CRNov 12, 2022
PriMask: Cascadable and Collusion-Resilient Data Masking for Mobile Cloud InferenceLinshan Jiang, Qun Song, Rui Tan et al.
Mobile cloud offloading is indispensable for inference tasks based on large-scale deep models. However, transmitting privacy-rich inference data to the cloud incurs concerns. This paper presents the design of a system called PriMask, in which the mobile device uses a secret small-scale neural network called MaskNet to mask the data before transmission. PriMask significantly weakens the cloud's capability to recover the data or extract certain private attributes. The MaskNet is em cascadable in that the mobile can opt in to or out of its use seamlessly without any modifications to the cloud's inference service. Moreover, the mobiles use different MaskNets, such that the collusion between the cloud and some mobiles does not weaken the protection for other mobiles. We devise a {\em split adversarial learning} method to train a neural network that generates a new MaskNet quickly (within two seconds) at run time. We apply PriMask to three mobile sensing applications with diverse modalities and complexities, i.e., human activity recognition, urban environment crowdsensing, and driver behavior recognition. Results show PriMask's effectiveness in all three applications.
CRFeb 26
SettleFL: Trustless and Scalable Reward Settlement Protocol for Federated Learning on Permissionless Blockchains (Extended version)Shuang Liang, Yang Hua, Linshan Jiang et al.
In open Federated Learning (FL) environments where no central authority exists, ensuring collaboration fairness relies on decentralized reward settlement, yet the prohibitive cost of permissionless blockchains directly clashes with the high-frequency, iterative nature of model training. Existing solutions either compromise decentralization or suffer from scalability bottlenecks due to linear on-chain costs. To address this, we present SettleFL, a trustless and scalable reward settlement protocol designed to minimize total economic friction by offering a family of two interoperable protocols. Leveraging a shared domain-specific circuit architecture, SettleFL offers two interoperable strategies: (1) a Commit-and-Challenge variant that minimizes on-chain costs via optimistic execution and dispute-driven arbitration, and (2) a Commit-with-Proof variant that guarantees instant finality through per-round validity proofs. This design allows the protocol to flexibly adapt to varying latency and cost constraints while enforcing rational robustness without trusted coordination. We conduct extensive experiments combining real FL workloads and controlled simulations. Results show that SettleFL remains practical when scaling to 800 participants, achieving substantially lower gas cost.
SEJul 5, 2023
Towards Open Federated Learning Platforms: Survey and Vision from Technical and Legal PerspectivesMoming Duan, Qinbin Li, Linshan Jiang et al.
Traditional Federated Learning (FL) follows a server-dominated cooperation paradigm which narrows the application scenarios of FL and decreases the enthusiasm of data holders to participate. To fully unleash the potential of FL, we advocate rethinking the design of current FL frameworks and extending it to a more generalized concept: Open Federated Learning Platforms, positioned as a crowdsourcing collaborative machine learning infrastructure for all Internet users. We propose two reciprocal cooperation frameworks to achieve this: query-based FL and contract-based FL. In this survey, we conduct a comprehensive review of the feasibility of constructing open FL platforms from both technical and legal perspectives. We begin by reviewing the definition of FL and summarizing its inherent limitations, including server-client coupling, low model reusability, and non-public. In particular, we introduce a novel taxonomy to streamline the analysis of model license compatibility in FL studies that involve batch model reusing methods, including combination, amalgamation, distillation, and generation. This taxonomy provides a feasible solution for identifying the corresponding licenses clauses and facilitates the analysis of potential legal implications and restrictions when reusing models. Through this survey, we uncover the current dilemmas faced by FL and advocate for the development of sustainable open FL platforms. We aim to provide guidance for establishing such platforms in the future while identifying potential limitations that need to be addressed.
LGSep 30, 2023
FedLPA: One-shot Federated Learning with Layer-Wise Posterior AggregationXiang Liu, Liangxi Liu, Feiyang Ye et al.
