In this paper, we establish some theoretical connections between Sum-Product Networks (SPNs) and Bayesian Networks (BNs). We prove that every SPN can be converted into a BN in linear time and space in terms of the network size. The key insight is to use Algebraic Decision Diagrams (ADDs) to compactly represent the local conditional probability distributions at each node in the resulting BN by exploiting context-specific independence (CSI). The generated BN has a simple directed bipartite graphical structure. We show that by applying the Variable Elimination algorithm (VE) to the generated BN with ADD representations, we can recover the original SPN where the SPN can be viewed as a history record or caching of the VE inference process. To help state the proof clearly, we introduce the notion of normal SPN and present a theoretical analysis of the consistency and decomposability properties. We conclude the paper with some discussion of the implications of the proof and establish a connection between the depth of an SPN and a lower bound of the tree-width of its corresponding BN.
Exact probabilistic reasoning has a close connection with propositional logic and weighted model counting @cite_8 @cite_27 @cite_21 @cite_19 . The model counting problem, #SAT, is the problem of computing the number of models for a given propositional formula, i.e., the number of distinct truth assignments of the variables for which the formula evaluates to TRUE . In its weighted version, each boolean variable @math has a weight @math when set to TRUE and a weight @math when set to FALSE . The weight of a truth assignment is the product of the weights of its literals. The weighted model counting problem then asks the sum of the weights of all satisfying truth assignments. There are two important streams of research for exact weighted model counting and exact probabilistic reasoning that relate to SPNs: DPLL-style exhaustive search @cite_0 and those based on , e.g., Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs), Decomposable Negation Normal Forms (DNNFs) and Arithmetic Circuits (ACs) @cite_11 @cite_10 @cite_13 .
@cite_13 @cite_8 @cite_21 @cite_0 @cite_19 @cite_27 @cite_10 @cite_11
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The recent surge of interest in reasoning about probabilistic graphical models has led to the development of various techniques for probabilistic reasoning. Of these, techniques based on weighted model counting are particularly interesting since they can potentially leverage recent advances in unweighted model counting and in propositional satisfiability solving. In this paper, we present a new approach to weighted model counting via reduction to unweighted model counting. Our reduction, which is polynomial-time and preserves the normal form (CNF DNF) of the input formula, allows us to exploit advances in unweighted model counting to solve weighted model counting instances. Experiments with weighted model counters built using our reduction indicate that these counters performs much better than a state-of-the-art weighted model counter. Propositional model counting (#SAT), i.e., counting the number of satisfying assignments of a propositional formula, is a problem of significant theoretical and practical interest. Due to the inherent complexity of the problem, approximate model counting, which counts the number of satisfying assignments to within given tolerance and confidence level, was proposed as a practical alternative to exact model counting. Yet, approximate model counting has been studied essentially only theoretically. The only reported implementation of approximate model counting, due to Karp and Luby, worked only for DNF formulas. A few existing tools for CNF formulas are bounding model counters; they can handle realistic problem sizes, but fall short of providing counts within given tolerance and confidence, and, thus, are not approximate model counters. We present here a novel algorithm, as well as a reference implementation, that is the first scalable approximate model counter for CNF formulas. The algorithm works by issuing a polynomial number of calls to a SAT solver. Our tool, ApproxMC, scales to formulas with tens of thousands of variables. Careful experimental comparisons show that ApproxMC reports, with high confidence, bounds that are close to the exact count, and also succeeds in reporting bounds with small tolerance and high confidence in cases that are too large for computing exact model counts. A recent and effective approach to probabilistic inference calls for reducing the problem to one of weighted model counting (WMC) on a propositional knowledge base. Specifically, the approach calls for encoding the probabilistic model, typically a Bayesian network, as a propositional knowledge base in conjunctive normal form (CNF) with weights associated to each model according to the network parameters. Given this CNF, computing the probability of some evidence becomes a matter of summing the weights of all CNF models consistent with the evidence. A number of variations on this approach have appeared in the literature recently, that vary across three orthogonal dimensions. The first dimension concerns the specific encoding used to convert a Bayesian network into a CNF. The second dimensions relates to whether weighted model counting is performed using a search algorithm on the CNF, or by compiling the CNF into a structure that renders WMC a polytime operation in the size of the compiled structure. The third dimension deals with the specific properties of network parameters (local structure) which are captured in the CNF encoding. In this paper, we discuss recent work in this area across the above three dimensions, and demonstrate empirically its practical importance in significantly expanding the reach of exact probabilistic inference. We restrict our discussion to exact inference and model counting, even though other proposals have been extended for approximate inference and approximate model counting. As was shown recently, many important AI problems require counting the number of models of propositional formulas. The problem of counting models of such formulas is, according to present knowledge, computationally intractable in a worst case. Based on the Davis-Putnam procedure, we present an algorithm, CDP, that computes the exact number of models of a propositional CNF or DNF formula F. Let m and n be the number of clauses and variables of F, respectively, and let p denote the probability that a literal l of F occurs in a clause C of F, then the average running time of CDP is shown to be O(mdn), where d=[-1 log2(1-p)].The practical performance of CDP has been estimated in a series of experiments on a wide variety of CNF formulas.