The use of composable abstractions allows the application of new and established algorithms to a wide range of problems while automatically inheriting the benefits of well-known performance optimisations. This work highlights the composition of the P
ETSc DMPlex domain topology abstraction with the Firedrake automated finite element system to create a PDE solving environment that combines expressiveness, flexibility and high performance. We describe how Firedrake utilises DMPlex to provide the indirection maps required for finite element assembly, while supporting various mesh input formats and runtime domain decomposition. In particular, we describe how DMPlex and its accompanying data structures allow the generic creation of user-defined discretisations, while utilising data layout optimisations that improve cache coherency and ensure overlapped communication during assembly computation.
We present a simple mathematical framework and API for parallel mesh and data distribution, load balancing, and overlap generation. It relies on viewing the mesh as a Hasse diagram, abstracting away information such as cell shape, dimension, and coor
dinates. The high level of abstraction makes our interface both concise and powerful, as the same algorithm applies to any representable mesh, such as hybrid meshes, meshes embedded in higher dimension, and overlapped meshes in parallel. We present evidence, both theoretical and experimental, that the algorithms are scalable and efficient. A working implementation can be found in the latest release of the PETSc libraries.