Efficiently aggregating trained neural networks from local clients into a global model on a server is a widely researched topic in federated learning. Recently, motivated by diminishing privacy concerns, mitigating potential attacks, and reducing communication overhead, one-shot federated learning (i.e., limiting client-server communication into a single round) has gained popularity among researchers. However, the one-shot aggregation performances are sensitively affected by the non-identical training data distribution, which exhibits high statistical heterogeneity in some real-world scenarios. To address this issue, we propose a novel one-shot aggregation method with layer-wise posterior aggregation, named FedLPA. FedLPA aggregates local models to obtain a more accurate global model without requiring extra auxiliary datasets or exposing any private label information, e.g., label distributions. To effectively capture the statistics maintained in the biased local datasets in the practical non-IID scenario, we efficiently infer the posteriors of each layer in each local model using layer-wise Laplace approximation and aggregate them to train the global parameters. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that FedLPA significantly improves learning performance over state-of-the-art methods across several metrics.
NEMay 11
Frequency Matching in Spiking Neural Networks for mmWave SensingDi Yu, Zhenyu Liao, Changze Lv et al.
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) sensing enables privacy-preserving, always-on edge perception, but its measurements are often sparse, temporally irregular, and corrupted by high-frequency noise. Existing mmWave pipelines predominantly rely on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which achieve robustness through extensive preprocessing or deep architectures, thereby limiting their efficiency on edge devices. In this work, we study spiking neural networks (SNNs) for mmWave sensing from a mechanism-data alignment perspective. By leveraging the low-pass filtering behavior of leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) dynamics, we analyze how their implicit temporal filtering interacts with the frequency structure of mmWave signals. Our analysis shows that when discriminative information resides in low-to-mid frequencies, LIF dynamics can inherently suppress high-frequency noise, clarifying when and why SNNs outperform ANNs. Based on this insight, we derive a principled criterion for configuring the membrane decay factor by matching the effective bandwidth of LIF dynamics to the data's discriminative spectral content. Experimental results across four widely used mmWave datasets validate the proposed frequency-matching hypothesis, yielding an average test-accuracy improvement of 6.22% and a 3.64$\times$ reduction in theoretical energy consumption relative to ANN baselines, under a unified evaluation protocol.
LGNov 27, 2025Code
A Fast and Flat Federated Learning Method via Weighted Momentum and Sharpness-Aware MinimizationTianle Li, Yongzhi Huang, Linshan Jiang et al.
In federated learning (FL), models must \emph{converge quickly} under tight communication budgets while \emph{generalizing} across non-IID client distributions. These twin requirements have naturally led to two widely used techniques: client/server \emph{momentum} to accelerate progress, and \emph{sharpness-aware minimization} (SAM) to prefer flat solutions. However, simply combining momentum and SAM leaves two structural issues unresolved in non-IID FL. We identify and formalize two failure modes: \emph{local-global curvature misalignment} (local SAM directions need not reflect the global loss geometry) and \emph{momentum-echo oscillation} (late-stage instability caused by accumulated momentum). To our knowledge, these failure modes have not been jointly articulated and addressed in the FL literature. We propose \textbf{FedWMSAM} to address both failure modes. First, we construct a momentum-guided global perturbation from server-aggregated momentum to align clients' SAM directions with the global descent geometry, enabling a \emph{single-backprop} SAM approximation that preserves efficiency. Second, we couple momentum and SAM via a cosine-similarity adaptive rule, yielding an early-momentum, late-SAM two-phase training schedule. We provide a non-IID convergence bound that \emph{explicitly models the perturbation-induced variance} $σ_ρ^2=σ^2+(Lρ)^2$ and its dependence on $(S, K, R, N)$ on the theory side. We conduct extensive experiments on multiple datasets and model architectures, and the results validate the effectiveness, adaptability, and robustness of our method, demonstrating its superiority in addressing the optimization challenges of Federated Learning. Our code is available at https://github.com/Huang-Yongzhi/NeurlPS_FedWMSAM.
LGFeb 13, 2025
One-shot Federated Learning Methods: A Practical GuideXiang Liu, Zhenheng Tang, Xia Li et al.
