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25 \title{A scalable multisplitting algorithm for solving large sparse linear systems}
31 \author{Raphaël Couturier \and Lilia Ziane Khodja}
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40 In this paper we revisit the krylov multisplitting algorithm presented in
41 \cite{huang1993krylov} which uses a scalar method to minimize the krylov
42 iterations computed by a multisplitting algorithm. Our new algorithm is based on
43 a parallel multisplitting algorithm with few blocks of large size using a
44 parallel GMRES method inside each block and on a parallel krylov minimization in
45 order to improve the convergence. Some large scale experiments with a 3D Poisson
46 problem are presented. They show the obtained improvements compared to a
47 classical GMRES both in terms of number of iterations and execution times.
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53 \section{Introduction}
54 Iterative methods are used to solve large sparse linear systems of equations of
55 the form $Ax=b$ because they are easier to parallelize than direct ones. Many
56 iterative methods have been proposed and adapted by many researchers. For
57 example, the GMRES method and the Conjugate Gradient method are very well known
58 and used by many researchers~\cite{S96}. Both the method are based on the
59 Krylov subspace which consists in forming a basis of the sequence of successive
60 matrix powers times the initial residual.
62 When solving large linear systems with many cores, iterative methods often
63 suffer from scalability problems. This is due to their need for collective
64 communications to perform matrix-vector products and reduction operations.
65 Preconditionners can be used in order to increase the convergence of iterative
66 solvers. However, most of the good preconditionners are not sclalable when
67 thousands of cores are used.
69 Traditional iterative solvers have global synchronizations that penalize the
70 scalability. Two possible solutions consists either in using asynchronous
71 iterative methods~\cite{ref18} or to use multisplitting algorithms. In this
72 paper, we will reconsider the use of a multisplitting method. In opposition to
73 traditionnal multisplitting method that suffer from slow convergence, as
74 proposed in~\cite{huang1993krylov}, the use of a minimization process can
75 drastically improve the convergence.
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82 \section{Related works}
83 A general framework for studying parallel multisplitting has been presented in~\cite{o1985multi}
84 by O'Leary and White. Convergence conditions are given for the
85 most general case. Many authors improved multisplitting algorithms by proposing
86 for example an asynchronous version~\cite{bru1995parallel} and convergence
87 conditions~\cite{bai1999block,bahi2000asynchronous} in this case or other
88 two-stage algorithms~\cite{frommer1992h,bru1995parallel}.
90 In~\cite{huang1993krylov}, the authors proposed a parallel multisplitting
91 algorithm in which all the tasks except one are devoted to solve a sub-block of
92 the splitting and to send their local solution to the first task which is in
93 charge to combine the vectors at each iteration. These vectors form a Krylov
94 basis for which the first task minimizes the error function over the basis to
95 increase the convergence, then the other tasks receive the updated solution until
96 convergence of the global system.
98 In~\cite{couturier2008gremlins}, the authors proposed practical implementations
99 of multisplitting algorithms that take benefit from multisplitting algorithms\LZK[]{répétition ???} to
100 solve large scale linear systems. Inner solvers could be based on scalar direct
101 method with the LU method or scalar iterative one with GMRES.\LZK[]{lu et gmres par exemple}
103 In~\cite{prace-multi}, the authors have proposed a parallel multisplitting
104 algorithm in which large blocks are solved using a GMRES solver. The authors have
105 performed large scale experiments up-to 32,768 cores and they conclude that
106 asynchronous multisplitting algorithm could be more efficient than traditional
107 solvers on exascale architecture with hundreds of thousands of cores.
109 \LZK[]{Peut-être autres related works\ldots}\\
111 The key idea of a multisplitting method to solve a large system of linear equations $Ax=b$ is defined as follows. The first step consists in partitioning the matrix $A$ in $L$ several ways
116 where for all $l\in\{1,\ldots,L\}$ $M_l$ are non-singular matrices. Then the linear system is solved by iteration based on the obtained splittings as follows
118 x^{k+1}=\displaystyle\sum^L_{l=1} E_l M^{-1}_l (N_l x^k + b),~k=1,2,3,\ldots
121 where $E_l$ are non-negative and diagonal weighting matrices and their sum is an identity matrix $I$. The convergence of such a method is dependent on the condition
123 \rho(\displaystyle\sum^L_{l=1}E_l M^{-1}_l N_l)<1.
