Experimental Analysis of a Generalized Stratified Sampling Algorithm for Hypercubes

Abstract: Stratified sampling is a fast and simple method to generate point sets with uniform distribution in hypercubes. However, for the most common paraxial stratfication it has the prominent drawback that the number of sampled points in n dimensions has to be an n-th power of an integer number. This exponential growth makes its application unattractive or even infeasible in high dimensions. We present a stratification procedure that eliminates this problem by a recursive binary partitioning of the hypercube. The algorithm runs in linear time and tries to minimize the hyperboxes' deviation from the cubic shape. We analyze the properties of the algorithm using discrepancy and covering radius, and directly in practical applications, comparing it to quasirandom and other sampling methods. We also discuss a potential combination with Latin hypercube sampling, which positively affects discrepancy.