To Compress, or Not to Compress : Characterizing Deep Learning Model Compression for Embedded Inference

Qing, Qin and Yu, Jialong and Ren, Jie and Gao, Ling and Wang, Hai and Zheng, Jie and Feng, Yansong and Fang, Jianbin and Wang, Zheng (2018) To Compress, or Not to Compress : Characterizing Deep Learning Model Compression for Embedded Inference. In: The 16th IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications (ISPA) :. IEEE, AUS, pp. 729-736. ISBN 9781728111421

[thumbnail of ispa18]
Preview
PDF (ispa18)
ispa18.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (1MB)

Abstract

The recent advances in deep neural networks (DNNs) make them attractive for embedded systems. However, it can take a long time for DNNs to make an inference on resource constrained computing devices. Model compression techniques can address the computation issue of deep inference on embedded devices. This technique is highly attractive, as it does not rely on specialized hardware, or computation-offloading that is often infeasible due to privacy concerns or high latency. However, it remains unclear how model compression techniques perform across a wide range of DNNs. To design efficient embedded deep learning solutions, we need to understand their behaviors. This work develops a quantitative approach to characterize model compression techniques on a representative embedded deep learning architecture, the NVIDIA Jetson Tx2. We perform extensive experiments by considering 11 influential neural network architectures from the image classification and the natural language processing domains. We experimentally show that how two mainstream compression techniques, data quantization and pruning, perform on these network architectures and the implications of compression techniques to the model storage size, inference time, energy consumption and performance metrics. We demonstrate that there are opportunities to achieve fast deep inference on embedded systems, but one must carefully choose the compression settings. Our results provide insights on when and how to apply model compression techniques and guidelines for designing efficient embedded deep learning systems.

Item Type:
Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings
Additional Information:
©2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
ID Code:
128069
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
08 Oct 2018 10:26
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
31 Dec 2023 01:37