Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting Networks

The well-known 0&#x2013;1 principle for traditional data-oblivious sorting networks states that a network with L inputs can be fully validated with an input vector set consisting of all <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{L}$ </tex-math></inline-formula...

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Main Authors: Robert B. Kent, Marios S. Pattichis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2023-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10177149/
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author Robert B. Kent
Marios S. Pattichis
author_facet Robert B. Kent
Marios S. Pattichis
author_sort Robert B. Kent
collection DOAJ
description The well-known 0&#x2013;1 principle for traditional data-oblivious sorting networks states that a network with L inputs can be fully validated with an input vector set consisting of all <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{L}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> unique vectors containing only the values 0 and 1 in each vector&#x2019;s L inputs. Researchers providing proofs of this principle tend to ignore the fact, which is emphasized here, that 0&#x2013;1 vectors provide all distinct orderings of the two inputs to the 2-sorters which perform all of the sorting operations in the networks. The authors have recently described single-stage N-sorters, with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N{&gt;}2$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and multiway merge sorting networks which use these N-sorters. The new N-sorters and their networks are also data-oblivious. It is easily shown that 0&#x2013;1 vectors are not sufficient to fully verify even a single-stage 3-sorter, the smallest such N-sorter, as the 0&#x2013;1 vectors are unable to produce all distinct orderings of the 3 inputs. In order to verify these N-sorters, the authors propose the 1-N principle, which states that testing an N-sorter with all distinct orderings of N input values is necessary and sufficient to prove the N-sorter&#x2019;s correctness. An algorithm is defined which generates a vector set consisting of all distinct orderings of N inputs, which is then used to fully verify the associated single-stage N-sorter. In order to validate the authors&#x2019; L-input sorting networks which use these N-sorters, methods have been created which produce validation vector sets that are dramatically reduced in size versus the unsorted vector sets they are derived from. For example, the ratios of the number of L! permutation vectors to the equivalent reduced vectors are <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${&gt;}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>1,000,000 for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{L}{=}12$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and are much higher as L increases.
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spelling doaj-art-531a96d681c14dcb8a583863c02577ba2025-01-09T00:00:35ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362023-01-0111705747058610.1109/ACCESS.2023.329373410177149Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting NetworksRobert B. Kent0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1189-4295Marios S. Pattichis1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1574-1827Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USADepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USAThe well-known 0&#x2013;1 principle for traditional data-oblivious sorting networks states that a network with L inputs can be fully validated with an input vector set consisting of all <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{L}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> unique vectors containing only the values 0 and 1 in each vector&#x2019;s L inputs. Researchers providing proofs of this principle tend to ignore the fact, which is emphasized here, that 0&#x2013;1 vectors provide all distinct orderings of the two inputs to the 2-sorters which perform all of the sorting operations in the networks. The authors have recently described single-stage N-sorters, with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N{&gt;}2$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and multiway merge sorting networks which use these N-sorters. The new N-sorters and their networks are also data-oblivious. It is easily shown that 0&#x2013;1 vectors are not sufficient to fully verify even a single-stage 3-sorter, the smallest such N-sorter, as the 0&#x2013;1 vectors are unable to produce all distinct orderings of the 3 inputs. In order to verify these N-sorters, the authors propose the 1-N principle, which states that testing an N-sorter with all distinct orderings of N input values is necessary and sufficient to prove the N-sorter&#x2019;s correctness. An algorithm is defined which generates a vector set consisting of all distinct orderings of N inputs, which is then used to fully verify the associated single-stage N-sorter. In order to validate the authors&#x2019; L-input sorting networks which use these N-sorters, methods have been created which produce validation vector sets that are dramatically reduced in size versus the unsorted vector sets they are derived from. For example, the ratios of the number of L! permutation vectors to the equivalent reduced vectors are <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${&gt;}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>1,000,000 for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{L}{=}12$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and are much higher as L increases.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10177149/0-1 principlezero-one principlesorting networks2-sorterN-sorterdata-oblivious
spellingShingle Robert B. Kent
Marios S. Pattichis
Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting Networks
IEEE Access
0-1 principle
zero-one principle
sorting networks
2-sorter
N-sorter
data-oblivious
title Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting Networks
title_full Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting Networks
title_fullStr Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting Networks
title_full_unstemmed Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting Networks
title_short Beyond 0-1: The 1-N Principle and Fast Validation of N-Sorter Sorting Networks
title_sort beyond 0 1 the 1 n principle and fast validation of n sorter sorting networks
topic 0-1 principle
zero-one principle
sorting networks
2-sorter
N-sorter
data-oblivious
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10177149/
work_keys_str_mv AT robertbkent beyond01the1nprincipleandfastvalidationofnsortersortingnetworks
AT mariosspattichis beyond01the1nprincipleandfastvalidationofnsortersortingnetworks