Award Abstract # 9988296
Group Representations and Automatic Generation of Fast Algorithms for Discrete Signal Transforms

NSF Org: CCF
Division of Computing and Communication Foundations
Recipient: CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: August 28, 2000
Latest Amendment Date: September 25, 2002
Award Number: 9988296
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: John Cozzens
CCF
 Division of Computing and Communication Foundations
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: September 1, 2000
End Date: August 31, 2003 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $287,018.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $301,118.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2000 = $95,290.00
FY 2001 = $96,477.00

FY 2002 = $109,351.00
History of Investigator:
  • Jose Moura (Principal Investigator)
    moura@ece.cmu.edu
  • Markus Pueschel (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Carnegie-Mellon University
5000 FORBES AVE
PITTSBURGH
PA  US  15213-3815
(412)268-8746
Sponsor Congressional District: 12
Primary Place of Performance: Carnegie-Mellon University
5000 FORBES AVE
PITTSBURGH
PA  US  15213-3815
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
12
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): U3NKNFLNQ613
Parent UEI: U3NKNFLNQ613
NSF Program(s): NETWORKING RESEARCH,
SIGNAL PROCESSING SYS PROGRAM
Primary Program Source: app-0100 
01000102DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

app-0102 
Program Reference Code(s): 9216, 9251, HPCC
Program Element Code(s): 409700, 472000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

Proposal Summary
In this research, we propose to use group representation theory to generate automatically fast
algorithms for digital signal processing (DSP) transforms. Group representation theory provides a
deeper understanding of the structure of signal transforms and a context to address fundamental
questions in modeling and processing of signals. We propose to use representation theory to design
new transforms with desirable characteristics.
Our work is at the meta-level of DSP algorithm libraries (DSP-AL), like SPIRAL, [23]. SPI-
RAL is a library of DSP algorithms that concatenates a formula generator block with a code
generator block to produce optimized software implementations for a given computer. SPIRAL
applies iteratively fast algorithms, the algorithmic rules, to generate a rich collection of alternative
equivalent formulas (the formula space) for the same DSP algorithm. For each formula, SPIRAL
then produces automatically optimized code that runs efficiently on the given computer. By
searching over the formula space, SPIRAL generates automatically the formula and correspond-
ing code implementation that matches in an optimized sense the algorithm to the hardware.
What SPIRAL, or any other existing DSP-AL for that matter, does NOT do is the automatic
generation of the fast algorithm, or algorithmic rules. This meta-level is the focus of our proposed
research. We exploit group representation theory to develop the theoretical framework and the
tools that produce automatically these fast algorithms for a number of DSP transforms. We will
implement and interface these tools to a DSP-AL (SPIRAL) which will enable us to translate
directly a fast DSP algorithm as generated by our tools to an efficient low-level language program.
Generating a fast discrete signal transform, given as a matrix, consists of two steps: determin-
ing the "symmetry" of the transform, which is a pair of representations under which the transform
is invariant; decomposing stepwise the representations, giving rise to factorized decomposition ma-
trices, which determine the factorization of the transform. The symmetry catches redundancy in
the transform, and the decomposition of the representations turns the redundancy into a factoriza-
tion of the transform - the fast algorithm. To realize this program, new results on decomposition
matrices will be derived in the context of a constructive extension of standard representation
theory, where representations are manipulated up to equality, not only up to equivalence.
We will implement the algorithm for generating fast discrete signal transforms within a package
for symbolic computation with group representations and structured matrices and interface it with
a DSP-AL, namely SPIRAL.
We consider different types of "symmetry," going beyond regular representations to include
arbitrary permutation and monomial representations, in order to capture in the representation
framework a wide class of signal transforms. Besides the DFT, and trigonometric transforms, we
will consider other transforms including wavelet transforms.
We use the group representation framework to explore the connection between the "symmetry"
of a signal transform and its properties with respect to signal processing. The use of a transform
can be justified on the basis of the model underlying the data. We have shown this relation to be
connected to the boundary conditions (b.c.) assumed in describing a certain class of models widely
used in applications. These b.c.'s also reflect the type of "data extension" that is hypothesized,
for example, cyclic b.c.'s versus signal periodic extension versus the discrete Fourier transform.
This proposal will exploit the relations between the "symmetry" of the representation, the signal
transform, and the signal models, enabling us to address some fundamental questions, namely
how to design a signal transform which is adapted to a given signal model (i.e., reflects a desired
symmetry) and is computationally the most efficient.

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