Publications

(*Equal contributions)

Tarzan: Passively-Learned Real-Time Rate Control for Video Conferencing
Neil Agarwal, Rui Pan, Francis Y. Yan, Ravi Netravali
arXiv 2024
Abstract

Rate control algorithms are at the heart of video conferencing platforms, determining target bitrates that match dynamic network characteristics for high quality. Recent data-driven strategies have shown promise for this challenging task, but the performance degradation they introduce during training has been a nonstarter for many production services, precluding adoption. This paper aims to bolster the practicality of data-driven rate control by presenting an alternative avenue for experiential learning: leveraging purely existing telemetry logs produced by the incumbent algorithm in production. We observe that these logs often contain effective decisions, although often at the wrong times or in the wrong order. To realize this approach despite the inherent uncertainty that log-based learning brings (i.e., lack of feedback for new decisions), our system, Tarzan, combines a variety of robust learning techniques (i.e., conservatively reasoning about alternate behavior to minimize risk and using a richer model formulation to account for environmental noise). Across diverse networks (emulated and real-world), Tarzan outperforms the widely deployed GCC algorithm, increasing average video bitrates by 15-39% while reducing freeze rates by 60-100%.
Apparate: Rethinking Early Exits to Tame Latency-Throughput Tensions in ML Serving
Yinwei Dai*, Rui Pan*, Anand Iyer, Kai Li, Ravi Netravali
ACM SOSP 2024

Abstract

Machine learning (ML) inference platforms are tasked with balancing two competing goals: ensuring high throughput given many requests, and delivering low-latency responses to support interactive applications. Unfortunately, existing platform knobs (e.g., batch sizes) fail to ease this fundamental tension, and instead only enable users to harshly trade off one property for the other. This paper explores an alternate strategy to taming throughput-latency tradeoffs by changing the granularity at which inference is performed. We present Apparate, a system that automatically applies and manages early exits (EEs) in ML models, whereby certain inputs can exit with results at intermediate layers. To cope with the time-varying overhead and accuracy challenges that EEs bring, Apparate repurposes exits to provide continual feedback that powers several novel runtime monitoring and adaptation strategies. Apparate lowers median response latencies by 40.5-91.5% and 10.0-24.2% for diverse CV and NLP classification workloads, and median time-per-token latencies by 70.4-77.9% for generative scenarios, without affecting throughputs or violating tight accuracy constraints.
Improving DNN Inference Throughput Using Practical, Per-Input Compute Adaptation
Anand Iyer, Mingyu Guan, Yinwei Dai, Rui Pan, Swapnil Gandhi, Ravi Netravali
ACM SOSP 2024
Abstract

Machine learning inference platforms continue to face high request rates and strict latency constraints. Existing solutions largely focus on compressing models to substantially lower compute costs (and time) with mild accuracy degradations. This paper explores an alternate (but complementary) technique that trades off accuracy and resource costs on a per-input granularity: early exit models, which selectively allow certain inputs to exit a model from an intermediate layer. Though intuitive, early exits face fundamental deployment challenges, largely owing to the effects that exiting inputs have on batch size (and resource utilization) throughout model execution. We present E3, the first system that makes early exit models practical for realistic inference deployments. Our key insight is to split and replicate blocks of layers in models in a manner that maintains a constant batch size throughout execution, all the while accounting for resource requirements and communication overheads. Evaluations with NLP and vision models show that E3 can deliver up to 1.74× improvement in goodput (for a fixed cost) or 1.78× reduction in cost (for a fixed goodput). Additionally, E3's goodput wins generalize to autoregressive LLMs (2.8-3.8×) and compressed models (1.67×).
Shockwave: Fair and Efficient Cluster Scheduling for Dynamic Adaptation in Machine Learning
Pengfei Zheng, Rui Pan, Tarannum Khan, Shivaram Venkataraman, Aditya Akella
USENIX NSDI 2023
Abstract

Dynamic adaptation has become an essential technique in accelerating distributed machine learning (ML) training: Recent studies have shown that dynamically adjusting model structure (e.g., lottery ticket hypothesis) or hyperparameters (e.g., batch size) can significantly accelerate training without sacrificing accuracy. However, existing ML cluster schedulers are not designed to handle dynamic adaptation. We show that existing schemes fail to provide fairness and degrade system efficiency when the training throughput changes over time under dynamic adaptation. We design Shockwave, a scheduler with future planning that builds on two key ideas. First, Shockwave extends classic market theory from static settings to dynamic settings to co-optimize efficiency and fairness. Second, Shockwave utilizes stochastic dynamic programming to handle uncertain, dynamic throughput. We build a system for Shockwave and validate its performance with both trace-driven simulation and cluster experiments. Results show that for traces of ML jobs with dynamic adaptation, Shockwave improves makespan by 1.3× and fairness by 2× when compared with existing fair scheduling schemes.
Efficient Flow Scheduling in Distributed Deep Learning Training with Echelon Formation
Rui Pan*, Yiming Lei*, Jialong Li, Zhiqiang Xie, Binhang Yuan, Yiting Xia
ACM HotNets 2022
Abstract

This paper discusses why flow scheduling does not apply to distributed deep learning training and presents EchelonFlow, the first network abstraction to bridge the gap. EchelonFlow deviates from the common belief that semantically related flows should finish at the same time. We reached the key observation, after extensive workflow analysis of diverse training paradigms, that distributed training jobs observe strict computation patterns, which may consume data at different times. We devise a generic method to model the drastically different computation patterns across training paradigms, and formulate EchelonFlow to regulate flow finish times accordingly. Case studies of mainstream training paradigms under EchelonFlow demonstrate the expressiveness of the abstraction, and our system sketch suggests the feasibility of an EchelonFlow scheduling system.

Some other non peer-reviewed write-ups include:

CS 759 Project Report: Cautiously Aggressive GPU Space Sharing for Improving Resource Utilization and Job Efficiency (pdf)
CS 744 Project Report: Comparing Black-Box Optimization Methods for Online DBMS Tuning (pdf)
AgDH: A System for Gathering and Disseminating Dairy Data (pdf)

Rui Pan 潘瑞

About

Publications

Tarzan: Passively-Learned Real-Time Rate Control for Video Conferencing

Apparate: Rethinking Early Exits to Tame Latency-Throughput Tensions in ML Serving

Improving DNN Inference Throughput Using Practical, Per-Input Compute Adaptation

Shockwave: Fair and Efficient Cluster Scheduling for Dynamic Adaptation in Machine Learning

Efficient Flow Scheduling in Distributed Deep Learning Training with Echelon Formation

Education

🐅Princeton University

🦡University of Wisconsin-Madison

Experience

Applied Scientist Intern @ Amazon, AWS AI Team

🇩🇪Research Intern @ Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPI-INF)

Professional Activities

Interests

Contacts