One-shot Federated Learning (OFL) is a distributed machine learning paradigm that constrains client-server communication to a single round, addressing privacy and communication overhead issues associated with multiple rounds of data exchange in traditional Federated Learning (FL). OFL demonstrates the practical potential for integration with future approaches that require collaborative training models, such as large language models (LLMs). However, current OFL methods face two major challenges: data heterogeneity and model heterogeneity, which result in subpar performance compared to conventional FL methods. Worse still, despite numerous studies addressing these limitations, a comprehensive summary is still lacking. To address these gaps, this paper presents a systematic analysis of the challenges faced by OFL and thoroughly reviews the current methods. We also offer an innovative categorization method and analyze the trade-offs of various techniques. Additionally, we discuss the most promising future directions and the technologies that should be integrated into the OFL field. This work aims to provide guidance and insights for future research.
DCJul 18, 2025
Edge Intelligence with Spiking Neural NetworksShuiguang Deng, Di Yu, Changze Lv et al.
The convergence of artificial intelligence and edge computing has spurred growing interest in enabling intelligent services directly on resource-constrained devices. While traditional deep learning models require significant computational resources and centralized data management, the resulting latency, bandwidth consumption, and privacy concerns have exposed critical limitations in cloud-centric paradigms. Brain-inspired computing, particularly Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), offers a promising alternative by emulating biological neuronal dynamics to achieve low-power, event-driven computation. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of Edge Intelligence based on SNNs (EdgeSNNs), examining their potential to address the challenges of on-device learning, inference, and security in edge scenarios. We present a systematic taxonomy of EdgeSNN foundations, encompassing neuron models, learning algorithms, and supporting hardware platforms. Three representative practical considerations of EdgeSNN are discussed in depth: on-device inference using lightweight SNN models, resource-aware training and updating under non-stationary data conditions, and secure and privacy-preserving issues. Furthermore, we highlight the limitations of evaluating EdgeSNNs on conventional hardware and introduce a dual-track benchmarking strategy to support fair comparisons and hardware-aware optimization. Through this study, we aim to bridge the gap between brain-inspired learning and practical edge deployment, offering insights into current advancements, open challenges, and future research directions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dedicated and comprehensive survey on EdgeSNNs, providing an essential reference for researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of neuromorphic computing and edge intelligence.
CYDec 16, 2024
"They've Stolen My GPL-Licensed Model!": Toward Standardized and Transparent Model LicensingMoming Duan, Rui Zhao, Linshan Jiang et al.
As model parameter sizes reach the billion-level range and their training consumes zettaFLOPs of computation, components reuse and collaborative development are become increasingly prevalent in the Machine Learning (ML) community. These components, including models, software, and datasets, may originate from various sources and be published under different licenses, which govern the use and distribution of licensed works and their derivatives. However, commonly chosen licenses, such as GPL and Apache, are software-specific and are not clearly defined or bounded in the context of model publishing. Meanwhile, the reused components may also have free-content licenses and model licenses, which pose a potential risk of license noncompliance and rights infringement within the model production workflow. In this paper, we propose addressing the above challenges along two lines: 1) For license analysis, we have developed a new vocabulary for ML workflow management and encoded license rules to enable ontological reasoning for analyzing rights granting and compliance issues. 2) For standardized model publishing, we have drafted a set of model licenses that provide flexible options to meet the diverse needs of model publishing. Our analysis tool is built on Turtle language and Notation3 reasoning engine, envisioned as a first step toward Linked Open Model Production Data. We have also encoded our proposed model licenses into rules and demonstrated the effects of GPL and other commonly used licenses in model publishing, along with the flexibility advantages of our licenses, through comparisons and experiments.
CVOct 15, 2024
Efficient Partitioning Vision Transformer on Edge Devices for Distributed InferenceXiang Liu, Yijun Song, Xia Li et al.
