Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization Layers

Pruning and compression of models are practical approaches for deploying and applying deep convolutional neural networks in scenarios with limited memory and computational resources. To mitigate the impact of pruning on model accuracy and enhance the stability of pruning (defined as the negligible d...

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Main Authors: Zijie Qiu, Peng Wei, Mingwei Yao, Rui Zhang, Yingchun Kuang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10485421/
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author Zijie Qiu
Peng Wei
Mingwei Yao
Rui Zhang
Yingchun Kuang
author_facet Zijie Qiu
Peng Wei
Mingwei Yao
Rui Zhang
Yingchun Kuang
author_sort Zijie Qiu
collection DOAJ
description Pruning and compression of models are practical approaches for deploying and applying deep convolutional neural networks in scenarios with limited memory and computational resources. To mitigate the impact of pruning on model accuracy and enhance the stability of pruning (defined as the negligible drop in test accuracy immediately following pruning), an algorithm for reward-penalty decoupling is introduced in this study to achieve automated sparse training and channel pruning. During sparse training, the influence of unimportant channels is automatically identified and reduced, thereby preserving the ability of the important channels for feature recognition. First, by utilizing the gradient information learned through network backpropagation, the feature scaling factors of the batch normalization layers are combined with the gradient to determine the importance threshold for the network channels. Subsequently, a two-stage sparse training algorithm is proposed based on the reward-penalty decoupling strategy, applying different loss function strategies to the feature scaling factors of “important” and “unimportant” channels during decoupled sparse training. This approach has been experimentally validated across various tasks, baselines, and datasets, demonstrating its superiority over the previous state-of-the-art methods. The results indicate that the effect of pruning on model accuracy is significantly alleviated by the proposed method, and pruned models require only limited fine-tuning to achieve excellent performance.
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spelling doaj.art-52040c5821b24e7f8813cbc13524834b2024-04-08T23:00:35ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-0112488654888010.1109/ACCESS.2024.338299410485421Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization LayersZijie Qiu0https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2461-2641Peng Wei1Mingwei Yao2Rui Zhang3Yingchun Kuang4https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6839-9037College of Information and Intelligence, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, ChinaCollege of Information and Intelligence, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, ChinaCollege of Information and Intelligence, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, ChinaCollege of Information and Intelligence, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, ChinaCollege of Information and Intelligence, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, ChinaPruning and compression of models are practical approaches for deploying and applying deep convolutional neural networks in scenarios with limited memory and computational resources. To mitigate the impact of pruning on model accuracy and enhance the stability of pruning (defined as the negligible drop in test accuracy immediately following pruning), an algorithm for reward-penalty decoupling is introduced in this study to achieve automated sparse training and channel pruning. During sparse training, the influence of unimportant channels is automatically identified and reduced, thereby preserving the ability of the important channels for feature recognition. First, by utilizing the gradient information learned through network backpropagation, the feature scaling factors of the batch normalization layers are combined with the gradient to determine the importance threshold for the network channels. Subsequently, a two-stage sparse training algorithm is proposed based on the reward-penalty decoupling strategy, applying different loss function strategies to the feature scaling factors of “important” and “unimportant” channels during decoupled sparse training. This approach has been experimentally validated across various tasks, baselines, and datasets, demonstrating its superiority over the previous state-of-the-art methods. The results indicate that the effect of pruning on model accuracy is significantly alleviated by the proposed method, and pruned models require only limited fine-tuning to achieve excellent performance.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10485421/Neural networkstructured pruningmodel compressionneural network lightweightingautomatic pruningpruning stability
spellingShingle Zijie Qiu
Peng Wei
Mingwei Yao
Rui Zhang
Yingchun Kuang
Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization Layers
IEEE Access
Neural network
structured pruning
model compression
neural network lightweighting
automatic pruning
pruning stability
title Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization Layers
title_full Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization Layers
title_fullStr Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization Layers
title_full_unstemmed Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization Layers
title_short Channel Pruning Method Based on Decoupling Feature Scale Distribution in Batch Normalization Layers
title_sort channel pruning method based on decoupling feature scale distribution in batch normalization layers
topic Neural network
structured pruning
model compression
neural network lightweighting
automatic pruning
pruning stability
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10485421/
work_keys_str_mv AT zijieqiu channelpruningmethodbasedondecouplingfeaturescaledistributioninbatchnormalizationlayers
AT pengwei channelpruningmethodbasedondecouplingfeaturescaledistributioninbatchnormalizationlayers
AT mingweiyao channelpruningmethodbasedondecouplingfeaturescaledistributioninbatchnormalizationlayers
AT ruizhang channelpruningmethodbasedondecouplingfeaturescaledistributioninbatchnormalizationlayers
AT yingchunkuang channelpruningmethodbasedondecouplingfeaturescaledistributioninbatchnormalizationlayers