Approximate Computation and Implicit Regularization for Very Large-scale Data Analysis

Database theory and database practice are typically the domain of computer scientists who adopt what may be termed an algorithmic perspective on their data. This perspective is very different than the more statistical perspective adopted by statisticians, scientific computers, machine learners, and other who work on what may be broadly termed statistical data analysis. In this article, I will address fundamental aspects of this algorithmic-statistical disconnect, with an eye to bridging the gap between these two very different approaches. A concept that lies at the heart of this disconnect is that of statistical regularization, a notion that has to do with how robust is the output of an algorithm to the noise properties of the input data. Although it is nearly completely absent from computer science, which historically has taken the input data as given and modeled algorithms discretely, regularization in one form or another is central to nearly every application domain that applies algorithms to noisy data. By using several case studies, I will illustrate, both theoretically and empirically, the nonobvious fact that approximate computation, in and of itself, can implicitly lead to statistical regularization. This and other recent work suggests that, by exploiting in a more principled way the statistical properties implicit in worst-case algorithms, one can in many cases satisfy the bicriteria of having algorithms that are scalable to very large-scale databases and that also have good inferential or predictive properties.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS 2012

JGraphT -- A Java library for graph data structures and algorithms

Mathematical software and graph-theoretical algorithmic packages to efficiently model, analyze and query graphs are crucial in an era where large-scale spatial, societal and economic network data are abundantly available. One such package is JGraphT, a programming library which contains very efficient and generic graph data-structures along with a large collection of state-of-the-art algorithms. The library is written in Java with stability, interoperability and performance in mind. A distinctive feature of this library is the ability to model vertices and edges as arbitrary objects, thereby permitting natural representations of many common networks including transportation, social and biological networks. Besides classic graph algorithms such as shortest-paths and spanning-tree algorithms, the library contains numerous advanced algorithms: graph and subgraph isomorphism; matching and flow problems; approximation algorithms for NP-hard problems such as independent set and TSP; and several more exotic algorithms such as Berge graph detection. Due to its versatility and generic design, JGraphT is currently used in large-scale commercial, non-commercial and academic research projects. In this work we describe in detail the design and underlying structure of the library, and discuss its most important features and algorithms. A computational study is conducted to evaluate the performance of JGraphT versus a number of similar libraries. Experiments on a large number of graphs over a variety of popular algorithms show that JGraphT is highly competitive with other established libraries such as NetworkX or the BGL.Comment: Major Revisio

Dynamic re-optimization techniques for stream processing engines and object stores

Large scale data storage and processing systems are strongly motivated by the need to store and analyze massive datasets. The complexity of a large class of these systems is rooted in their distributed nature, extreme scale, need for real-time response, and streaming nature. The use of these systems on multi-tenant, cloud environments with potential resource interference necessitates fine-grained monitoring and control. In this dissertation, we present efficient, dynamic techniques for re-optimizing stream-processing systems and transactional object-storage systems.^ In the context of stream-processing systems, we present VAYU, a per-topology controller. VAYU uses novel methods and protocols for dynamic, network-aware tuple-routing in the dataflow. We show that the feedback-driven controller in VAYU helps achieve high pipeline throughput over long execution periods, as it dynamically detects and diagnoses any pipeline-bottlenecks. We present novel heuristics to optimize overlays for group communication operations in the streaming model.^ In the context of object-storage systems, we present M-Lock, a novel lock-localization service for distributed transaction protocols on scale-out object stores to increase transaction throughput. Lock localization refers to dynamic migration and partitioning of locks across nodes in the scale-out store to reduce cross-partition acquisition of locks. The service leverages the observed object-access patterns to achieve lock-clustering and deliver high performance. We also present TransMR, a framework that uses distributed, transactional object stores to orchestrate and execute asynchronous components in amorphous data-parallel applications on scale-out architectures

Asynchronous iterative solution for dominant eigenvectors with applications in performance modelling and PageRank

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Evaluating a Cluster of Low-Power ARM64 Single-Board Computers with MapReduce

