Topology-aware Federated Learning in Edge Computing: A Comprehensive Survey
Abstract
1 Introduction
Survey | Year | Focus | Topology | FL |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rajaraman [105] | 2002 | Topology and routing in Ad-hoc Network | \(\checkmark\) | \(\times\) |
Li et al. [60] | 2006 | Overview of topology control techniques | \(\checkmark\) | \(\times\) |
Donnet and Friedman [23] | 2007 | Measurements of network topology | \(\checkmark\) | \(\times\) |
Lim et al. [68] | 2020 | FL in Mobile Edge Networks | \(\times\) | \(\checkmark\) |
Kairouz et al. [46] | 2021 | FL Advances and Open Problems | \(\times\) | \(\checkmark\) |
Nguyen et al. [91] | 2022 | FL for Smart Healthcare domains | \(\times\) | \(\checkmark\) |
Nguyen et al. [90] | 2023 | FL Applications for IoT networks | \(\times\) | \(\checkmark\) |
Zhu et al. [165] | 2023 | Blockchain-empowered FL | \(\times\) | \(\checkmark\) |
Ours | 2024 | Edge Network Topology for FL | \(\checkmark\) | \(\checkmark\) |
1.1 Scope and Contribution
2 Research Methodology
2.1 Research Goals Formulation
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2.2 Search Strategy
2.3 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
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3 An Overview of Federated Learning in Edge Computing
3.1 Background
3.1.1 Statistical and System Heterogeneity.
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3.1.2 Privacy.
3.1.3 Convergence Guarantee.
3.1.4 Communication Efficiency.
3.2 FL Characteristics Specific to Edge Computing
3.2.1 Heterogeneity, Energy Efficiency, and Task Offloading.
3.2.2 Hierarchy and Clustering.
3.2.3 Availability and Mobility.
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3.3 FL Challenges and Solutions in Edge Network Topologies
3.3.1 Scattered Data across Organizations.
3.3.2 High Communication Costs.
3.3.3 Privacy Concerns and Trust Issues.
3.3.4 Imbalanced Data Distribution.
3.4 Categorization of Topology-Aware FL in Edge Computing
3.4.1 Based on Data Partition Horizontal FL (HFL), vertical FL (VFL), and federated transfer learning (FTL).
3.4.2 Based on Model Update Protocols Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Semi-Synchronous FL.
3.4.3 Based on Data Distribution Non-IID and IID Data FL.
3.4.4 Based on Scale of Federation: Cross-Silo and Cross-Device FL.
3.4.5 Based on Global Model: Centralized and Decentralized FL.
4 Types of FL Network Topology
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4.1 Star Topology
FL Type | Baselines and Benchmarks | Key Findings |
---|---|---|
Synchronous | FedAvg and Large Scale SGD with MNIST, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and ILSVRC 2012 | Computation and communication bandwidth were significantly decreased [30, 128] |
FedSGD, FedBCD-p, and FedBCD-s with MIMIC-III, MNIST, and NUS-WIDE | The models performed as well as the centralized model. Communication costs were significantly reduced [75] | |
Noise-Free FL, Conventional RIS, Random STAR-RIS, Equal Power Allocation with MNIST, CIFAR-10 under IID and non-IID | STAR-RIS used both NOMA and AirFL framework to address the spectrum scarcity and heterogeneous services issues [93] | |
Asynchronous/ Semi-Synchronous | FedAvg and single-thread SGD with CIFAR-10 and WikiText-2 | FedAsync was generally insensitive to hyperparameters, had fast convergence and staleness tolerance [141] |
FedAvg, FedAsync, and FedRec with Cifar-10 and Cifar-100 | Faster generalization and learning convergence, better utilization of available resources and accuracy [121] | |
Personalized | eFD(Extended Federated Dropout) and Federated Dropout(FD) using CIFAR10, FEMNIST, and Shakespeare | Able to extract submodels of varying FLOPs and sizes without the retraining; flexibility across different environment setups [37] |
pFedMe, Ditto, FedAlt, and FedSim with StackOverflow, EMNIST, GLDv2, and LibriSpeech | Proposed partial model personalization can obtain most benefit of full model personalization; provided convergence guarantee [98] | |
FedAvg, pFedMe, Ditto, FedEM, FedRep, FedMask, and HeteroFL with EMNIST, FEMNIST, CIFAR10, and CIFAR100 | Significantly improves performance; thorough theoretical analysis; extensive experiments are conducted show superior effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness [12] |
