The Possibility of Combining and Implementing Deep Neural Network Compression Methods

In the paper, the possibility of combining deep neural network (DNN) model compression methods to achieve better compression results was considered. To compare the advantages and disadvantages of each method, all methods were applied to the ResNet18 model for pretraining to the NCT-CRC-HE-100K dataset while using CRC-VAL-HE-7K as the validation dataset. In the proposed method, quantization, pruning, weight clustering, QAT (quantization-aware training), preserve cluster QAT (hereinafter PCQAT), and distillation were performed for the compression of ResNet18. The final evaluation of the obtained models was carried out on a Raspberry Pi 4 device using the validation dataset. The greatest model compression result on the disk was achieved by applying the PCQAT method, whose application led to a reduction in size of the initial model by as much as 45 times, whereas the greatest model acceleration result was achieved via distillation on the MobileNetV2 model. All methods led to the compression of the initial size of the model, with a slight loss in the model accuracy or an increase in the model accuracy in the case of QAT and weight clustering. INT8 quantization and knowledge distillation also led to a significant decrease in the model execution time.