Post-Training Optimization Toolkit API

Overview

This document describes Python* API of the Post-Training Optimization Toolkit (POT) that allows implementing a custom optimization pipeline for a single or cascaded/composite DL model (set of joint models). By the optimization pipeline, we mean the consecutive application of optimization algorithms to the model. The input for the optimization pipeline is a full-precision model, and the result is an optimized model. The optimization pipeline is configured to sequentially apply optimization algorithms in the order they are specified. The key requirement for applying the optimization algorithm is the availability of the calibration dataset for statistics collection and validation dataset for accuracy validation which in practice can be the same. The Python* POT API provides simple interfaces for implementing custom model inference with data loading and pre-processing on an arbitrary dataset and implementing custom accuracy metrics to make it possible to use optimization algorithms from the POT.

The Python* POT API provides Pipeline class for creating and configuring the optimization pipeline and applying it to the model. The Pipeline class depends on the implementation of the following model specific interfaces which should be implemented according to the custom DL model:

• Engine is responsible for model inference and provides statistical data and accuracy metrics for the model.

  NOTE: The POT has the implementation of the Engine class with the class name IEEngine located in <POT_DIR>/compression/engines/ie_engine.py, where <POT_DIR> is a directory where the Post-Training Optimization Tool is installed. It is based on the OpenVINO™ Inference Engine Python* API and can be used as a baseline engine in the customer pipeline instead of the abstract Engine class.

  - DataLoader is responsible for the dataset loading, including the data pre-processing.
• Metric is responsible for calculating the accuracy metric for the model.

  NOTE: Metric is required if you want to use accuracy-aware optimization algorithms, such as AccuracyAwareQuantization and INT4MixedQuantization algorithms.

  The pipeline with implemented model specific interfaces such as Engine, DataLoader and Metric we will call the custom optimization pipeline (see the picture below that shows relationships between classes).

Use Cases

The main and easiest way to get the optimized model is to use the Post-Training Optimization Command-line Tool where you just need to prepare the configuration file. Before diving into the Python* POT API, it is highly recommended to read Best Practices document where various scenarios of using the Post-Training Optimization Command-line Tool are described.

The POT Python* API for model optimization can be used in the following cases:

• AccuracyChecker tool does not support the model or dataset.
• POT does not support the model in the Simplified Mode or produces the optimized model with low accuracy.
• You already have the Python* script to validate the accuracy of the model using the OpenVINO™ Inference Engine.
  

API Description

Below is a detailed explanation of POT Python* APIs which should be implemented in order to create a custom optimization pipeline.

DataLoader

class compression.api.DataLoader(config)

The base class for all DataLoaders.

DataLoader loads data from a dataset and applies pre-processing to them providing access to the pre-processed data by index.

All subclasses should override __len__() function, which should return the size of the dataset, and __getitem__(), which supports integer indexing in range of 0 to len(self)

Metric

class compression.api.Metric()

An abstract class representing an accuracy metric.

All subclasses should override the following properties:

• value - returns the accuracy metric value for the last model output.
• avg_value - returns the average accuracy metric value for all model outputs.
• attributes - returns a dictionary of metric attributes:

  {metric_name: {attribute_name: value}}

  Required attributes:
  • direction - (higher-better or higher-worse) a string parameter defining whether metric value should be increased in accuracy-aware algorithms.
  • type - a string representation of metric type. For example, 'accuracy' or 'mean_iou'.

All subclasses should override the following methods:

• update(output, annotation) - calculates and updates the accuracy metric value using last model output and annotation.
• reset() - resets collected accuracy metric.

Engine

class compression.api.Engine(config, data_loader=None, metric=None)

Base class for all Engines.

The engine provides model inference, statistics collection for activations and calculation of accuracy metrics for a dataset.

Parameters

• config - engine specific config.
• data_loader - DataLoader instance to iterate over dataset.
• metric - Metric instance to calculate the accuracy metric of the model.

All subclasses should override the following methods:

• set_model(model) - sets/resets a model.
  
  Parameters
  • model - NXModel instance for inference (see details below).

• predict(stats_layout=None, sampler=None, metric_per_sample=False, print_progress=False) - performs model inference on the specified subset of data.
  
