Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Shanika I Nanayakkara, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Gang Li

The performance of Federated learning (FL) is negatively affected by device differences and statistical characteristics between participating clients. To address this issue, we introduce a deep unfolding network (DUN)-based technique that learns adaptive weights that unbiasedly ameliorate the adverse impacts of heterogeneity. The proposed method demonstrates impressive accuracy and quality-aware aggregation. Furthermore, it evaluated the best-weighted normalization approach to define less computational power on the aggregation method. The numerical experiments in this study demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach and provide insights into the interpretability of the unbiased weights learned. By incorporating unbiased weights into the model, the proposed approach effectively addresses quality-aware aggregation under the heterogeneity of the participating clients and the FL environment. Codes and details are \href{https://github.com/shanikairoshi/Improved_DUN_basedFL_Aggregation}{here}.

Dev Gurung, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Gang Li

With the emerging developments of the Metaverse, a virtual world where people can interact, socialize, play, and conduct their business, it has become critical to ensure that the underlying systems are transparent, secure, and trustworthy. To this end, we develop a decentralized and trustworthy quantum federated learning (QFL) framework. The proposed QFL leverages the power of blockchain to create a secure and transparent system that is robust against cyberattacks and fraud. In addition, the decentralized QFL system addresses the risks associated with a centralized server-based approach. With extensive experiments and analysis, we evaluate classical federated learning (CFL) and QFL in a distributed setting and demonstrate the practicality and benefits of the proposed design. Our theoretical analysis and discussions develop a genuinely decentralized financial system essential for the Metaverse. Furthermore, we present the application of blockchain-based QFL in a hybrid metaverse powered by a metaverse observer and world model. Our implementation details and code are publicly available 1.

Rongxin Xu, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Qiujun Lan et al.

Vanilla Federated learning (FL) relies on the centralized global aggregation mechanism and assumes that all clients are honest. This makes it a challenge for FL to alleviate the single point of failure and dishonest clients. These impending challenges in the design philosophy of FL call for blockchain-based federated learning (BFL) due to the benefits of coupling FL and blockchain (e.g., democracy, incentive, and immutability). However, one problem in vanilla BFL is that its capabilities do not follow adopters' needs in a dynamic fashion. Besides, vanilla BFL relies on unverifiable clients' self-reported contributions like data size because checking clients' raw data is not allowed in FL for privacy concerns. We design and evaluate a novel BFL framework, and resolve the identified challenges in vanilla BFL with greater flexibility and incentive mechanism called FAIR-BFL. In contrast to existing works, FAIR-BFL offers unprecedented flexibility via the modular design, allowing adopters to adjust its capabilities following business demands in a dynamic fashion. Our design accounts for BFL's ability to quantify each client's contribution to the global learning process. Such quantification provides a rational metric for distributing the rewards among federated clients and helps discover malicious participants that may poison the global model.

Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Jinho Choi, Anwar Walid

The bottleneck of distributed edge learning (DEL) over wireless has shifted from computing to communication, primarily the aggregation-averaging (Agg-Avg) process of DEL. The existing transmission control protocol (TCP)-based data networking schemes for DEL are application-agnostic and fail to deliver adjustments according to application layer requirements. As a result, they introduce massive excess time and undesired issues such as unfairness and stragglers. Other prior mitigation solutions have significant limitations as they balance data flow rates from workers across paths but often incur imbalanced backlogs when the paths exhibit variance, causing stragglers. To facilitate a more productive DEL, we develop a hybrid multipath TCP (MPTCP) by combining model-based and deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based MPTCP for DEL that strives to realize quicker iteration of DEL and better fairness (by ameliorating stragglers). Hybrid MPTCP essentially integrates two radical TCP developments: i) successful existing model-based MPTCP control strategies and ii) advanced emerging DRL-based techniques, and introduces a novel hybrid MPTCP data transport for easing the communication of the Agg-Avg process. Extensive emulation results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid MPTCP can overcome excess time consumption and ameliorate the application layer unfairness of DEL effectively without injecting additional inconstancy and stragglers.

Dev Gurung, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Gang Li

Quantum Federated Learning (QFL) has gained significant attention due to quantum computing and machine learning advancements. As the demand for QFL continues to surge, there is a pressing need to comprehend its intricacies in distributed environments. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of QFL, addressing a crucial knowledge gap in the existing literature. We develop ideas for new QFL frameworks, explore diverse use cases of applications, and consider the critical factors influencing their design. The technical contributions and limitations of various QFL research projects are examined while presenting future research directions and open questions for further exploration.

Rongxin Xu, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Qiujun Lan et al.

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) has been a promising paradigm for communicating and edge processing of data on the move. We aim to employ Federated Learning (FL) and prominent features of blockchain into MEC architecture such as connected autonomous vehicles to enable complete decentralization, immutability, and rewarding mechanisms simultaneously. FL is advantageous for mobile devices with constrained connectivity since it requires model updates to be delivered to a central point instead of substantial amounts of data communication. For instance, FL in autonomous, connected vehicles can increase data diversity and allow model customization, and predictions are possible even when the vehicles are not connected (by exploiting their local models) for short times. However, existing synchronous FL and Blockchain incur extremely high communication costs due to mobility-induced impairments and do not apply directly to MEC networks. We propose a fully asynchronous Blockchained Federated Learning (BFL) framework referred to as BFL-MEC, in which the mobile clients and their models evolve independently yet guarantee stability in the global learning process. More importantly, we employ post-quantum secure features over BFL-MEC to verify the client's identity and defend against malicious attacks. All of our design assumptions and results are evaluated with extensive simulations.

