Luca Barbieri

Luca Barbieri, Stefano Savazzi, Sanaz Kianoush et al.

Federated Learning (FL) methods adopt efficient communication technologies to distribute machine learning tasks across edge devices, reducing the overhead in terms of data storage and computational complexity compared to centralized solutions. Rather than moving large data volumes from producers (sensors, machines) to energy-hungry data centers, raising environmental concerns due to resource demands, FL provides an alternative solution to mitigate the energy demands of several learning tasks while enabling new Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) applications. This paper proposes a framework for real-time monitoring of the energy and carbon footprint impacts of FL systems. The carbon tracking tool is evaluated for consensus (fully decentralized) and classical FL policies. For the first time, we present a quantitative evaluation of different computationally and communication efficient FL methods from the perspectives of energy consumption and carbon equivalent emissions, suggesting also general guidelines for energy-efficient design. Results indicate that consensus-driven FL implementations should be preferred for limiting carbon emissions when the energy efficiency of the communication is low (i.e., < 25 Kbit/Joule). Besides, quantization and sparsification operations are shown to strike a balance between learning performances and energy consumption, leading to sustainable FL designs.

Antonio Boiano, Marco Di Gennaro, Luca Barbieri et al.

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising approach for privacy-preserving machine learning, particularly in sensitive domains such as healthcare. In this context, the TRUSTroke project aims to leverage FL to assist clinicians in ischemic stroke prediction. This paper provides an overview of the TRUSTroke FL network infrastructure. The proposed architecture adopts a client-server model with a central Parameter Server (PS). We introduce a Docker-based design for the client nodes, offering a flexible solution for implementing FL processes in clinical settings. The impact of different communication protocols (HTTP or MQTT) on FL network operation is analyzed, with MQTT selected for its suitability in FL scenarios. A control plane to support the main operations required by FL processes is also proposed. The paper concludes with an analysis of security aspects of the FL architecture, addressing potential threats and proposing mitigation strategies to increase the trustworthiness level.

Luca Barbieri, Stefano Savazzi, Monica Nicoli

Bayesian Federated Learning (FL) has been recently introduced to provide well-calibrated Machine Learning (ML) models quantifying the uncertainty of their predictions. Despite their advantages compared to frequentist FL setups, Bayesian FL tools implemented over decentralized networks are subject to high communication costs due to the iterated exchange of local posterior distributions among cooperating devices. Therefore, this paper proposes a communication-efficient decentralized Bayesian FL policy to reduce the communication overhead without sacrificing final learning accuracy and calibration. The proposed method integrates compression policies and allows devices to perform multiple optimization steps before sending the local posterior distributions. We integrate the developed tool in an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) use case where collaborating nodes equipped with autonomous radar sensors are tasked to reliably localize human operators in a workplace shared with robots. Numerical results show that the developed approach obtains highly accurate yet well-calibrated ML models compatible with the ones provided by conventional (uncompressed) Bayesian FL tools while substantially decreasing the communication overhead (i.e., up to 99%). Furthermore, the proposed approach is advantageous when compared with state-of-the-art compressed frequentist FL setups in terms of calibration, especially when the statistical distribution of the testing dataset changes.

Stefano Savazzi, Monica Nicoli, Mehdi Bennis et al.

Next-generation autonomous and networked industrial systems (i.e., robots, vehicles, drones) have driven advances in ultra-reliable, low latency communications (URLLC) and computing. These networked multi-agent systems require fast, communication-efficient and distributed machine learning (ML) to provide mission critical control functionalities. Distributed ML techniques, including federated learning (FL), represent a mushrooming multidisciplinary research area weaving in sensing, communication and learning. FL enables continual model training in distributed wireless systems: rather than fusing raw data samples at a centralized server, FL leverages a cooperative fusion approach where networked agents, connected via URLLC, act as distributed learners that periodically exchange their locally trained model parameters. This article explores emerging opportunities of FL for the next-generation networked industrial systems. Open problems are discussed, focusing on cooperative driving in connected automated vehicles and collaborative robotics in smart manufacturing.