With the meteoric rise of enormous data collection in science, industry, and the cloud, methods for processing massive datasets have become more crucial than ever. MapReduce is a restricted programing model for expressing parallel computations as simple serial functions, and an execution framework for distributing those computations over large datasets residing on clusters of commodity hardware. MapReduce abstracts away the challenging low-level synchronization and scalability details which parallel and distributed computing often necessitate, reducing the concept burden on programmers and scientists who require data processing at-scale. Typically, MapReduce clusters are implemented using inexpensive commodity hardware, emphasizing quantity over quality due to the fault-tolerant nature of the MapReduce execution framework. The nascent explosion of inexpensive single-board computers designed around multi-core 64bit ARM processors, such as the RasberryPi 3, Pine64, and Odroid C2, has opened new avenues for inexpensive and low-power cluster computing. In this thesis, we implement a novel cluster around low-power ARM64 single-board computers and the Disco Python MapReduce execution framework. We use MapReduce to empirically evaluate our cluster by solving the Word Count and Inverted Link Index problems for the Wikipedia article dataset. We benchmark our MapReduce solutions against local solutions of the same algorithms for a conventional low-power x86 platform. We show our cluster out-performs the conventional platform for larger benchmarks, thus demonstrating low-power single-board computers as a viable avenue for data-intensive cluster computing

Controlling Informational Society: A Google Error Analysis!

“Informational Society” is unceasingly discussed by all societies’ quadrants. Nevertheless, in spite of illustrating the most recent progress of western societies the complexity to characterize it is well-known. In this societal evolution the “leading role” goes to information, as a polymorphic phenomenon and a polysemantic concept. Given such claim and the need for a multidimensional approach, the overall amount of information available online has reached an unparalleled level, and consequently search engines become exceptionally important. Search engines main stream literature has been debating the following perspectives: technology, user level of expertise and confidence, organizational impact, and just recently power issues. However, the trade-off between informational fluxes versus control has been disregarded. So, our intention is to discuss such gap, and for that, the overall structure of the chapter is: information, search engines, control and its dimensions, and exploit Google as a case study

Application Driven MOdels for Resource Management in Cloud Environments

El despliegue y la ejecución de aplicaciones de gran escala en sistemas distribuidos con unos parametros de Calidad de Servicio adecuados necesita gestionar de manera eficiente los recursos computacionales. Para desacoplar los requirimientos funcionales y los no funcionales (u operacionales) de dichas aplicaciones, se puede distinguir dos niveles de abstracción: i) el nivel funcional, que contempla aquellos requerimientos relacionados con funcionalidades de la aplicación; y ii) el nivel operacional, que depende del sistema distribuido donde se despliegue y garantizará aquellos parámetros relacionados con la Calidad del Servicio, disponibilidad, tolerancia a fallos y coste económico, entre otros. De entre las diferentes alternativas del nivel operacional, en la presente tesis se contempla un entorno cloud basado en la virtualización de contenedores, como puede ofrecer Kubernetes.El uso de modelos para el diseño de aplicaciones en ambos niveles permite garantizar que dichos requerimientos sean satisfechos. Según la complejidad del modelo que describa la aplicación, o el conocimiento que el nivel operacional tenga de ella, se diferencian tres tipos de aplicaciones: i) aplicaciones dirigidas por el modelo, como es el caso de la simulación de eventos discretos, donde el propio modelo, por ejemplo Redes de Petri de Alto Nivel, describen la aplicación; ii) aplicaciones dirigidas por los datos, como es el caso de la ejecución de analíticas sobre Data Stream; y iii) aplicaciones dirigidas por el sistema, donde el nivel operacional rige el despliegue al considerarlas como una caja negra.En la presente tesis doctoral, se propone el uso de un scheduler específico para cada tipo de aplicación y modelo, con ejemplos concretos, de manera que el cliente de la infraestructura pueda utilizar información del modelo descriptivo y del modelo operacional. Esta solución permite rellenar el hueco conceptual entre ambos niveles. De esta manera, se proponen diferentes métodos y técnicas para desplegar diferentes aplicaciones: una simulación de un sistema de Vehículos Eléctricos descrita a través de Redes de Petri; procesado de algoritmos sobre un grafo que llega siguiendo el paradigma Data Stream; y el propio sistema operacional como sujeto de estudio.En este último caso de estudio, se ha analizado cómo determinados parámetros del nivel operacional (por ejemplo, la agrupación de contenedores, o la compartición de recursos entre contenedores alojados en una misma máquina) tienen un impacto en las prestaciones. Para analizar dicho impacto, se propone un modelo formal de una infrastructura operacional concreta (Kubernetes). Por último, se propone una metodología para construir índices de interferencia para caracterizar aplicaciones y estimar la degradación de prestaciones incurrida cuando dos contenedores son desplegados y ejecutados juntos. Estos índices modelan cómo los recursos del nivel operacional son usados por las applicaciones. Esto supone que el nivel operacional maneja información cercana a la aplicación y le permite tomar mejores decisiones de despliegue y distribución.<br /