Entropy based streaming big-data reduction with adjustable compression ratio

The Internet of Things is a novel concept in which numerous physical devices are linked to the internet to collect, generate, and distribute data for processing. Data storage and processing become more challenging as the number of devices increases. One solution to the problem is to reduce the amount of stored data in such a way that processing accuracy does not suffer significantly. The reduction can be lossy or lossless, depending on the type of data. The article presents a novel lossy algorithm for reducing the amount of data stored in the system. The reduction process aims to reduce the volume of data while maintaining classification accuracy and properly adjusting the reduction ratio. A nonlinear cluster distance measure is used to create subgroups so that samples can be assigned to the correct clusters even though the cluster shape is nonlinear. Each sample is assumed to arrive one at a time during the reduction. As a result of this approach, the algorithm is suitable for streaming data. The user can adjust the degree of reduction, and the reduction algorithm strives to minimize classification error. The algorithm is not dependent on any particular classification technique. Subclusters are formed and readjusted after each sample during the calculation. To summarize the data from the subclusters, representative points are calculated. The data summary that is created can be saved and used for future processing. The accuracy difference between regular and reduced datasets is used to measure the effectiveness of the proposed method. Different classifiers are used to measure the accuracy difference. The results show that the nonlinear information-theoretic cluster distance measure improves the reduction rates with higher accuracy values compared to existing studies. At the same time, the reduction rate can be adjusted as desired, which is a lacking feature in the current methods. The characteristics are discussed, and the results are compared to previously published algorithms.