algorithms, in general, as collections of instructions with dependences among them.

Efficient parallel algorithms and software for compressed octrees with applications to hierarchical methods

Consider an ordinal tree T on n nodes, each of which is assigned a category from an alphabet [σ]={1,2,…,σ}. We preprocess the tree T in order to support categorical path counting queries, which ask for the number of distinct categories occurring on the path in T between two query nodes x and y. For this problem, we propose a linear-space data structure with query time O(nlg⁡lg⁡σlg⁡w), where w=Ω(lg⁡n) is the word size in the word-RAM. As shown in our proof, from the assumption that matrix multiplication cannot be solved in time polynomially faster than cubic (with only combinatorial methods), our result is optimal, save for polylogarithmic speed-ups. For a trade-off parameter 1≤t≤n, we propose an O(n+n2t2)-word, O(tlg⁡lg⁡σlg⁡w) query time data structure. We also consider c-approximate categorical path counting queries, which must return an approximation to the number of distinct categories occurring on the query path, by counting each such category at least once and at most c times. We describe a linear-space data structure that supports 2-approximate categorical path counting queries in O(lg⁡n/lg⁡lg⁡n) time.Next, we generalize the categorical path counting queries to weighted trees. Here, a query specifies two nodes x,y and an orthogonal range Q. The answer to thus formed categorical path range counting query is the number of distinct categories occurring on the path from x to y, if only the nodes with weights falling inside Q are considered. We propose an O(nlg⁡lg⁡n+(n/t)4)-word data structure with O(tlg⁡lg⁡n) query time, or an O(n+(n/t)4)-word data structure with O(tlgϵ⁡n) query time. For an appropriate choice of the trade-off parameter t, this implies a linear-space data structure with O(n3/4lgϵ⁡n) query time. We then extend the approach to the trees weighted with vectors from [n]d, where d is a constant integer greater than or equal to 2. We present a data structure with O(nlgd−1+ϵ⁡n+(n/t)2d+2) words of space and O(tlgd−1⁡n(lg⁡lg⁡n)d−2) query time. For an O(n⋅polylogn)-space solution, one thus has O(n2d+12d+2⋅polylogn) query time.The inherent difficulty revealed by the lower bound we proved motivated us to consider data structures based on sketching. In unweighted trees, we propose a sketching data structure to solve the approximate categorical path counting problem which asks for a (1±ϵ)-approximation (i.e. within 1±ϵ of the true answer) of the number of distinct categories on the given path, with probability 1−δ, where 0<ϵ,δ<1 are constants. The data structure occupies O(n+ntlg⁡n) words of space, for the query time of O(tlg⁡n). For trees weighted with d-dimensional weight vectors (d≥1), we propose a data structure with O((n+ntlg⁡n)lgd⁡n) words of space and O(tlgd+1⁡n) query time.All these problems generalize the corresponding categorical range counting problems in Euclidean space Rd+1, for respective d, by replacing one of the dimensions with a tree topology.

The parametric minimax problem, which finds the parameter value minimizing the weight of a solution of a combinatorial maximization problem, is a fundamental problem in sensitivity analysis. Moreover, several problems in computational geometry can be formulated as parametric minimax problems. The parametric search paradigm gives an efficient sequential algorithm for a convex parametric minimax problem with one parameter if the original non-parametric problem has an efficient parallel algorithm. We consider the parametric minimax problem with d parameters for a constant d, and solve it by using multidimensional version of the parametric search paradigm. As a new feature, we give a feasible region in the parameter space in which the parameter vector must be located.Typical results obtained as applications are: (1) Efficient solutions for some geometric problems, including theoretically efficient solutions for the minimum diameter bridging problem in d-dimensional space between convex polytopes. (2) Parametric polymatroid optimization, for example, O(n log n) time algorithm to compute the parameter vector minimizing k-largest linear parametric elements with d dimensions.

