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1,792
Network information flow
- IEEE TRANS. INFORM. THEORY
, 2000
"... We introduce a new class of problems called network information flow which is inspired by computer network applications. Consider a point-to-point communication network on which a number of information sources are to be mulitcast to certain sets of destinations. We assume that the information source ..."
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Cited by 1967 (24 self)
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We introduce a new class of problems called network information flow which is inspired by computer network applications. Consider a point-to-point communication network on which a number of information sources are to be mulitcast to certain sets of destinations. We assume that the information sources are mutually independent. The problem is to characterize the admissible coding rate region. This model subsumes all previously studied models along the same line. In this paper, we study the problem with one information source, and we have obtained a simple characterization of the admissible coding rate region. Our result can be regarded as the Max-flow Min-cut Theorem for network information flow. Contrary to one’s intuition, our work reveals that it is in general not optimal to regard the information to be multicast as a “fluid” which can simply be routed or replicated. Rather, by employing coding at the nodes, which we refer to as network coding, bandwidth can in general be saved. This finding may have significant impact on future design of switching systems.
Learning in graphical models
- STATISTICAL SCIENCE
, 2004
"... Statistical applications in fields such as bioinformatics, information retrieval, speech processing, image processing and communications often involve large-scale models in which thousands or millions of random variables are linked in complex ways. Graphical models provide a general methodology for ..."
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Cited by 806 (10 self)
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Statistical applications in fields such as bioinformatics, information retrieval, speech processing, image processing and communications often involve large-scale models in which thousands or millions of random variables are linked in complex ways. Graphical models provide a general methodology for approaching these problems, and indeed many of the models developed by researchers in these applied fields are instances of the general graphical model formalism. We review some of the basic ideas underlying graphical models, including the algorithmic ideas that allow graphical models to be deployed in large-scale data analysis problems. We also present examples of graphical models in bioinformatics, error-control coding and language processing.
Dynamic Bayesian Networks: Representation, Inference and Learning
, 2002
"... Modelling sequential data is important in many areas of science and engineering. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) and Kalman filter models (KFMs) are popular for this because they are simple and flexible. For example, HMMs have been used for speech recognition and bio-sequence analysis, and KFMs have bee ..."
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Cited by 770 (3 self)
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Modelling sequential data is important in many areas of science and engineering. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) and Kalman filter models (KFMs) are popular for this because they are simple and flexible. For example, HMMs have been used for speech recognition and bio-sequence analysis, and KFMs have been used for problems ranging from tracking planes and missiles to predicting the economy. However, HMMs
and KFMs are limited in their “expressive power”. Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) generalize HMMs by allowing the state space to be represented in factored form, instead of as a single discrete random variable. DBNs generalize KFMs by allowing arbitrary probability distributions, not just (unimodal) linear-Gaussian. In this thesis, I will discuss how to represent many different kinds of models as DBNs, how to perform exact and approximate inference in DBNs, and how to learn DBN models from sequential data.
In particular, the main novel technical contributions of this thesis are as follows: a way of representing
Hierarchical HMMs as DBNs, which enables inference to be done in O(T) time instead of O(T 3), where T is the length of the sequence; an exact smoothing algorithm that takes O(log T) space instead of O(T); a simple way of using the junction tree algorithm for online inference in DBNs; new complexity bounds on exact online inference in DBNs; a new deterministic approximate inference algorithm called factored frontier; an analysis of the relationship between the BK algorithm and loopy belief propagation; a way of
applying Rao-Blackwellised particle filtering to DBNs in general, and the SLAM (simultaneous localization
and mapping) problem in particular; a way of extending the structural EM algorithm to DBNs; and a variety of different applications of DBNs. However, perhaps the main value of the thesis is its catholic presentation of the field of sequential data modelling.
