A scalable analysis framework for large-scale RDF data

With the growth of the Semantic Web, the availability of RDF datasets from multiple domains as Linked Data has taken the corpora of this web to a terabyte-scale, and challenges modern knowledge storage and discovery techniques. Research and engineering on RDF data management systems is a very active area with many standalone systems being introduced. However, as the size of RDF data increases, such single-machine approaches meet performance bottlenecks, in terms of both data loading and querying, due to the limited parallelism inherent to symmetric multi-threaded systems and the limited available system I/O and system memory. Although several approaches for distributed RDF data processing have been proposed, along with clustered versions of more traditional approaches, their techniques are limited by the trade-off they exploit between loading complexity and query efficiency in the presence of big RDF data. This thesis then, introduces a scalable analysis framework for processing large-scale RDF data, which focuses on various techniques to reduce inter-machine communication, computation and load-imbalancing so as to achieve fast data loading and querying on distributed infrastructures. The first part of this thesis focuses on the study of RDF store implementation and parallel hashing on big data processing. (1) A system-level investigation of RDF store implementation has been conducted on the basis of a comparative analysis of runtime characteristics of a representative set of RDF stores. The detailed time cost and system consumption is measured for data loading and querying so as to provide insight into different triple store implementation as well as an understanding of performance differences between different platforms. (2) A high-level structured parallel hashing approach over distributed memory is proposed and theoretically analyzed. The detailed performance of hashing implementations using different lock-free strategies has been characterized through extensive experiments, thereby allowing system developers to make a more informed choice for the implementation of their high-performance analytical data processing systems. The second part of this thesis proposes three main techniques for fast processing of large RDF data within the proposed framework. (1) A very efficient parallel dictionary encoding algorithm, to avoid unnecessary disk-space consumption and reduce computational complexity of query execution. The presented implementation has achieved notable speedups compared to the state-of-art method and also has achieved excellent scalability. (2) Several novel parallel join algorithms, to efficiently handle skew over large data during query processing. The approaches have achieved good load balancing and have been demonstrated to be faster than the state-of-art techniques in both theoretical and experimental comparisons. (3) A two-tier dynamic indexing approach for processing SPARQL queries has been devised which keeps loading times low and decreases or in some instances removes intermachine data movement for subsequent queries that contain the same graph patterns. The results demonstrate that this design can load data at least an order of magnitude faster than a clustered store operating in RAM while remaining within an interactive range for query processing and even outperforms current systems for various queries

A Flexible Patch-Based Lattice Boltzmann Parallelization Approach for Heterogeneous GPU-CPU Clusters

Sustaining a large fraction of single GPU performance in parallel computations is considered to be the major problem of GPU-based clusters. In this article, this topic is addressed in the context of a lattice Boltzmann flow solver that is integrated in the WaLBerla software framework. We propose a multi-GPU implementation using a block-structured MPI parallelization, suitable for load balancing and heterogeneous computations on CPUs and GPUs. The overhead required for multi-GPU simulations is discussed in detail and it is demonstrated that the kernel performance can be sustained to a large extent. With our GPU implementation, we achieve nearly perfect weak scalability on InfiniBand clusters. However, in strong scaling scenarios multi-GPUs make less efficient use of the hardware than IBM BG/P and x86 clusters. Hence, a cost analysis must determine the best course of action for a particular simulation task. Additionally, weak scaling results of heterogeneous simulations conducted on CPUs and GPUs simultaneously are presented using clusters equipped with varying node configurations.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure

A Tale of Two Data-Intensive Paradigms: Applications, Abstractions, and Architectures