4.1.1 Asynchronous FL Topologies.
4.1.2 Personalized Star Topology.
4.1.3 Cohorts and Secure Aggregation.
4.2 Tree Topology
Features | Benefits |
---|---|
Clustered clients | Adaptive strategies of in-cluster communications based on cluster’s condition. |
Configurable cluster | Better scalability compared to star topology. |
Configurable number of layers | Varying policies for client-edge and edge-cloud, and inter-layer aggregations. |
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FL Type | Baselines and Benchmarks | Key Findings | Performance |
---|---|---|---|
Hierarchical | Hierarchical FL using CNN and mini-batch SGD with MNIST and CIFAR-10 under non-IID setting | Vanilla hierarchical FL, ignores heterogeneous distribution | Reduced communication, training time, and energy cost with the cloud. Also achieved efficient client-edge communication [71] |
Resource allocation methods and FedAvg with MNIST and FEMNIST | Multiple edge servers can be accessed by the device. Optimize device computation capacity and edge bandwidth allocation | Better global cost-saving, training performance, test and training accuracy, and lower training loss than FedAvg [78] | |
Binary tree and static saturated structure, and FSVRG and SGD algorithm with MNIST | Using the layer-by-layer approach, more edge nodes can be included in the model aggregation | Scalability (time cost increases logarithmically rather than linearly in traditional FL), reduced bandwidth usage and time-consuming [8] | |
Uniform, gradient-aware, and energy-aware scheduling with MNIST | Optimize scheduling and resource allocation by striking a balance between 3 scheduling schemes | Outperformed the baselines if \(\lambda\) is chosen properly. Otherwise slightly better or worse performance [140] | |
FedAvg plus SGD using CNN with MNIST | Both the central server and the edge servers are responsible for global aggregation | Reduced global communication cost, model training time and energy consumption [147] | |
RF, CNN, and RegionNet with BelgiumTSC | Classic hierarchical FL in 5G and 6G settings for object detection | Faster convergence and better learning accuracy for 6G supported IoV applications [163] | |
FedAvg with imbalanced EMNIST and CINIC-10, CIFAR-10 | Relieved global and local imbalance of training data; recover accuracy | Significantly reduced communication cost and achieved better accuracy on imbalanced data [24] | |
FedAvg with MNIST and FEMNIST under IID and non-IID settings | A clustering step was introduced to determine client similarity and form subsets of similar clients | Fewer communication rounds especially for some non-IID settings. Allowed more clients to reach target accuracy [7] |
FL Type | Baselines and Benchmarks | Key Findings | Performance |
---|---|---|---|
Dynamic | FedAvg using Random and heuristic sampling with MNIST and F-MNIST | Able to offload data from non-selected devices to selected devices during training | Significant improvements in datapoints processed, training speed, and model accuracy [132] |
FedAvg using F-Fix and F-Opt with CNN on MNIST | Flexible system topology that optimizes computing speed and transmission power | Accelerated the federated learning process, and achieved a higher energy efficiency [42] | |
WAN-FL using CNN with FEMNIST and CelebA under non-IID settings | Dynamic device selection based on the network capacity of LAN domains. Relied heavily on manual parameter tuning | Accelerate training process, saved WAN traffic, and reduced monetary cost while preserving model accuracy [151] | |
FedAvg, TiFL, FedAsync with FMNIST, CIFAR-10, Sentiment140 | Models were updated synchronously with clients of the same tier and asynchronously with the global model across tiers | Faster convergence towards the optimal solution, improved prediction performance, and reduced communication cost [10] | |
Cloud-based FL (C-FL), Cost only CPLEX (CC), Data only greedy (DG) with MNIST and CIFAR-10 | As opposed to an edge server, groups of distributed nodes are used for edge aggregation | Improved FL performance at a very low communication cost, provided a good balance between learning performance and communication costs [20] | |
Traditional FL (TFL) low and high power mode with MNIST under IID and non-IID settings | Based on the status of their local resources, clients are assigned to different subnetworks of the global model | Outperformed TFL in both low and high power modes, especially in low power. Reliable in dynamic wireless communication environments [149] |
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4.2.1 Typical Tree Topology FL.