Constructing Free Energy Approximations and Generalized Belief Propagation Algorithms
- IEEE Transactions on Information Theory
, 2005
"... Important inference problems in statistical physics, computer vision, error-correcting coding theory, and artificial intelligence can all be reformulated as the computation of marginal probabilities on factor graphs. The belief propagation (BP) algorithm is an efficient way to solve these problems t ..."
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Cited by 585 (13 self)
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Important inference problems in statistical physics, computer vision, error-correcting coding theory, and artificial intelligence can all be reformulated as the computation of marginal probabilities on factor graphs. The belief propagation (BP) algorithm is an efficient way to solve these problems that is exact when the factor graph is a tree, but only approximate when the factor graph has cycles. We show that BP fixed points correspond to the stationary points of the Bethe approximation of the free energy for a factor graph. We explain how to obtain regionbased free energy approximations that improve the Bethe approximation, and corresponding generalized belief propagation (GBP) algorithms. We emphasize the conditions a free energy approximation must satisfy in order to be a “valid ” or “maxent-normal ” approximation. We describe the relationship between four different methods that can be used to generate valid approximations: the “Bethe method, ” the “junction graph method, ” the “cluster variation method, ” and the “region graph method.” Finally, we explain how to tell whether a region-based approximation, and its corresponding GBP algorithm, is likely to be accurate, and describe empirical results showing that GBP can significantly outperform BP.
Overview of the scalable video coding extension of the H.264/AVC standard
- IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS FOR VIDEO TECHNOLOGY IN CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS FOR VIDEO TECHNOLOGY
, 2007
"... With the introduction of the H.264/AVC video coding standard, significant improvements have recently been demonstrated in video compression capability. The Joint Video Team of the ITU-T VCEG and the ISO/IEC MPEG has now also standardized a Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the H.264/AVC stand ..."
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Cited by 522 (6 self)
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With the introduction of the H.264/AVC video coding standard, significant improvements have recently been demonstrated in video compression capability. The Joint Video Team of the ITU-T VCEG and the ISO/IEC MPEG has now also standardized a Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the H.264/AVC standard. SVC enables the transmission and decoding of partial bit streams to provide video services with lower temporal or spatial resolutions or reduced fidelity while retaining a reconstruction quality that is high relative to the rate of the partial bit streams. Hence, SVC provides functionalities such as graceful degradation in lossy transmission environments as well as bit rate, format, and power adaptation. These functionalities provide enhancements to transmission and storage applications. SVC has achieved significant improvements in coding efficiency with an increased degree of supported scalability relative to the scalable profiles of prior video coding standards. This paper provides an overview of the basic concepts for extending H.264/AVC towards SVC. Moreover, the basic tools for providing temporal, spatial, and quality scalability are described in detail and experimentally analyzed regarding their efficiency and complexity.
A family of algorithms for approximate Bayesian inference
, 2001
"... One of the major obstacles to using Bayesian methods for pattern recognition has been its computational expense. This thesis presents an approximation technique that can perform Bayesian inference faster and more accurately than previously possible. This method, "Expectation Propagation," ..."
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Cited by 366 (11 self)
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One of the major obstacles to using Bayesian methods for pattern recognition has been its computational expense. This thesis presents an approximation technique that can perform Bayesian inference faster and more accurately than previously possible. This method, "Expectation Propagation," unifies and generalizes two previous techniques: assumeddensity filtering, an extension of the Kalman filter, and loopy belief propagation, an extension of belief propagation in Bayesian networks. The unification shows how both of these algorithms can be viewed as approximating the true posterior distribution with a simpler distribution, which is close in the sense of KL-divergence. Expectation Propagation exploits the best of both algorithms: the generality of assumed-density filtering and the accuracy of loopy belief propagation. Loopy belief propagation, because it propagates exact belief states, is useful for limited types of belief networks, such as purely discrete networks. Expectation Propagati...