Scientific problems that depend on processing large amounts of data require overcoming challenges in multiple areas: managing large-scale data distribution, co-placement and scheduling of data with compute resources, and storing and transferring large volumes of data. We analyze the ecosystems of the two prominent paradigms for data-intensive applications, hereafter referred to as the high-performance computing and the Apache-Hadoop paradigm. We propose a basis, common terminology and functional factors upon which to analyze the two approaches of both paradigms. We discuss the concept of "Big Data Ogres" and their facets as means of understanding and characterizing the most common application workloads found across the two paradigms. We then discuss the salient features of the two paradigms, and compare and contrast the two approaches. Specifically, we examine common implementation/approaches of these paradigms, shed light upon the reasons for their current "architecture" and discuss some typical workloads that utilize them. In spite of the significant software distinctions, we believe there is architectural similarity. We discuss the potential integration of different implementations, across the different levels and components. Our comparison progresses from a fully qualitative examination of the two paradigms, to a semi-quantitative methodology. We use a simple and broadly used Ogre (K-means clustering), characterize its performance on a range of representative platforms, covering several implementations from both paradigms. Our experiments provide an insight into the relative strengths of the two paradigms. We propose that the set of Ogres will serve as a benchmark to evaluate the two paradigms along different dimensions.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

TANGO: Transparent heterogeneous hardware Architecture deployment for eNergy Gain in Operation

The paper is concerned with the issue of how software systems actually use Heterogeneous Parallel Architectures (HPAs), with the goal of optimizing power consumption on these resources. It argues the need for novel methods and tools to support software developers aiming to optimise power consumption resulting from designing, developing, deploying and running software on HPAs, while maintaining other quality aspects of software to adequate and agreed levels. To do so, a reference architecture to support energy efficiency at application construction, deployment, and operation is discussed, as well as its implementation and evaluation plans.Comment: Part of the Program Transformation for Programmability in Heterogeneous Architectures (PROHA) workshop, Barcelona, Spain, 12th March 2016, 7 pages, LaTeX, 3 PNG figure

Garbage collection auto-tuning for Java MapReduce on Multi-Cores

MapReduce has been widely accepted as a simple programming pattern that can form the basis for efficient, large-scale, distributed data processing. The success of the MapReduce pattern has led to a variety of implementations for different computational scenarios. In this paper we present MRJ, a MapReduce Java framework for multi-core architectures. We evaluate its scalability on a four-core, hyperthreaded Intel Core i7 processor, using a set of standard MapReduce benchmarks. We investigate the significant impact that Java runtime garbage collection has on the performance and scalability of MRJ. We propose the use of memory management auto-tuning techniques based on machine learning. With our auto-tuning approach, we are able to achieve MRJ performance within 10% of optimal on 75% of our benchmark tests

Autonomic management of multiple non-functional concerns in behavioural skeletons

We introduce and address the problem of concurrent autonomic management of different non-functional concerns in parallel applications build as a hierarchical composition of behavioural skeletons. We first define the problems arising when multiple concerns are dealt with by independent managers, then we propose a methodology supporting coordinated management, and finally we discuss how autonomic management of multiple concerns may be implemented in a typical use case. The paper concludes with an outline of the challenges involved in realizing the proposed methodology on distributed target architectures such as clusters and grids. Being based on the behavioural skeleton concept proposed in the CoreGRID GCM, it is anticipated that the methodology will be readily integrated into the current reference implementation of GCM based on Java ProActive and running on top of major grid middleware systems.Comment: 20 pages + cover pag

Extensible Component Based Architecture for FLASH, A Massively Parallel, Multiphysics Simulation Code

FLASH is a publicly available high performance application code which has evolved into a modular, extensible software system from a collection of unconnected legacy codes. FLASH has been successful because its capabilities have been driven by the needs of scientific applications, without compromising maintainability, performance, and usability. In its newest incarnation, FLASH3 consists of inter-operable modules that can be combined to generate different applications. The FLASH architecture allows arbitrarily many alternative implementations of its components to co-exist and interchange with each other, resulting in greater flexibility. Further, a simple and elegant mechanism exists for customization of code functionality without the need to modify the core implementation of the source. A built-in unit test framework providing verifiability, combined with a rigorous software maintenance process, allow the code to operate simultaneously in the dual mode of production and development. In this paper we describe the FLASH3 architecture, with emphasis on solutions to the more challenging conflicts arising from solver complexity, portable performance requirements, and legacy codes. We also include results from user surveys conducted in 2005 and 2007, which highlight the success of the code.Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures; revised paper submitted to Parallel Computin