Deep learning models are increasingly utilized on resource-constrained edge devices for real-time data analytics. Recently, Vision Transformer and their variants have shown exceptional performance in various computer vision tasks. However, their substantial computational requirements and low inference latency create significant challenges for deploying such models on resource-constrained edge devices. To address this issue, we propose a novel framework, ED-ViT, which is designed to efficiently split and execute complex Vision Transformers across multiple edge devices. Our approach involves partitioning Vision Transformer models into several sub-models, while each dedicated to handling a specific subset of data classes. To further reduce computational overhead and inference latency, we introduce a class-wise pruning technique that decreases the size of each sub-model. Through extensive experiments conducted on five datasets using three model architectures and actual implementation on edge devices, we demonstrate that our method significantly cuts down inference latency on edge devices and achieves a reduction in model size by up to 28.9 times and 34.1 times, respectively, while maintaining test accuracy comparable to the original Vision Transformer. Additionally, we compare ED-ViT with two state-of-the-art methods that deploy CNN and SNN models on edge devices, evaluating metrics such as accuracy, inference time, and overall model size. Our comprehensive evaluation underscores the effectiveness of the proposed ED-ViT framework.
LGDec 23, 2024
Exploiting Label Skewness for Spiking Neural Networks in Federated LearningDi Yu, Xin Du, Linshan Jiang et al.
The energy efficiency of deep spiking neural networks (SNNs) aligns with the constraints of resource-limited edge devices, positioning SNNs as a promising foundation for intelligent applications leveraging the extensive data collected by these devices. To address data privacy concerns when deploying SNNs on edge devices, federated learning (FL) facilitates collaborative model training by leveraging data distributed across edge devices without transmitting local data to a central server. However, existing FL approaches struggle with label-skewed data across devices, which leads to drift in local SNN models and degrades the performance of the global SNN model. In this paper, we propose a novel framework called FedLEC, which incorporates intra-client label weight calibration to balance the learning intensity across local labels and inter-client knowledge distillation to mitigate local SNN model bias caused by label absence. Extensive experiments with three different structured SNNs across five datasets (i.e., three non-neuromorphic and two neuromorphic datasets) demonstrate the efficiency of FedLEC. Compared to eight state-of-the-art FL algorithms, FedLEC achieves an average accuracy improvement of approximately 11.59% for the global SNN model under various label skew distribution settings.
LGOct 21, 2025
POLAR: Policy-based Layerwise Reinforcement Learning Method for Stealthy Backdoor Attacks in Federated LearningKuai Yu, Xiaoyu Wu, Peishen Yan et al.
Federated Learning (FL) enables decentralized model training across multiple clients without exposing local data, but its distributed feature makes it vulnerable to backdoor attacks. Despite early FL backdoor attacks modifying entire models, recent studies have explored the concept of backdoor-critical (BC) layers, which poison the chosen influential layers to maintain stealthiness while achieving high effectiveness. However, existing BC layers approaches rely on rule-based selection without consideration of the interrelations between layers, making them ineffective and prone to detection by advanced defenses. In this paper, we propose POLAR (POlicy-based LAyerwise Reinforcement learning), the first pipeline to creatively adopt RL to solve the BC layer selection problem in layer-wise backdoor attack. Different from other commonly used RL paradigm, POLAR is lightweight with Bernoulli sampling. POLAR dynamically learns an attack strategy, optimizing layer selection using policy gradient updates based on backdoor success rate (BSR) improvements. To ensure stealthiness, we introduce a regularization constraint that limits the number of modified layers by penalizing large attack footprints. Extensive experiments demonstrate that POLAR outperforms the latest attack methods by up to 40% against six state-of-the-art (SOTA) defenses.
LGOct 4, 2025
SAFA-SNN: Sparsity-Aware On-Device Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning with Fast-Adaptive Structure of Spiking Neural NetworkHuijing Zhang, Muyang Cao, Linshan Jiang et al.