126 where $\rho$ is the spectral radius of the square matrix.
128 The advantage of the multisplitting method is that at each iteration $k$ there are $L$ different linear sub-systems
130 v_l^k=M^{-1}_l N_l x_l^{k-1} + M^{-1}_l b,~l\in\{1,\ldots,L\},
133 to be solved independently by a direct or an iterative method, where $v_l^k$ is the solution of the local sub-system. Thus the computations of $\{v_l\}_{1\leq l\leq L}$ may be performed in parallel by a set of processors. A multisplitting method using an iterative method as an inner solver is called an inner-outer iterative method or a two-stage method. The results $v_l$ obtained from the different splittings~(\ref{eq04}) are combined to compute solution $x$ of the linear system by using the diagonal weighting matrices
135 x^k = \displaystyle\sum^L_{l=1} E_l v_l^k,
138 In the case where the diagonal weighting matrices $E_l$ have only zero and one factors (i.e. $v_l$ are disjoint vectors), the multisplitting method is non-overlapping and corresponds to the block Jacobi method.
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143 \section{A two-stage method with a minimization}
144 Let $Ax=b$ be a given large and sparse linear system of $n$ equations to solve in parallel on $L$ clusters of processors, physically adjacent or geographically distant, where $A\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$ is a square and non-singular matrix, $x\in\mathbb{R}^{n}$ is the solution vector and $b\in\mathbb{R}^{n}$ is the right-hand side vector. The multisplitting of this linear system is defined as follows
148 A & = & [A_{1}, \ldots, A_{L}]\\
149 x & = & [X_{1}, \ldots, X_{L}]\\
150 b & = & [B_{1}, \ldots, B_{L}]
155 where for $l\in\{1,\ldots,L\}$, $A_l$ is a rectangular block of size $n_l\times n$ and $X_l$ and $B_l$ are sub-vectors of size $n_l$ each, such that $\sum_ln_l=n$. In this work, we use a row-by-row splitting without overlapping in such a way that successive rows of sparse matrix $A$ and both vectors $x$ and $b$ are assigned to one cluster. So, the multisplitting format of the linear system is defined as follows
157 \forall l\in\{1,\ldots,L\} \mbox{,~} \displaystyle\sum_{m=1}^{l-1}A_{lm}X_m + A_{ll}X_l + \displaystyle\sum_{m=l+1}^{L}A_{lm}X_m = B_l,
160 where $A_{lm}$ is a sub-block of size $n_l\times n_m$ of the rectangular matrix $A_l$, $X_m\neq X_l$ is a sub-vector of size $n_m$ of the solution vector $x$ and $\sum_{m\neq l}n_m+n_l=n$, for all $m\in\{1,\ldots,L\}$.
162 Our multisplitting method proceeds by iteration for solving the linear system in such a way each sub-system
166 A_{ll}X_l = Y_l \mbox{,~such that}\\
167 Y_l = B_l - \displaystyle\sum_{\substack{m=1\\m\neq l}}^{L}A_{lm}X_m,
172 is solved independently by a {\it cluster of processors} and communication are required to update the right-hand side vectors $Y_l$, such that the vectors $X_m$ represent the data dependencies between the clusters. In this work, we use the parallel GMRES method~\cite{ref34} as an inner iteration method to solve sub-systems~(\ref{sec03:eq03}). GMRES is one of the most used Krylov iterative methods to solve sparse linear systems in parallel on clusters of processors. In practice, GMRES is used with a preconditioner to improve its convergence. In this work, we used a preconditioning matrix equivalent to the main diagonal of sparse sub-matrix $A_{ll}$. This preconditioner is straightforward to implement in parallel and gives good performances in many situations.
174 It should be noted that the convergence of the inner iterative solver for the different sub-systems~(\ref{sec03:eq03}) does not necessarily involve the convergence of the multisplitting method. It strongly depends on the properties of the global sparse linear system to be solved and the computing environment~\cite{o1985multi,ref18}. Furthermore, the multisplitting
175 of the linear system among several clusters of processors increases the spectral radius of the iteration matrix, thereby slowing the convergence. In this work, we based on the work presented in~\cite{huang1993krylov} to increase the convergence and improve the scalability of the multisplitting methods.