  Parameters

  • stats_layout - dictionary of statistic collection functions. An optional parameter.

    {
        'node_name': {
            'stat_name': fn
        }
    }

  • sampler - Sampler instance that provides a way to iterate over the dataset. (See details below).
  • metric_per_sample - if Metric is specified and this parameter is set to True, then the metric value should be calculated for each data sample, otherwise for the whole dataset.
  • print_progress - print inference progress.

  Returns

  • a tuple of dictionaries of per-sample and overall metric values if metric_per_sample is True

    (
        {
            'sample_id': sample_index,
            'metric_name': metric_name,
            'result': metric_value
        },
        {
            'metric_name': metric_value
        }
    )

    Otherwise, a dictionary of overall metrics.
    

    { 'metric_name': metric_value }

• a dictionary of collected statistics

  {
      'node_name': {
          'stat_name': [statistics]
      }
  }

Helpers and Internal Model Representation

In order to simplify implementation of optimization pipelines we provide a set of ready-to-use helpers. Here we also describe internal representation of the DL model and how to work with it.

IEEngine

class compression.engines.IEEngine(config, data_loader=None, metric=None)

IEEngine is a helper which implements Engine class based on OpenVINO™ Inference Engine Python* API. This class support inference in synchronous and asynchronous modes and can be reused as-is in the custom pipeline or with some modifications, e.g. in case of custom post-processing of inference results.

The following methods can be overridden in subclasses:

• postprocess_output(outputs, metadata) - processes raw model output using the image metadata obtained during data loading.
  
  Parameters

  • outputs - raw output of the model.
  • metadata - information about the data used for inference.

  Return

  • post-processed model output

IEEngine supports data returned by DataLoader in the format:

(img_id, img_annotation), image)

or

((img_id, img_annotation), image, image_metadata)

Metric values returned by a Metric instance are expected to be in the format:

• for value():

  {metric_name: [metric_values_per_image]}

• for avg_value():

  {metric_name: metric_value}

In order to implement a custom Engine class you may need to get familiar with the following interfaces:

NXModel

The Python* POT API provides the NXModel class as one interface for working with single and cascaded DL model. It is used to load, save and access the model, in case of the cascaded model, access each model of the cascaded model.

class compression.graph.nx_wrapper.NXModel(**kwargs)

The NXModel class provides a representation of the DL model. A single model and cascaded model can be represented as an instance of this class. The cascaded model is stored as a list of models.

Properties

• models - list of models of the cascaded model.
• is_cascade - returns True if the loaded model is cascaded model.

Loading model from IR

The Python* POT API provides the utility function to load model from the OpenVINO™ Intermediate Representation (IR):

compression.graph.model_utils.load_model(model_config)

Parameters

• model_config - dictionary describing a model that includes the following attributes:

  • model_name - model name.
  • model - path to the network topology (.xml).
  • weights - path to the model weights (.bin).

  Example of model_config for a single model:

  model_config = Dict({
      'model_name': 'mobilenet_v2',
      'model': '<PATH_TO_MODEL>/mobilenet_v2.xml',
      'weights': '<PATH_TO_WEIGHTS>/mobilenet_v2.bin'
  })

  Example of model_config for a cascaded model:

  model_config = Dict({
      'model_name': 'mtcnn',
      'cascade': [
          {
              'name': 'pnet',
              "model": '<PATH_TO_MODEL>/pnet.xml',
              'weights': '<PATH_TO_WEIGHTS>/pnet.bin'
          },
          {
              'name': 'rnet',
              'model': '<PATH_TO_MODEL>/rnet.xml',
              'weights': '<PATH_TO_WEIGHTS>/rnet.bin'
          },
          {
              'name': 'onet',
              'model': '<PATH_TO_MODEL>/onet.xml',
              'weights': '<PATH_TO_WEIGHTS>/onet.bin'
          }
      ]
  })

Returns

• NXModel instance

Saving model to IR

The Python* POT API provides the utility function to save model in the OpenVINO™ Intermediate Representation (IR):

compression.graph.model_utils.save_model(model, save_path, model_name=None, for_stat_collection=False)

Parameters

• model - NXModel instance.
• save_path - path to save the model.
• model_name - name under which the model will be saved.
• for_stat_collection - whether model is saved to be used for statistic collection or for normal inference (affects only cascaded models). If set to False, removes model prefixes from node names.

