Zhouzi Li

Zhouzi Li, Zixuan Wang, Jian Li

Recent findings (e.g., arXiv:2103.00065) demonstrate that modern neural networks trained by full-batch gradient descent typically enter a regime called Edge of Stability (EOS). In this regime, the sharpness, i.e., the maximum Hessian eigenvalue, first increases to the value 2/(step size) (the progressive sharpening phase) and then oscillates around this value (the EOS phase). This paper aims to analyze the GD dynamics and the sharpness along the optimization trajectory. Our analysis naturally divides the GD trajectory into four phases depending on the change of the sharpness. We empirically identify the norm of output layer weight as an interesting indicator of sharpness dynamics. Based on this empirical observation, we attempt to theoretically and empirically explain the dynamics of various key quantities that lead to the change of sharpness in each phase of EOS. Moreover, based on certain assumptions, we provide a theoretical proof of the sharpness behavior in EOS regime in two-layer fully-connected linear neural networks. We also discuss some other empirical findings and the limitation of our theoretical results.

Zhouzi Li, Mor Harchol-Balter, Alan Scheller-Wolf

We study the asymptotic response time tail in the M/G/n multi-server queue with heavy-tailed (regularly varying) job sizes, a setting representative of modern computing workloads. For single-server systems, tail optimization is well understood: under heavy-tailed job sizes, policies such as SRPT that strictly prioritize short jobs are strongly tail optimal, and giving any priority to large jobs is harmful. For multi-server systems, the question has been almost entirely open. This paper gives the first strongly tail-optimal scheduling policies for the M/G/n queue with heavy-tailed job sizes. Our central finding is that the multi-server case is intrinsically different from the single-server case: giving a small amount of ``sympathy'' to large jobs is essential for strong tail optimality. We establish strong (or arbitrarily close to strong) tail optimality across the full stability region, both with and without knowledge of job sizes.