177 In order to accelerate the convergence, we implemented the outer iteration of the multisplitting solver as a Krylov subspace method which minimizes some error function over a Krylov subspace~\cite{S96}. The Krylov subspace that we used is spanned by a basis composed of successive solutions issued from solving the $L$ splittings~(\ref{sec03:eq03})
179 S=\{x^1,x^2,\ldots,x^s\},~s\leq n,
182 where for $j\in\{1,\ldots,s\}$, $x^j=[X_1^j,\ldots,X_L^j]$ is a solution of the global linear system. The advantage of such a Krylov subspace is that we need neither an orthogonal basis nor synchronizations between clusters to generate this basis.
184 The multisplitting method is periodically restarted every $s$ iterations with a new initial guess $\tilde{x}=S\alpha$ which minimizes the error function $\|b-Ax\|_2$ over the Krylov subspace spanned by vectors of $S$. So $\alpha$ is defined as the solution of the large overdetermined linear system
189 where $R=AS$ is a dense rectangular matrix of size $n\times s$ and $s\ll n$. This leads us to solve a system of normal equations
194 which is associated with the least squares problem
196 \text{minimize}~\|b-R\alpha\|_2,
199 where $R^T$ denotes the transpose of the matrix $R$. Since $R$ (i.e. $AS$) and $b$ are split among $L$ clusters, the symmetric positive definite system~(\ref{sec03:eq06}) is solved in parallel. Thus an iterative method would be more appropriate than a direct one to solve this system. We use the parallel conjugate gradient method for the normal equations CGNR~\cite{S96,refCGNR}.
201 \begin{algorithm}[!t]
202 \caption{A two-stage linear solver with inner iteration GMRES method}
203 \begin{algorithmic}[1]
204 \Input $A_l$ (sparse sub-matrix), $B_l$ (right-hand side sub-vector)
205 \Output $X_l$ (solution sub-vector)\vspace{0.2cm}
206 \State Load $A_l$, $B_l$
207 \State Initialize the initial guess $x^0$
208 \State Set the minimizer $\tilde{x}^0=x^0$
209 \For {$k=1,2,3,\ldots$ until the global convergence}
210 \State Restart with $x^0=\tilde{x}^{k-1}$:
211 \For {$j=1,2,\ldots,s$}
212 \State Inner iteration solver: \Call{InnerSolver}{$x^0$, $j$}
213 \State Construct basis $S$: add column vector $X_l^j$ to the matrix $S_l^k$
214 \State Exchange local values of $X_l^j$ with the neighboring clusters
215 \State Compute dense matrix $R$: $R_l^{k,j}=\sum^L_{i=1}A_{li}X_i^j$
217 \State Minimization $\|b-R\alpha\|_2$: \Call{UpdateMinimizer}{$S_l$, $R$, $b$, $k$}
218 \State Local solution of the linear system $Ax=b$: $X_l^k=\tilde{X}_l^k$
219 \State Exchange the local minimizer $\tilde{X}_l^k$ with the neighboring clusters
224 \Function {InnerSolver}{$x^0$, $j$}
225 \State Compute local right-hand side $Y_l = B_l - \sum^L_{\substack{m=1\\m\neq l}}A_{lm}X_m^0$
226 \State Solving local splitting $A_{ll}X_l^j=Y_l$ using parallel GMRES method, such that $X_l^0$ is the initial guess
227 \State \Return $X_l^j$
232 \Function {UpdateMinimizer}{$S_l$, $R$, $b$, $k$}
233 \State Solving normal equations $(R^k)^TR^k\alpha^k=(R^k)^Tb$ in parallel by $L$ clusters using parallel CGNR method
234 \State Compute local minimizer $\tilde{X}_l^k=S_l^k\alpha^k$
235 \State \Return $\tilde{X}_l^k$
241 The main key points of our multisplitting method to solve a large sparse linear system are given in Algorithm~\ref{algo:01}. This algorithm is based on a two-stage method with a minimization using GMRES iterative method as an inner solver. It is executed in parallel by each cluster of processors. Matrices and vectors with the subscript $l$ represent the local data for cluster $l$, where $l\in\{1,\ldots,L\}$. The two-stage solver uses two different parallel iterative algorithms: GMRES method to solve each splitting~(\ref{sec03:eq03}) on a cluster of processors, and CGNR method executed in parallel by all clusters to minimize the function error~(\ref{sec03:eq07}) over the Krylov subspace spanned by $S$. The algorithm requires two global synchronizations between $L$ clusters. The first one is performed at line~$12$ in Algorithm~\ref{algo:01} to exchange local values of vector solution $x$ (i.e. the minimizer $\tilde{x}$) required to restart the multisplitting solver. The second one is needed to construct the matrix $R$ of the Krylov subspace. We chose to perform this latter synchronization $s$ times in every outer iteration $k$ (line~$7$ in Algorithm~\ref{algo:01}). This is a straightforward way to compute the sparse matrix-dense matrix multiplication $R=AS$. We implemented all synchronizations by using message passing collective communications of MPI library.
