A Ring Topology-based Communication-Efficient Scheme for D2D Wireless Federated Learning

TL;DR

This paper introduces a communication-efficient scheme for federated learning in wireless networks, utilizing a modified ring topology and optimization algorithm to significantly reduce transmission time in dense client scenarios.

Contribution

It proposes a novel modified Ring All-reduce architecture combined with an Ant Colony Optimization algorithm for efficient wireless federated learning.

Findings

Significant reduction in uplink transmission time compared to star topology.

Robust performance in large-scale, densely distributed client scenarios.

Enhanced communication efficiency in wireless federated learning environments.

Abstract

Federated learning (FL) is an emerging technique aiming at improving communication efficiency in distributed networks, where many clients often request to transmit their calculated parameters to an FL server simultaneously. However, in wireless networks, the above mechanism may lead to prolonged transmission time due to unreliable wireless transmission and limited bandwidth. This paper proposes a communication scheme to minimize the uplink transmission time for FL in wireless networks. The proposed approach consists of two major elements, namely a modified Ring All-reduce (MRAR) architecture that integrates D2D wireless communications to facilitate the communication process in FL, and a modified Ant Colony Optimization algorithm to identify the optimal composition of the MRAR architecture. Numerical results show that our proposed approach is robust and can significantly reduce the transmission time compared to the conventional star topology. Notably, the reduction in uplink transmission time compared to baseline policies can be substantial in scenarios applicable to large-scale FL, where client devices are densely distributed.