PARALLEL AND LARGE SCALE MATRIX COMPUTATIONS IN CONTROL: SOME IDEAS

Spatial data structures form a core ingredient of many geometric algorithms, both in theory and in practice. Many of these data structures, especially the ones used in practice, are based on partitioning the underlying space (examples are binary space partitions and decompositions of polygons) or partitioning the set of objects (examples are bounding-volume hierarchies). The efficiency of such data structures---and, hence, of the algorithms that use them---depends on certain characteristics of the partitioning. For example the performance of many algorithms that use binary space partitions (BSPs) depends on the size of the BSPs. Similarly, the performance of answering range queries using bounding-volume hierarchies (BVHs) depends on the so-called crossing number that can be associated with the partitioning on which the BVH is based. Much research has been done on the problem of computing partitioning whose characteristics are good in the worst case. In this thesis, we studied the problem from a different point of view, namely instance-optimality. In particular, we considered the following question: given a class of geometric partitioning structures---like BSPs, simplicial partitions, polygon triangulations, …---and a cost function---like size or crossing number---can we design an algorithm that computes a structure whose cost is optimal or close to optimal for any input instance (rather than only worst-case optimal). We studied the problem of finding optimal data structures for some of the most important spatial data structures. As an example having a set of n points and an input parameter r, It has been proved that there are input sets for which any simplicial partitions has crossing number ¿(vr). It has also been shown that for any set of n input points and the parameter r one can make a simplicial partition with stabbing number O(vr). However, there are input point sets for which one can make simplicial partition with lower stabbing number. As an example when the points are on a diagonal, one can always make a simplicial partition with stabbing number 1. We started our research by studying BSPs for line segments in the plane, where the cost function is the size of the BSPs. A popular type of BSPs for line segments are the so-called auto-partitions. We proved that finding an optimal auto-partition is NP-hard. In fact, finding out if a set of input segments admits an auto-partition without any cuts is already NP-hard. We also studied the relation between two other types of BSPs, called free and restricted BSPs, and showed that the number of cuts of an optimal restricted BSP for a set of segments in R2 is at most twice the number of cuts of an optimal free BSP for that set. The details are being represented in Chapter 1 of the thesis. Then we turned our attention to so-called rectilinear r-partitions for planar point sets, with the crossing number as cost function. A rectilinear r-partition of a point set P is a partitioning of P into r subsets, each having roughly |P|/r points. The crossing number of the partition is defined using the bounding boxes of the subsets; in particular, it is the maximum number of bounding boxes that can be intersected by any horizontal or vertical line. We performed some theoretical as well as experimental studies on rectilinear r-partitions. On the theoretical side, we proved that computing a rectilinear r-partition with optimal stabbing number for a given set of points and parameter r is NP-hard. We also proposed an exact algorithm for finding optimal rectilinear r-partitions whose running time is polynomial when r is a constant, and a faster 2-approximation algorithm. Our last theoretical result showed that considering only partitions whose bounding boxes are disjoint is not sufficient for finding optimal rectilinear r-partitions. On the experimental side, we performed a comparison between four different heuristics for constructing rectilinear r-partitions. The so-called windmill KD-tree gave the best results. Chapter 2 of the thesis describes all the details of our research on rectilinear r-partitions. We studied another spatial data structure in Chapter 3 of the thesis. Decomposition of the interior of polygons is one of the fundamental problems in computational geometry. In case of a simple polygon one usually wants to make a Steiner triangulation of it, and when we have a rectilinear polygon at hand, one typically wants to make a rectilinear decomposition for it. Due to this reason there are algorithms which make Steiner triangulations and rectangular decompositions with low stabbing number. These algorithms are worst-case optimal. However, similar to the two previous data structures, there are polygons for which one can make decompositions with lower stabbing numbers. In 3 we proposed a 3-approximation for finding an optimal rectangular decomposition of a rectilinear polygon. We also proposed an O(1)-approximation for finding optimal Steiner triangulation of a simple polygon. Finally, in Chapter 4 of the thesis, we considered another optimization problem, namely how to approximate a piecewise-linear function F: R ¿R with another piecewise-linear function with fewer pieces. Here one can distinguish two versions of the problem. The first one is called the min-k problem; the goal is then to approximate the function within a given error e such that the resulting function has the minimum number of links. The second one is called the min-e problem; here the goal is to find an approximation with at most k links (for a given k) such that the error is minimized. These problems have already been studied before. Our contribution is to consider the problem for so-called uncertain functions, where the value of the input function F at its vertices is given as a discrete set of different values, each with an associated probability. We show how to compute an approximation that minimizes the expected error.

A classical problem in computational geometry is the planar point location problem. This problem calls for preprocessing a polygonal subdivision of the plane defined by n line segments so that, given a sequence of points, the polygon containing each point can be determined quickly on-line. Several ways of solving this problem in O(log n) query time and O(n) space are known, but they are all rather complicated. We propose a simple O(log n)-query-time, O(n)-space solution, using persistent search trees. A persistent search tree differs from an ordinary search tree in that after an insertion or deletion, the old version of the tree can still be accessed. We develop a persistent form of binary search tree that supports insertions and deletions in the present and queries in the past. The time per query or update is O(log m), where m is the total number of updates, and the space needed is O(1) per update. Our planar point location algorithm is an immediate application of this data structure. The structure also provides an alternative to Chazelle's hive graph structure, which has a variety of applications in geometric retrieval.

The single-site dynamics are a canonical class of Markov chains for sampling from high-dimensional probability distributions, e.g. the ones represented by graphical models. We give a simple and generic parallel algorithm that can faithfully simulate single-site dynamics. When the chain asymptotically satisfies the $\ell_p$-Dobrushin's condition, specifically, when the Dobrushin's influence matrix has constantly bounded $\ell_p$-induced operator norm for an arbitrary $p\in[1,\infty]$, the parallel simulation of $N$ steps of single-site updates succeeds within $O\left({N}/{n}+\log n\right)$ depth of parallel computing using $\tilde{O}(m)$ processors, where $n$ is the number of sites and $m$ is the size of graphical model. Since the Dobrushin's condition is almost always satisfied asymptotically by mixing chains, this parallel simulation algorithm essentially transforms single-site dynamics with optimal $O(n\log n)$ mixing time to RNC algorithms for sampling. In particular we obtain RNC samplers, for the Ising models on general graphs in the uniqueness regime, and for satisfying solutions of CNF formulas in a local lemma regime. With non-adaptive simulated annealing, these RNC samplers can be transformed routinely to RNC algorithms for approximate counting. A key step in our parallel simulation algorithm, is a so-called procedure, which tries to simultaneously couple all distributions over the same sample space. We construct such a universal coupling, that for every pair of distributions the coupled probability is at least their Jaccard similarity. We also prove this is optimal in the worst case. The universal coupling and its applications are of independent interests.