4.2.2 Optimization: Trade-off among Energy Cost, Communication Delay, Model Accuracy, Data Privacy.
4.2.3 Dynamic Topology.
4.2.4 Grouping Strategy and Privacy Enhancement.
4.3 Decentralized\Mesh Topology
FL Type | Baselines and Benchmarks | Key Findings |
---|---|---|
Decentralized Mesh | Using 20 Newsgroups dataset integrating GBDT | Obtained high utility and accuracy, effective data leakage detection, near-real-time performance data leakage defending [77] |
FedAvg and FedGMTL using AGE and GAT wtih MoleculeNet | Train GNNs in serverless scenarios, outperformed Star FL even if clients can only communicate with few neighbors [32] | |
PENS, Random, Local, FixTopology, Oracle, IFCA, FedAvg with MNIST, FMNIST, and CIFAR10 | CNI was effective to match neighbors with similar objectives; directional communications helped to converge faster; robust in non-IID settings [66] | |
FedAvg using ResNet-20 model with CIFAR-10 under IID and non-IID settings | Provided an unbiased estimate of the model update to PS through relaying; optimized consensus weights of clients to improve convergence; compatible in different topologies [148] | |
Decentralized Wireless | FedAvg, CDSGD, D-PSGD using CNN with MNIST, FMNIST, CIFAR-10 under IID and non-IID settings | Outperformed in accuracy, less sensitive to the topology sparsity; similar performance for each user; viable on IID and non-IID data under time-invariant topology [15] |
DSGD, TDMA-based, local SGD(no communication) with FMNIST | Over-the-air computing can only outperform conventional star topology implementations of DSGD [142] | |
DOL and COL with SUSY and Room Occupancy dataset | Worked better than DOL in row stochastic confusion matrix, usually outperformed COL in running time [33] | |
FedAvg and gossip approach without segmentation with CIFAR-10 | Required the least training time to achieve given accuracy, more scalable, synchronization time significantly reduced [40] | |
Gossip and Combo with FEMNIST and Synthetic data | Maximize bandwidth utilization by segmented gossip aggregation over the network; speed up training; maintain convergence [45] | |
DFL and C-SGD with MNIST, CIFAR-10 | Showed linear convergence behavior for convex objective, strong convergence guarantees for both DFL and C-DFL [73] | |
FLS with MALC dataset using QuickNAT architecture | Enabled more robust training; similar performance with centralized approaches; generic method and transferable [108] | |
FedAvg with MNIST using CNN and LSTM | Improved convergence performance of FL especially when the model was complex and network traffic was high [99] | |
Gossip and GossipPGA using LEAF with FEMNIST and Synthetic data | Reduced training time and maintained good convergence, whereas partial exchange significantly reduced latency [44] |
