We describe a new cardinality estimation algorithm that is extremely space-efficient. It applies one of three novel estimators to the compressed state of the Flajolet-Martin-85 coupon collection process. In an apples-to-apples empirical comparison against compressed HyperLogLog sketches, the new algorithm simultaneously wins on all three dimensions of the time space accuracy tradeoff. Our prototype uses the zstd compression library, and produces sketches that are smaller than the entropy of HLL, so no possible implementation of compressed HLL can match its space efficiency. The paper's technical contributions include analyses and simulations of the three new estimators, accurate values for the entropies of FM85 and HLL, and a non-trivial method for estimating a double asymptotic limit via simulation.
Finally, the KNW sketch @cite_8 is space-optimal in a theoretical sense, but the constant factors are unknown, and to the best of our knowledge it has never been used in a real system.
@cite_8
2005985615 2097476744 2055064119 2963274201
This paper addresses the non-linear isomorphic Dvoretzky theorem and the design of good approximate distance oracles for large distortion. We introduce and construct optimal Ramsey partitions, and use them to show that for every (0, 1), any n-point metric space has a subset of size n^ 1 - which embeds into Hilbert space with distortion O(1 ). This result is best possible and improves part of the metric Ramsey theorem of Bartal, Linial, Mendel and Naor [5], in addition to considerably simplifying its proof. We use our new Ramsey partitions to design approximate distance oracles with a universal constant query time, closing a gap left open by Thorup and Zwick in [26]. Namely, we show that for any n point metric space X, and k 1, there exists an O(k)-approximate distance oracle whose storage requirement is O(n^ 1 + 1 k ), and whose query time is a universal constant. We also discuss applications to various other geometric data structures, and the relation to well separated pair decompositions. This paper proves best known guarantees for exact reconstruction of a sparse signal f from few non-adaptive universal linear measurements. We consider Fourier measurements (random sample of frequencies of f) and random Gaussian measurements. The method for reconstruction that has recently gained momentum in the sparse approximation theory is to relax this highly non-convex problem to a convex problem, and then solve it as a linear program. What are best guarantees for the reconstruction problem to be equivalent to its convex relaxation is an open question. Recent work shows that the number of measurements k(r,n) needed to exactly reconstruct any r-sparse signal f of length n from its linear measurements with convex relaxation is usually O(r poly log (n)). However, known guarantees involve huge constants, in spite of very good performance of the algorithms in practice. In attempt to reconcile theory with practice, we prove the first guarantees for universal measurements (i.e. which work for all sparse functions) with reasonable constants. For Gaussian measurements, k(r,n) lsim 11.7 r [1.5 + log(n r)], which is optimal up to constants. For Fourier measurements, we prove the best known bound k(r, n) = O(r log(n) middot log2(r) log(r log n)), which is optimal within the log log n and log3 r factors. Our arguments are based on the technique of geometric functional analysis and probability in Banach spaces. This paper improves upon best-known guarantees for exact reconstruction of a sparse signal f from a small universal sample of Fourier measurements. The method for reconstruction that has recently gained momentum in the sparse approximation theory is to relax this highly nonconvex problem to a convex problem and then solve it as a linear program. We show that there exists a set of frequencies Ω such that one can exactly reconstruct every r-sparse signal f of length n from its frequencies in Ω, using the convex relaxation, and Ω has size k(r, n) = O(r log(n)·log 2 (r) log(r logn)) = O(r log 4 n ). A random set Ω satisfies this with high probability. This estimate is optimal within the log log n and log 3 r factors. We also give a relatively short argument for a similar problem with k(r, n) ≈ r[12 + 8 log(n r)] Gaussian measurements. We use methods of geometric functional analysis and probability theory in Banach spaces, which makes our arguments quite short. This paper resolves one of the longest standing basic problems in the streaming computational model. Namely, optimal construction of quantile sketches. An e approximate quantile sketch receives a stream of items x1,·,xn and allows one to approximate the rank of any query item up to additive error e n with probability at least 1-δ.The rank of a query x is the number of stream items such that xi ≤ x. The minimal sketch size required for this task is trivially at least 1 e.Felber and Ostrovsky obtain a O((1 e)log(1 e)) space sketch for a fixed δ.Without restrictions on the nature of the stream or the ratio between e and n, no better upper or lower bounds were known to date. This paper obtains an O((1 e)log log (1 δ)) space sketch and a matching lower bound. This resolves the open problem and proves a qualitative gap between randomized and deterministic quantile sketching for which an Ω((1 e)log(1 e)) lower bound is known. One of our contributions is a novel representation and modification of the widely used merge-and-reduce construction. This modification allows for an analysis which is both tight and extremely simple. The same technique was reported, in private communications, to be useful for improving other sketching objectives and geometric coreset constructions.