Continuous learning of novel classes is crucial for edge devices to preserve data privacy and maintain reliable performance in dynamic environments. However, the scenario becomes particularly challenging when data samples are insufficient, requiring on-device few-shot class-incremental learning (FSCIL) to maintain consistent model performance. Although existing work has explored parameter-efficient FSCIL frameworks based on artificial neural networks (ANNs), their deployment is still fundamentally constrained by limited device resources. Inspired by neural mechanisms, Spiking neural networks (SNNs) process spatiotemporal information efficiently, offering lower energy consumption, greater biological plausibility, and compatibility with neuromorphic hardware than ANNs. In this work, we present an SNN-based method for On-Device FSCIL, i.e., Sparsity-Aware and Fast Adaptive SNN (SAFA-SNN). We first propose sparsity-conditioned neuronal dynamics, in which most neurons remain stable while a subset stays active, thereby mitigating catastrophic forgetting. To further cope with spike non-differentiability in gradient estimation, we employ zeroth-order optimization. Moreover, during incremental learning sessions, we enhance the discriminability of new classes through subspace projection, which alleviates overfitting to novel classes. Extensive experiments conducted on two standard benchmark datasets (CIFAR100 and Mini-ImageNet) and three neuromorphic datasets (CIFAR-10-DVS, DVS128gesture, and N-Caltech101) demonstrate that SAFA-SNN outperforms baseline methods, specifically achieving at least 4.01% improvement at the last incremental session on Mini-ImageNet and 20% lower energy cost over baseline methods with practical implementation.
LGJul 30, 2025
Hypernetworks for Model-Heterogeneous Personalized Federated LearningChen Zhang, Husheng Li, Xiang Liu et al.
Recent advances in personalized federated learning have focused on addressing client model heterogeneity. However, most existing methods still require external data, rely on model decoupling, or adopt partial learning strategies, which can limit their practicality and scalability. In this paper, we revisit hypernetwork-based methods and leverage their strong generalization capabilities to design a simple yet effective framework for heterogeneous personalized federated learning. Specifically, we propose MH-pFedHN, which leverages a server-side hypernetwork that takes client-specific embedding vectors as input and outputs personalized parameters tailored to each client's heterogeneous model. To promote knowledge sharing and reduce computation, we introduce a multi-head structure within the hypernetwork, allowing clients with similar model sizes to share heads. Furthermore, we further propose MH-pFedHNGD, which integrates an optional lightweight global model to improve generalization. Our framework does not rely on external datasets and does not require disclosure of client model architectures, thereby offering enhanced privacy and flexibility. Extensive experiments on multiple benchmarks and model settings demonstrate that our approach achieves competitive accuracy, strong generalization, and serves as a robust baseline for future research in model-heterogeneous personalized federated learning.
LGJul 20, 2025
FedWCM: Unleashing the Potential of Momentum-based Federated Learning in Long-Tailed ScenariosTianle Li, Yongzhi Huang, Linshan Jiang et al.
Federated Learning (FL) enables decentralized model training while preserving data privacy. Despite its benefits, FL faces challenges with non-identically distributed (non-IID) data, especially in long-tailed scenarios with imbalanced class samples. Momentum-based FL methods, often used to accelerate FL convergence, struggle with these distributions, resulting in biased models and making FL hard to converge. To understand this challenge, we conduct extensive investigations into this phenomenon, accompanied by a layer-wise analysis of neural network behavior. Based on these insights, we propose FedWCM, a method that dynamically adjusts momentum using global and per-round data to correct directional biases introduced by long-tailed distributions. Extensive experiments show that FedWCM resolves non-convergence issues and outperforms existing methods, enhancing FL's efficiency and effectiveness in handling client heterogeneity and data imbalance.
CVFeb 13, 2025
Enhanced Structured Lasso Pruning with Class-wise InformationXiang Liu, Mingchen Li, Xia Li et al.
Modern applications require lightweight neural network models. Most existing neural network pruning methods focus on removing unimportant filters; however, these may result in the loss of statistical information after pruning due to failing to consider the class-wise information. In this paper, we employ the structured lasso from the perspective of utilizing precise class-wise information for model pruning with the help of Information Bottleneck theory, which guides us to ensure the retention of statistical information before and after pruning. With these techniques, we propose two novel adaptive network pruning schemes in parallel: sparse graph-structured lasso pruning with Information Bottleneck (sGLP-IB) and sparse tree-guided lasso pruning with Information Bottleneck (sTLP-IB). The key component is that we prune the model filters utilizing sGLP-IB and sTLP-IB with more precise structured class-wise relatedness. Compared to multiple state-of-the-art methods, our approaches achieve the best performance across three datasets and six model structures on extensive experiments. For example, with the VGG16 model based on the CIFAR-10 dataset, we can reduce the parameters by 85%, decrease the FLOPs by 61%, and maintain an accuracy of 94.10% (0.14% better than the original). For large-scale ImageNet, we can reduce the parameters by 55% while keeping the accuracy at 76.12% (only drop 0.03%) using the ResNet architecture. In summary, we succeed in reducing the model size and computational resource usage while maintaining the effectiveness of accuracy.