Classic distance join queries using compact data structures

We show tight upper and lower bounds for time-space trade-offs for the c-approximate Near Neighbor Search problem. For the d-dimensional Euclidean space and n-point datasets, we develop a data structure with space n1+ρu+o(1) + O(dn) and query time nρq +o(1) + dno(1) for every ρu, ρq ≥ 0 with: In particular, for the approximation c = 2 we get: Space n1.77… and query time no(1), significantly improving upon known data structures that support very fast queries [IM98, KOR00]; Space n1.14… and query time n0.14…, matching the optimal data-dependent Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH) from [AR15]; Space n1+o(1) and query time n0‘43 ‘, making significant progress in the regime of near-linear space, which is arguably of the most interest for practice [LJW+07]. This is the first data structure that achieves sublinear query time and near-linear space for every approximation factor c > 1, improving upon [Kap15]. The data structure is a culmination of a long line of work on the problem for all space regimes; it builds on Spherical Locality-Sensitive Filtering [BDGL16] and data- dependent hashing [AINR14, AR15]. Our matching lower bounds are of two types: conditional and unconditional. First, we prove tightness of the whole trade-off (0.1) in a restricted model of computation, which captures all known hashing-based approaches. We then show unconditional cell-probe lower bounds for one and two probes that match (0.1) for ρq = 0, improving upon the best known lower bounds from [PTW10]. In particular, this is the first space lower bound (for any static data structure) for two probes which is not polynomially smaller than the one-probe bound. To show the result for two probes, we establish and exploit a connection to locally-decodable codes.

We present a number of new results about range searching for colored (or categorical) data: 1) For a set of n colored points in three dimensions, we describe randomized data structures with O(n polylog n) space that can report the distinct colors in any query orthogonal range (axis-aligned box) in O(k polyloglog n) expected time, where k is the number of distinct colors in the range, assuming that coordinates are in {1,…,n}. Previous data structures require O((log n)/(log log n) + k) query time. Our result also implies improvements in higher constant dimensions. 2) Our data structures can be adapted to halfspace ranges in three dimensions (or circular ranges in two dimensions), achieving O(k log n) expected query time. Previous data structures require O(k log²n) query time. 3) For a set of n colored points in two dimensions, we describe a data structure with O(n polylog n) space that can answer colored type-2 range counting queries: report the number of occurrences of every distinct color in a query orthogonal range. The query time is O((log n)/(log log n) + k log log n), where k is the number of distinct colors in the range. Naively performing k uncolored range counting queries would require O(k (log n)/(log log n)) time. Our data structures are designed using a variety of techniques, including colored variants of randomized incremental construction (which may be of independent interest), colored variants of shallow cuttings, and bit-packing tricks.

We propose the first graphics processing unit (GPU) solution to compute the 2D constrained Delaunay triangulation (CDT) of a planar straight line graph (PSLG) consisting of points and edges. There are many existing CPU algorithms to solve the CDT problem in computational geometry, yet there has been no prior approach to solve this problem efficiently using the parallel computing power of the GPU. For the special case of the CDT problem where the PSLG consists of just points, which is simply the normal Delaunay triangulation (DT) problem, a hybrid approach using the GPU together with the CPU to partially speed up the computation has already been presented in the literature. Our work, on the other hand, accelerates the entire computation on the GPU. Our implementation using the CUDA programming model on NVIDIA GPUs is numerically robust, and runs up to an order of magnitude faster than the best sequential implementations on the CPU. This result is reflected in our experiment with both randomly generated PSLGs and real-world GIS data having millions of points and edges.

Sorting strings and constructing digital search trees in parallel

Query performance is a critical factor in modern business intelligence and data warehouse systems. An increasing number of companies uses detailed analyses for conducting daily business and supporting management decisions. Thus, several techniques have been developed for achieving near realtime response times - techniques which try to alleviate I/O bottlenecks while increasing the throughputs of available processing units, i.e. by keeping relevant data in compressed main-memory data structures and exploiting the read-only characteristics of analytical workloads.However, update processing and skews in data distribution result in degenerations in these densely packed and highly compressed data structures affecting the memory efficiency and query performance negatively. Reorganization tasks can repair these data structures, but -- since these are usually costly operations -- require a well-considered decision which of several possible strategies should be processed and when, in order to reduce system downtimes.In this paper, we address these problems by presenting an approach for online reorganization in main-memory database systems (MMDBS). Based on a discussion of necessary reorganization strategies in IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer, a read optimized parallel MMDBS, we introduce a framework for executing arbitrary reorganization tasks online, i.e. in the background of normal user workloads without disrupting query results or performance.