arXiv Machine Learning

The Dynamics of Collapse and Recovery in Clustered Federated Learning

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 7

Resilience Beyond Stationary Client Unavailability: Unlocking Efficient and Unbiased Federated Learning

The paper introduces FedSWE, a federated learning algorithm designed to handle non‑stationary and heterogeneous client availability without requiring prior real‑time knowledge of which devices are online. FedSWE compensates for missed computations, stabilizes global updates, and mixes local updates through implicit gossiping, all while adding only modest memory and computational overhead. The authors prove that FedSWE converges to a stationary point for non‑convex objectives and achieves linear speedup in certain scenarios, and they validate these claims with experiments on real‑world datasets featuring diverse client unavailability patterns.

By Ming Xiang, Stratis Ioannidis, Edmund Yeh, Carlee Joe-Wong, Lili Su
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 9

When to Intervene? State-Aware Sparse Manipulation in Federated Reinforcement Learning

The paper introduces the Viability‑constrained Behavioral Steering Attack (V‑BSA), a new attack strategy for federated reinforcement learning that targets the timing of interventions rather than just the construction of malicious updates. By selecting sparse intervention states based on local policy uncertainty and applying envelope‑constrained steering, V‑BSA can significantly degrade performance on discrete‑action benchmarks while using far fewer interventions than traditional dense poisoning attacks. The study demonstrates that the specific states at which interventions occur constitute a distinct and critical dimension of robustness in sequential decision‑making settings.

By Shutong Zheng, Sijia Chen
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 3

StoCFL: A Stochastically Clustered Federated Learning Framework for Non-IID Data with Dynamic Client Participation

StoCFL is a clustered federated learning framework designed to address Non-IID data and dynamic client participation. It introduces a flexible clustering mechanism that allows arbitrary client participation and accommodates newly joined clients, improving data efficiency and model performance. Experiments on four Non-IID settings and a real-world dataset demonstrate that StoCFL achieves promising cluster results even when the number of clusters is unknown, outperforming baseline approaches across various scenarios.

By Dun Zeng, Xiangjing Hu, Shiyu Liu, Yue Yu, Qifan Wang, Zenglin Xu
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 22

Self-organizing reinforcement learning: a learner-free swarm approaches the explore-exploit optimum

The paper demonstrates that a minimal foraging swarm can approach the explore/exploit optimum of reinforcement learning without any learner or reward signal. Agents use heavy‑tailed Levy flights to explore, recruit neighbors via a threshold cascade on their proximity network, and disperse as patch crowds, creating a cycle that balances exploration and exploitation. The swarm attains the shape of the ideal‑free distribution (committed foragers track richness with slope 0.94) and reaches this allocation dynamically in about 150 steps, though it remains slightly exploitable and does not achieve the exact equilibrium.

By Galen J. Wilkerson