4.3.1 Decentralized Topology in Wireless Networks.
4.3.2 Routing in Decentralized Topology.
4.3.3 Blockchain-Based Topology.
FL Type | Baselines and Benchmarks | Key Findings |
---|---|---|
Blockchain | Basic FL and stand-alone training framework with FEMNIST | Higher resistance to malicious nodes, mitigate the influence of malicious central servers or nodes [65] |
FL-Block with CIFAR-10, FASHION-MINIST | Fully capable to support big data scenarios, particularly fog computing applications, provides decentralized privacy protection while preventing a single point of failure [103] | |
Leaf with Ethereum as the underlying blockchain, tested logistic regression (LR) and NNs models | Incentive mechanisms encouraged clients to provide high-quality training data, communication overhead can be significantly reduced when the data set size is extremely large [158] | |
Integrate FL in consensus process of permissioned blockchain with Reuters and 20 newsgroups dataset | Increased efficiency of data sharing scheme by improving utilization of computing resources; secure data sharing with high utility and efficiency [76] | |
Provided assistance to home appliance manufacturers using FL to predict future customer demands and behavior with MNIST | Created an incentive program to reward participants while preventing poisoning attacks from malicious customers; communication costs are small compared with wasted training time on mobile [160] | |
Evaluation were based on 3GPP LTE Cat. M1 specification | Allowed autonomous vehicles to communicate efficiently, as it exploited consensus mechanisms in blockchain to enable oVML ML without centralized server [100] | |
FL with Multi-Krum and DP under position attacks using Credit Card dataset and MNIST | Scalable; fault-tolerant; defend against known attacks; capable of protecting the privacy of client updates and maintaining the performance of the global model with 30% adversaries [114] |
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4.4 Minor Topologies
FL Type | Baselines and Benchmarks | Key Findings |
---|---|---|
Ring | FedAvg with MNIST, CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 | Improved bandwidth utilization, robustness, and system communication efficiency, reduce communication costs [137] |
G-plain (Graph-based), R-plain (ring-based), and UBAR with MNIST and CIFAR-10 | Fast and computationally efficient; superior performance with SOTA in IID and non-IID; achieve linear convergence rate; further scalability in parallel implementation [25] | |
LeNet and VGG11 with MNIST, FMNIST, EMNIST, CIFAR-10 | Achieved higher test accuracy in fewer communication rounds; faster convergence, robustness to non-IID dataset [144] | |
Clique | Fedavg with MNIST and CIFAR10 | Reduced gradient bias, convergence in heterogeneous data environments, reduction in edge and message numbers [4] |
Fog | FedAvg, HierFAVG, DPSGD with MNIST, FEMNIST, Synthetic dataset | Robust under dynamic topologies; fastest convergence rates under both static and dynamic topologies [161] |
FedAvg with MNIST, FEMNIST, Shakespeare | Gave smooth convergence curve; higher model accuracy; more scalable; communication-efficient [17] | |
FL with full device participation and FL with one device sampled from each cluster with MNIST, F-MNIST | Better model accuracy; energy consumption; robustness against outages; favorable performance with non-convex loss functions [69] | |
Only Cloud, INC Solution, Non-INC, and INC LB | Reached near-optimal network latency; outperformed baselines; helped cloud node significantly decrease its network’s aggregation latency, traffic, and computing load [22] | |
FedAsync and FedAvg with MNIST and CIFAR-10 | Reduced consumption of network traffic; faster converges; effective with non-IID data; dealing with staleness [138] | |
Semi-ring | FedAvg with MNIST under non-IID setting | Improved communication efficiency, flexible and adaptive convergence [125] |
Astraea, FedAvg, HierFavg, IFCA, MM-PSGD, SemiCylic with FedShakespeare, MNIST | Near-linear scalability; improved model accuracy [59] |
4.4.1 Ring Topology.
4.4.2 Clique Topology.
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4.4.3 Grid Topology.
4.4.4 Hybrid Topology.
4.4.5 Fog Topology (Star + Mesh).
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4.4.6 Semi-Ring Topology (Ring + Star/Tree).
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5 Challenges AND Future Research Roadmaps
5.1 Topology Selection
5.2 Communication Cost
5.3 Client-Drift
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5.4 Ethical/Privacy Concerns
5.5 Availability-Aware FL Assisted by Topology Overlay
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5.6 Conduct Real-World Deployment
6 Conclusion
Footnotes
References
Index Terms
- Topology-aware Federated Learning in Edge Computing: A Comprehensive Survey
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