Faster Convergence on Heterogeneous Federated Edge Learning: An Adaptive Clustered Data Sharing Approach
Gang Hu, Yinglei Teng, Nan Wang, Zhu Han · IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing · 2025
Federated Edge Learning (FEL) emerges as a pioneering distributed machine learning paradigm for the 6 G Hyper-Connectivity, harnessing data from the IoT devices while upholding data privacy. However, current FEL algorithms struggle with non-independent and non-identically distributed (non-IID) data, leading to elevated communication costs and compromised model accuracy. To address these statistical imbalances, we introduce a clustered data sharing framework, mitigating data heterogeneity by selectively sharing partial data from cluster heads to trusted associates through sidelink-aided multicasting. The collective communication pattern is integral to FEL training, where both cluster formation and the efficiency of communication and computation impact training latency and accuracy simultaneously. To tackle the strictly coupled data sharing and resource optimization, we decompose the optimization problem into the clients clustering and effective data sharing subproblems. Specifically, a distribution-based adaptive clustering algorithm (DACA) is devised basing on three deductive cluster forming conditions, which ensures the maximum sharing yield. Meanwhile, we design a stochastic optimization based joint computed frequency and shared data volume optimization (JFVO) algorithm, determining the optimal resource allocation with an uncertain objective function. The experiments show that the proposed framework facilitates FEL on non-IID datasets with faster convergence rate and higher model accuracy in a resource-limited environment.