Viper: A High-Performance I/O Framework for Transparently Updating, Storing, and Transferring Deep Neural Network Models

Scientific workflows increasingly need to train a DNN model in real-time during an experiment (e.g. using ground truth from a simulation), while using it at the same time for inferences. Instead of sharing the same model instance, the training (producer) and inference server (consumer) often use different model replicas that are kept synchronized. In addition to efficient I/O techniques to keep the model replica of the producer and consumer synchronized, there is another important trade-off: frequent model updates enhance inference quality but may slow down training; infrequent updates may lead to less precise inference results. To address these challenges, we introduce Viper: a new I/O framework designed to determine a near-optimal checkpoint schedule and accelerate the delivery of the latest model updates. Viper builds an inference performance predictor to identify the optimal checkpoint schedule to balance the trade-off between training slowdown and inference quality improvement. It also creates a memory-first model transfer engine to accelerate model delivery through direct memory-to-memory communication. Our experiments show that Viper can reduce the model update latency by ≈ 9x using the GPU-to-GPU data transfer engine and ≈ 3x using the DRAM-to-DRAM host data transfer. The checkpoint schedule obtained from Viper’s predictor also demonstrates improved cumulative inference accuracy compared to the baseline of epoch-based solutions.