Cédric Chevalier

PT-Scotch: A tool for efficient parallel graph ordering

The parallel ordering of large graphs is a difficult problem, because on the one hand minimum degree algorithms do not parallelize well, and on the other hand the obtainment of high quality orderings with the nested dissection algorithm requires efficient graph bipartitioning heuristics, the best sequential implementations of which are also hard to parallelize. This paper presents a set of algorithms, implemented in the PT-Scotch software package, which allows one to order large graphs in parallel, yielding orderings the quality of which is only slightly worse than the one of state-of-the-art sequential algorithms. Our implementation uses the classical nested dissection approach but relies on several novel features to solve the parallel graph bipartitioning problem. Thanks to these improvements, PT-Scotch produces consistently better orderings than ParMeTiS on large numbers of processors.

The Zoltan and Isorropia parallel toolkits for combinatorial scientific computing: Partitioning, ordering and coloring

Partitioning and load balancing are important problems in scientific computing that can be modeled as combinatorial problems using graphs or hypergraphs. The Zoltan toolkit was developed primarily for partitioning and load balancing to support dynamic parallel applications, but has expanded to support other problems in combinatorial scientific computing, including matrix ordering and graph coloring. Zoltan is based on abstract user interfaces and uses callback functions. To simplify the use and integration of Zoltan with other matrix-based frameworks, such as the ones in Trilinos, we developed Isorropia as a Trilinos package, which supports most of Zoltans features via a matrix-based interface. In addition to providing an easy-to-use matrix-based interface to Zoltan, Isorropia also serves as a platform for additional matrix algorithms. In this paper, we give an overview of the Zoltan and Isorropia toolkits, their design, capabilities and use. We also show how Zoltan and Isorropia enable large-scale, parallel scientific simulations, and describe current and future development in the next-generation package Zoltan2.

Comparison of Coarsening Schemes for Multilevel Graph Partitioning

Graph partitioning is a well-known optimization problem of great interest in theoretical and applied studies. Since the 1990s, many multilevel schemes have been introduced as a practical tool to solve this problem. A multilevel algorithm may be viewed as a process of graph topology learning at different scales in order to generate a better approximation for any approximation method incorporated at the uncoarsening stage in the framework. In this work we compare two multilevel frameworks based on the geometric and the algebraic multigrid schemes for the partitioning problem.

Improvement of the efficiency of genetic algorithms for scalable parallel graph partitioning in a multi-level framework

Parallel graph partitioning is a difficult issue, because the best sequential graph partitioning methods known to date are based on iterative local optimization algorithms that do not parallelize nor scale well. On the other hand, evolutionary algorithms are highly parallel and scalable, but converge very slowly as problem size increases. This paper presents methods that can be used to reduce problem space in a dramatic way when using graph partitioning techniques in a multi-level framework, thus enabling the use of evolutionary algorithms as possible candidates, among others, for the realization of efficient scalable parallel graph partitioning tools. Results obtained on the recursive bipartitioning problem with a multi-threaded genetic algorithm are presented, which show that this approach outperforms existing state-of-the-art parallel partitioners.

Combinatorial Algorithms to Enable Computational Science and Engineering: Work from the CSCAPES Institute

This final progress report summarizes the work accomplished at the Combinatorial Scientific Computing and Petascale Simulations Institute. We developed Zoltan, a parallel mesh partitioning library that made use of accurate hyeprgraph models to provide load balancing in mesh-based computations. We developed several graph coloring algorithms for computing Jacobian and Hessian matrices and organized them into a software package called ColPack. We developed parallel algorithms for graph coloring and graph matching problems, and also designed multi-scale graph algorithms. Three PhD students graduated, six more are continuing their PhD studies, and four postdoctoral scholars were advised. Six of these students and Fellows have joined DOE Labs (Sandia, Berkeley, as staff scientists or as postdoctoral scientists. We also organized the SIAM Workshop on Combinatorial Scientific Computing (CSC) in 2007, 2009, and 2011 to continue to foster the CSC community.