NIJul 10, 2021
Attack-Aware Synchronization-Free Data Timestamping in LoRaWANChaojie Gu, Linshan Jiang, Rui Tan et al.
Low-power wide-area network technologies such as LoRaWAN are promising for collecting low-rate monitoring data from geographically distributed sensors, in which timestamping the sensor data is a critical system function. This paper considers a synchronization-free approach to timestamping LoRaWAN uplink data based on signal arrival time at the gateway, which well matches LoRaWAN's one-hop star topology and releases bandwidth from transmitting timestamps and synchronizing end devices' clocks at all times. However, we show that this approach is susceptible to a {\em frame delay attack} consisting of malicious frame collision and delayed replay. Real experiments show that the attack can affect the end devices in large areas up to about $50,000\,\text{m}^2$. In a broader sense, the attack threatens any system functions requiring timely deliveries of LoRaWAN frames. To address this threat, we propose a $\mathsf{LoRaTS}$ gateway design that integrates a commodity LoRaWAN gateway and a low-power software-defined radio receiver to track the inherent frequency biases of the end devices. Based on an analytic model of LoRa's chirp spread spectrum modulation, we develop signal processing algorithms to estimate the frequency biases with high accuracy beyond that achieved by LoRa's default demodulation. The accurate frequency bias tracking capability enables the detection of the attack that introduces additional frequency biases. We also investigate and implement a more crafty attack that uses advanced radio apparatuses to eliminate the frequency biases. To address this crafty attack, we propose a pseudorandom interval hopping scheme to enhance our frequency bias tracking approach. Extensive experiments show the effectiveness of our approach in deployments with real affecting factors such as temperature variations.
CRDec 11, 2020
On Lightweight Privacy-Preserving Collaborative Learning for Internet of Things by Independent Random ProjectionsLinshan Jiang, Rui Tan, Xin Lou et al.
The Internet of Things (IoT) will be a main data generation infrastructure for achieving better system intelligence. This paper considers the design and implementation of a practical privacy-preserving collaborative learning scheme, in which a curious learning coordinator trains a better machine learning model based on the data samples contributed by a number of IoT objects, while the confidentiality of the raw forms of the training data is protected against the coordinator. Existing distributed machine learning and data encryption approaches incur significant computation and communication overhead, rendering them ill-suited for resource-constrained IoT objects. We study an approach that applies independent random projection at each IoT object to obfuscate data and trains a deep neural network at the coordinator based on the projected data from the IoT objects. This approach introduces light computation overhead to the IoT objects and moves most workload to the coordinator that can have sufficient computing resources. Although the independent projections performed by the IoT objects address the potential collusion between the curious coordinator and some compromised IoT objects, they significantly increase the complexity of the projected data. In this paper, we leverage the superior learning capability of deep learning in capturing sophisticated patterns to maintain good learning performance. The extensive comparative evaluation shows that this approach outperforms other lightweight approaches that apply additive noisification for differential privacy and/or support vector machines for learning in the applications with light to moderate data pattern complexities.
LGDec 20, 2019
Lightweight and Unobtrusive Data Obfuscation at IoT Edge for Remote InferenceDixing Xu, Mengyao Zheng, Linshan Jiang et al.
