Importance Sampling
What is Importance Sampling ?
AsimulationtechniqueUsedwhenweareinterestedinrareeventsExamples:
BitErrorRateonachannel,Failureprobabilityofareliablesystem
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We saw some of it already
Q:We simulate R=10000samples andfind nobiterror.What can we sayaboutthebiterror rate?
A:with confidence0.95,BER<3.710
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What is the Problem ?
Assumeyou can simulate asystemYouwant toevaluate theprobability ofarareeventWe want tosay morethan ananswer like : ∈ 0, 3.6910
i.e.we want agoodrelativeaccuracy on
Assumeproba ofrareevent is 10 :howmany simulationruns doyou needtoobtain anestimate of with 10%relativeaccuracy ?
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What is the Problem ?
Assumeproba ofrareevent is 10 :howmany simulationruns doyou needtoobtain anestimate of with 10%relativeaccuracy ?
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What is the Problem ?
Assumeproba ofrareevent is 10 :howmany simulationruns doyou needtoobtain anestimate of with 10%relativeaccuracy ?
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replicationsevents
Confidence interval 1.96 1
Relative accuracy = .
1.96 1.96
Relative accuracy = 10% ⇔ 1.96 0.1 ⇔ ..
The Goal of Importance Sampling
Obtainsmall probability with goodaccuracy…while keeping small
Intheprevious example,thedirectapproach requires 4. 10 runs toestimate 10 with 10%accuracy
We can domuch better with ImportanceSampling
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The Idea of Importance Sampling
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The Idea of Importance Sampling (cont’d)Ifwe simulate ,howdowe estimate ?
Ifwe simulate insteadofX,we cannot use
But:
Showthis !
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Importance Sampling Monte Carlo
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Example: Bit Error Rate (BER)
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, , … ,∼ 0,
discrete, on , , … , ,
, ,Estimate ⋯
1 ⋯
, , … ,on ∞, ∞ discrete, on , , … , ,
Estimate
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, , … ,∼ 0,
discrete, on , , … , ,
, ,Estimate ⋯
1 ⋯
, , … ,on ∞, ∞ discrete, on , , … , ,
Estimate
, , ,,
,
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, , … ,∼ 0,
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on ∞, ∞
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, , … ,∼ 0,
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on ∞, ∞
121212
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∼ ,
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, , … ,∼ 0,
discrete, on , , … , ,Estimate ⋯
1 ⋯
, , … ,on ∞, ∞ discrete, on , , … , ,
, , ,
, … ,
⋯
…
Estimate
Importance Sampling Monte Carlo
Wedothis forseveral valuesof andfindthesame estimate6.4510
What is different ?
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Importance Sampling Monte Carlo
Wedothis forseveral valuesof andfindthesameestimate 6.4510What is different ?Hopefully ,thenumber ofruns
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Choosing an Importance Sampling Distribution
Whatisagoodimportancesamplingdistribution?Onethatminimizesthenumberofruns
Thiscanbequantifiedwiththevarianceoftheimportancesamplingestimator
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Thesmallestvarianceisfor
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R (proportional to variance)
Choosing an Importance Sampling Distribution (1)
Ruleofthumb:Theeventsofinterest,undertheimportancesamplingdistributionshouldbe
notrare
notcertain
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Choosing an Importance Sampling Distribution (2)
Theoptimalimportancesampling distributionis theonethat minimizes
Isthis thesame asminimizing thevarianceoftheimportancesamplingestimator ?
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A Generic Algorithm
Ideas:empiricallyfindimportancesamplingdistributionsuchthatAverageoccurrenceofeventofinterestiscloseto0.5Minimizes
CanbecomputedbyMonteCarlowithsmallnumberofruns
Thealgorithmdoesnotsayhowtodooneimportantthing:whichone?
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Conclusion
Ifyouhavetosimulaterareevents,importancesamplingisprobablyapplicabletoyourcaseandwillprovidesiginificantspeedup
Agenericalgorithmcanbeusedtofindagoodsamplingdistribution
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