Memory-Efficient Tree Size Prediction for Depth-First Search in Graphical Models

Levi H. S. Lelis, Lars Otten, Rina Dechter

Abstract: We address the problem of predicting the size of the search tree explored by Depth-First Branch and Bound (DFBnB) while solving optimization problems over graphical models. Building upon methodology introduced by Knuth and his student Chen, this paper presents a memory-efficient scheme called Retentive Stratified Sampling (RSS). Through empirical evaluation on probabilistic graphical models from various problem domains we show impressive prediction power that is far superior to recent competing schemes.