Executing deep neural networks for inference on the server-class or cloud backend based on data generated at the edge of Internet of Things is desirable due primarily to the limited compute power of edge devices and the need to protect the confidentiality of the inference neural networks. However, such a remote inference scheme incurs concerns regarding the privacy of the inference data transmitted by the edge devices to the curious backend. This paper presents a lightweight and unobtrusive approach to obfuscate the inference data at the edge devices. It is lightweight in that the edge device only needs to execute a small-scale neural network; it is unobtrusive in that the edge device does not need to indicate whether obfuscation is applied. Extensive evaluation by three case studies of free spoken digit recognition, handwritten digit recognition, and American sign language recognition shows that our approach effectively protects the confidentiality of the raw forms of the inference data while effectively preserving the backend's inference accuracy.
CRSep 21, 2019
Challenges of Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning in IoTMengyao Zheng, Dixing Xu, Linshan Jiang et al.
The Internet of Things (IoT) will be a main data generation infrastructure for achieving better system intelligence. However, the extensive data collection and processing in IoT also engender various privacy concerns. This paper provides a taxonomy of the existing privacy-preserving machine learning approaches developed in the context of cloud computing and discusses the challenges of applying them in the context of IoT. Moreover, we present a privacy-preserving inference approach that runs a lightweight neural network at IoT objects to obfuscate the data before transmission and a deep neural network in the cloud to classify the obfuscated data. Evaluation based on the MNIST dataset shows satisfactory performance.
CRJun 26, 2019
Privacy-Preserving Blockchain-Based Federated Learning for IoT DevicesYang Zhao, Jun Zhao, Linshan Jiang et al.
Home appliance manufacturers strive to obtain feedback from users to improve their products and services to build a smart home system. To help manufacturers develop a smart home system, we design a federated learning (FL) system leveraging the reputation mechanism to assist home appliance manufacturers to train a machine learning model based on customers' data. Then, manufacturers can predict customers' requirements and consumption behaviors in the future. The working flow of the system includes two stages: in the first stage, customers train the initial model provided by the manufacturer using both the mobile phone and the mobile edge computing (MEC) server. Customers collect data from various home appliances using phones, and then they download and train the initial model with their local data. After deriving local models, customers sign on their models and send them to the blockchain. In case customers or manufacturers are malicious, we use the blockchain to replace the centralized aggregator in the traditional FL system. Since records on the blockchain are untampered, malicious customers or manufacturers' activities are traceable. In the second stage, manufacturers select customers or organizations as miners for calculating the averaged model using received models from customers. By the end of the crowdsourcing task, one of the miners, who is selected as the temporary leader, uploads the model to the blockchain. To protect customers' privacy and improve the test accuracy, we enforce differential privacy on the extracted features and propose a new normalization technique. We experimentally demonstrate that our normalization technique outperforms batch normalization when features are under differential privacy protection. In addition, to attract more customers to participate in the crowdsourcing FL task, we design an incentive mechanism to award participants.
LGFeb 13, 2019
On Lightweight Privacy-Preserving Collaborative Learning for IoT ObjectsLinshan Jiang, Rui Tan, Xin Lou et al.
The Internet of Things (IoT) will be a main data generation infrastructure for achieving better system intelligence. This paper considers the design and implementation of a practical privacy-preserving collaborative learning scheme, in which a curious learning coordinator trains a better machine learning model based on the data samples contributed by a number of IoT objects, while the confidentiality of the raw forms of the training data is protected against the coordinator. Existing distributed machine learning and data encryption approaches incur significant computation and communication overhead, rendering them ill-suited for resource-constrained IoT objects. We study an approach that applies independent Gaussian random projection at each IoT object to obfuscate data and trains a deep neural network at the coordinator based on the projected data from the IoT objects. This approach introduces light computation overhead to the IoT objects and moves most workload to the coordinator that can have sufficient computing resources. Although the independent projections performed by the IoT objects address the potential collusion between the curious coordinator and some compromised IoT objects, they significantly increase the complexity of the projected data. In this paper, we leverage the superior learning capability of deep learning in capturing sophisticated patterns to maintain good learning performance. Extensive comparative evaluation shows that this approach outperforms other lightweight approaches that apply additive noisification for differential privacy and/or support vector machines for learning in the applications with light data pattern complexities.