Information-Theoretic Secure Aggregation over Regular Graphs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new framework for secure aggregation in decentralized networks with limited connectivity, characterizing the optimal communication and key rates based on the network's spectral properties, and revealing fundamental limits independent of network size.

Contribution

It develops a unified linear design framework for topological secure aggregation over arbitrary graphs, establishing optimal rates for regular graphs and revealing key requirements depend only on local neighborhood size.

Findings

Optimal communication and key rate regions for regular graphs

Key storage depends only on neighborhood size, not total network size

Fundamental limits of secure aggregation in decentralized networks

Abstract

Large-scale decentralized learning frameworks such as federated learning (FL), require both communication efficiency and strong data security, motivating the study of secure aggregation (SA). While information-theoretic SA is well understood in centralized and fully connected networks, its extension to decentralized networks with limited local connectivity remains largely unexplored. This paper introduces \emph{topological secure aggregation} (TSA), which studies one-shot, information-theoretically secure aggregation of neighboring users' inputs over arbitrary network topologies. We develop a unified linear design framework that characterizes TSA achievability through the spectral properties of the communication graph, specifically the kernel of a diagonally modulated adjacency matrix. For several representative classes of $d$-regular graphs including ring, prism and complete topologies, we establish the optimal communication and secret key rate region. In particular, to securely compute one symbol of the neighborhood sum, each user must (i) store at least one key symbol, (ii) broadcast at least one message symbol, and (iii) collectively, all users must hold at least $d$ i.i.d. key symbols. Notably, this total key requirement depends only on the \emph{neighborhood size} $d$, independent of the network size, revealing a fundamental limit of SA in decentralized networks with limited local connectivity.