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246 \section{Experiments}
247 In order to illustrate the interest of our algorithm. We have compared our
248 algorithm with the GMRES method which is a very well used method in many
249 situations. We have chosen to focus on only one problem which is very simple to
250 implement: a 3 dimension Poisson problem.
255 \nabla u&=f \mbox{~in~} \omega\\
256 u &=0 \mbox{~on~} \Gamma=\partial \omega
261 After discretization, with a finite difference scheme, a seven point stencil is
262 used. It is well-known that the spectral radius of matrices representing such
263 problems are very close to 1. Moreover, the larger the number of discretization
264 points is, the closer to 1 the spectral radius is. Hence, to solve a matrix
265 obtained for a 3D Poisson problem, the number of iterations is high. Using a
266 preconditioner it is possible to reduce the number of iterations but
267 preconditioners are not scalable when using many cores.
269 Doing many experiments with many cores is not easy and requires to access to a
270 supercomputer with several hours for developing a code and then improving
271 it. In the following we presented some experiments we could achieved out on the
272 Hector architecture, the previous UK's high-end computing resource, funded by
273 the UK Research Councils, which has been stopped in the early 2014.
275 Table~\ref{tab1} shows the result of the experiments. The first column shows
276 the size of the 3D Poisson problem. The size is chosen in order to have
277 approximately 50,000 components per core. The second column represents the
278 number of cores used. In parenthesis, there is the decomposition used for the
279 Krylov multisplitting. The third column and the sixth column respectively show
280 the execution time for the GMRES and the Kyrlow multisplitting code. The fourth
281 and the seventh column describes the number of iterations. For the
282 multisplitting code, the total number of inner iterations is represented in
283 parenthesis. For the GMRES code (alone and in the multisplitting version) the
284 restart parameter is fixed to 16. The precision of the GMRES version is fixed to
285 1e-6. For the multisplitting, there are two precisions, one for the external
286 solver which is fixed to 1e-6 and another one for the inner solver (GMRES) which
287 is fixed to 1e-10. It should be noted that a high precision is used but we also
288 fixed a maximum number of iterations for each internal step. In practise, we
289 limit the number of internal step to 10. So an internal iteration is finished
290 when the precision is reached or when the maximum internal number of iterations
298 \begin{tabular}{|c|c||c|c|c||c|c|c||c|}
300 \multirow{2}{*}{Pb size}&\multirow{2}{*}{Nb. cores} & \multicolumn{3}{c||}{GMRES} & \multicolumn{3}{c||}{Krylov Multisplitting} & \multirow{2}{*}{Ratio}\\
302 & & Time (s) & nb Iter. & $\Delta$ & Time (s)& nb Iter. & $\Delta$ & \\
304 $468^3$ & 2048 (2x1024) & 299.7 & 41,028 & 5.02e-8 & 48.4 & 691(6,146) & 8.24e-08 & 6.19 \\
306 $590^3$ & 4096 (2x2048) & 433.1 & 55,494 & 4.92e-7 & 74.1 & 1,101(8,211) & 6.62e-08 & 5.84 \\
308 $743^3$ & 8192 (2x4096) & 704.4 & 87,822 & 4.80e-07 & 151.2 & 3,061(14,914) & 5.87e-08 & 4.65 \\
310 $743^3$ & 8192 (4x2048) & 704.4 & 87,822 & 4.80e-07 & 110.3 & 1,531(12,721) & 1.47e-07& 6.39 \\
320 From these experiments, it can be observed that the multisplitting version is
321 always faster than the GMRES version. The acceleration gain of the
322 multisplitting version is between 4 and 6. It can be noticed that the number of
323 iteration is drastically reduced with the multisplitting version even it is not
326 \section{Conclusion and perspectives}
328 Other applications (=> other matrices)\\
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