Returns

• list of dictionaries with paths:

  [
      {
          'name': model name, 
          'model': path to .xml, 
          'weights': path to .bin
      },
      ...
  ]

Sampler

class compression.samplers.Sampler(data_loader=None, batch_size=1, subset_indices=None)

Base class for all Samplers.

Sampler provides a way to iterate over the dataset.

All subclasses overwrite __iter__() method, providing a way to iterate over the dataset, and a __len__() method that returns the length of the returned iterators.

Parameters

• data_loader - instance of DataLoader class to load data.
• batch_size - number of items in batch, default is 1.
• subset_indices - indices of samples to load. If subset_indices is set to None then the sampler will take elements from the whole dataset.

BatchSampler

class  compression.samplers.batch_sampler.BatchSampler(data_loader, batch_size=1, subset_indices=None):

Sampler provides an iterable over the dataset subset if subset_indices is specified or over the whole dataset with given batch_size. Returns a list of data items.

Pipeline

class compression.pipline.pipeline.Pipeline(engine)

Pipeline class represents the optimization pipeline.

Parameters

• engine - instance of Engine class for model inference.

The pipeline can be applied to the DL model by calling run(model) method where model is the NXModel instance.

Create a pipeline

The POT Python* API provides the utility function to create and configure the pipeline:

compression.pipline.initializer.create_pipeline(algo_config, engine)

Parameters

• algo_config - a list defining optimization algorithms and their parameters included in the optimization pipeline. The order in which they are applied to the model in the optimization pipeline is determined by the order in the list.

  Example of the algorithm configuration of the pipeline:

  algo_config = [
      {
          'name': 'DefaultQuantization',
          'params': {
              'preset': 'performance',
              'stat_subset_size': 500
          }
       },
      ...
  ]

• engine - instance of Engine class for model inference.

Returns

• instance of the Pipeline class.

Usage Example

Before running the optimization tool it's highly recommended to make sure that

• The model was converted to the OpenVINO™ Intermediate Representation (IR) from the source framework using ModelOptimization.
• The model can be successfully inferred with OpenVINO™ Inference Engine in floating-point precision.
• The model achieves the same accuracy as in the original training framework.

As was described above, DataLoader, Metric and Engine interfaces should be implemented in order to create the custom optimization pipeline for your model. There might be a case you have the Python* validation script for your model using the OpenVINO™ Inference Engine, which in practice includes loading a dataset, model inference, and calculating the accuracy metric. So you just need to wrap the existing functions of your validation script in DataLoader, Metric and Engine interfaces. In another case, you need to implement interfaces from scratch.

For facilitation of using Python* POT API, we implemented IEEngine class providing the model inference of the most models from the Vision Domain which can be reused for an arbitrary model.

After YourDataLoader, YourMetric, YourEngine interfaces are implemented, the custom optimization pipeline can be created and applied to the model as follows:

# Step 1: Load the model.
model_config = {
        'model_name': 'your_model',
        'model': <PATH_TO_MODEL>/your_model.xml,
        'weights': <PATH_TO_WEIGHTS/your_model.bin>
}
model = load_model(model_config)
 
# Step 2: Initialize the data loader.
dataset_config = {} # dictionary with the dataset parameters 
data_loader = YourDataLoader(dataset_config)
 
# Step 3 (Optional. Required for AccuracyAwareQuantization): Initialize the metric.
metric = YourMetric()
 
# Step 4: Initialize the engine for metric calculation and statistics collection.
engine_config = {} # dictionary with the engine parameters
engine = YourEngine(engine_config, data_loader, metric)
 
# Step 5: Create a pipeline of compression algorithms.
pipeline = create_pipeline(algorithms, engine)
 
# Step 6: Execute the pipeline.
compressed_model = pipeline.run(model)
 
# Step 7: Save the compressed model.
save_model(compressed_model, "path_to_save_model")

For in-depth examples of using Python* POT API, browse the samples included into the OpenVINO™ toolkit installation and available in the <INSTALL_DIR>/deployment_tools/tools/post_training_optimization_toolkit/sample directory.