The generalized distributive law
- Information Theory, IEEE Transactions on
"... Abstract—In this semitutorial paper we discuss a general message passing algorithm, which we call the generalized dis-tributive law (GDL). The GDL is a synthesis of the work of many authors in the information theory, digital communications, signal processing, statistics, and artificial intelligence ..."
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Cited by 359 (2 self)
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Abstract—In this semitutorial paper we discuss a general message passing algorithm, which we call the generalized dis-tributive law (GDL). The GDL is a synthesis of the work of many authors in the information theory, digital communications, signal processing, statistics, and artificial intelligence communities. It includes as special cases the Baum–Welch algorithm, the fast Fourier transform (FFT) on any finite Abelian group, the Gal-lager–Tanner–Wiberg decoding algorithm, Viterbi’s algorithm, the BCJR algorithm, Pearl’s “belief propagation ” algorithm, the Shafer–Shenoy probability propagation algorithm, and the turbo decoding algorithm. Although this algorithm is guaranteed to give exact answers only in certain cases (the “junction tree ” condition), unfortunately not including the cases of GTW with cycles or turbo decoding, there is much experimental evidence, and a few theorems, suggesting that it often works approximately even when it is not supposed to. Index Terms—Belief propagation, distributive law, graphical models, junction trees, turbo codes. I.
Nonparametric Belief Propagation
- IN CVPR
, 2002
"... In applications of graphical models arising in fields such as computer vision, the hidden variables of interest are most naturally specified by continuous, non--Gaussian distributions. However, due to the limitations of existing inf#6F6F3 algorithms, it is of#]k necessary tof#3# coarse, ..."
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Cited by 279 (25 self)
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In applications of graphical models arising in fields such as computer vision, the hidden variables of interest are most naturally specified by continuous, non--Gaussian distributions. However, due to the limitations of existing inf#6F6F3 algorithms, it is of#]k necessary tof#3# coarse, discrete approximations to such models. In this paper, we develop a nonparametric belief propagation (NBP) algorithm, which uses stochastic methods to propagate kernel--based approximations to the true continuous messages. Each NBP message update is based on an efficient sampling procedure which can accomodate an extremely broad class of potentialf#l3]k[[z3 allowing easy adaptation to new application areas. We validate our method using comparisons to continuous BP for Gaussian networks, and an application to the stereo vision problem.
The Bayes Net Toolbox for MATLAB
- Computing Science and Statistics
, 2001
"... The Bayes Net Toolbox (BNT) is an open-source Matlab package for directed graphical models. BNT supports many kinds of nodes (probability distributions), exact and approximate inference, parameter and structure learning, and static and dynamic models. BNT is widely used in teaching and research: the ..."
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Cited by 250 (1 self)
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The Bayes Net Toolbox (BNT) is an open-source Matlab package for directed graphical models. BNT supports many kinds of nodes (probability distributions), exact and approximate inference, parameter and structure learning, and static and dynamic models. BNT is widely used in teaching and research: the web page has received over 28,000 hits since May 2000. In this paper, we discuss a broad spectrum of issues related to graphical models (directed and undirected), and describe, at a high-level, how BNT was designed to cope with them all. We also compare BNT to other software packages for graphical models, and to the nascent OpenBayes effort.
On the Optimality of Solutions of the Max-Product Belief Propagation Algorithm in Arbitrary Graphs
, 2001
"... Graphical models, suchasBayesian networks and Markov random fields, represent statistical dependencies of variables by a graph. The max-product "belief propagation" algorithm is a local-message passing algorithm on this graph that is known to converge to a unique fixed point when the gra ..."
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Cited by 241 (13 self)
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Graphical models, suchasBayesian networks and Markov random fields, represent statistical dependencies of variables by a graph. The max-product "belief propagation" algorithm is a local-message passing algorithm on this graph that is known to converge to a unique fixed point when the graph is a tree. Furthermore, when the graph is a tree, the assignment based on the fixed-point yields the most probable a posteriori (MAP) values of the unobserved variables given the observed ones. Recently, good