Dev Gurung, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Gang Li

We design a model of Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) Quantum Federated Learning (QFL). We develop a framework with a dynamic server selection and study convergence and security conditions. The implementation and results are publicly available1.

Devashish Chaudhary, Sutharshan Rajasegarar, Shiva Raj Pokhrel et al.

The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and its integration with backbone networks have heightened the risk of security breaches. Traditional centralized approaches to anomaly detection, which require transferring large volumes of data to central servers, suffer from privacy, scalability, and latency limitations. This paper proposes a lightweight autoencoder-based anomaly detection framework designed for deployment on resource-constrained edge devices, enabling real-time detection while minimizing data transfer and preserving privacy. Federated learning is employed to train models collaboratively across distributed devices, where local training occurs on edge nodes and only model weights are aggregated at a central server. A real-world IoT testbed using Raspberry Pi sensor nodes was developed to collect normal and attack traffic data. The proposed federated anomaly detection system, implemented and evaluated on the testbed, demonstrates its effectiveness in accurately identifying network attacks. The communication overhead was reduced significantly while achieving comparable performance to the centralized method.

Devashish Chaudhary, Sutharshan Rajasegarar, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

With the rapid growth of interconnected devices, accurately detecting malicious activities in network traffic has become increasingly challenging. Most existing deep learning-based intrusion detection systems treat network flows as independent instances, thereby failing to exploit the relational dependencies inherent in network communications. To address this limitation, we propose Q-AGNN, a Quantum-Enhanced Attentive Graph Neural Network for intrusion detection, where network flows are modeled as nodes and edges represent similarity relationships. Q-AGNN leverages parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) to encode multi-hop neighborhood information into a high-dimensional latent space, inducing a bounded quantum feature map that implements a second-order polynomial graph filter in a quantum-induced Hilbert space. An attention mechanism is subsequently applied to adaptively weight the quantum-enhanced embeddings, allowing the model to focus on the most influential nodes contributing to anomalous behavior. Extensive experiments conducted on four benchmark intrusion detection datasets demonstrate that Q-AGNN achieves competitive or superior detection performance compared to state-of-the-art graph-based methods, while consistently maintaining low false positive rates under hardware-calibrated noise conditions. Moreover, we also executed the Q-AGNN framework on actual IBM quantum hardware to demonstrate the practical operability of the proposed pipeline under real NISQ conditions. These results highlight the effectiveness of integrating quantum-enhanced representations with attention mechanisms for graph-based intrusion detection and underscore the potential of hybrid quantum-classical learning frameworks in cybersecurity applications.

Devashish Chaudhary, Sutharshan Rajasegarar, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

We propose a Quantum Federated Autoencoder for Anomaly Detection, a framework that leverages quantum federated learning for efficient, secure, and distributed processing in IoT networks. By harnessing quantum autoencoders for high-dimensional feature representation and federated learning for decentralized model training, the approach transforms localized learning on edge devices without requiring transmission of raw data, thereby preserving privacy and minimizing communication overhead. The model leverages quantum advantage in pattern recognition to enhance detection sensitivity, particularly in complex and dynamic IoT network traffic. Experiments on a real-world IoT dataset show that the proposed method delivers anomaly detection accuracy and robustness comparable to centralized approaches, while ensuring data privacy.

Swati Kumari, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Swathi Chandrasekhar et al.

Network traffic anomaly detection is a critical cy- bersecurity challenge requiring robust solutions for complex Internet of Things (IoT) environments. We present a novel hybrid quantum-classical framework integrating an enhanced Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM) with the Quantum Haar Wavelet Packet Transform (QWPT) for superior anomaly classification under realistic noisy intermediate-scale Quantum conditions. Our methodology employs amplitude-encoded quan- tum state preparation, multi-level QWPT feature extraction, and behavioral analysis via Shannon Entropy profiling and Chi-square testing. Features are classified using QSVM with fidelity-based quantum kernels optimized through hybrid train- ing with simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) optimizer. Evaluation under noiseless and depolarizing noise conditions demonstrates exceptional performance: 96.67% accuracy on BoT-IoT and 89.67% on IoT-23 datasets, surpassing quantum autoencoder approaches by over 7 percentage points.

Shyam Kumar Shrestha, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Jonathan Kua

We evaluate TCP BBRv3 on Wi-Fi 6 home networks under modern AQM schemes using a fully wireless testbed and a simple cross-layer model linking Wi-Fi scheduling, router queueing, and BBRv3's pacing dynamics. Comparing BBR Internet traffic with CUBIC across different AQMs (FIFO, FQ-CoDel, and CAKE) for uplink, downlink, and bidirectional traffic, we find that FIFO destabilizes pacing and raises delay, often letting CUBIC dominate; FQ-CoDel restores fairness and controls latency; and CAKE delivers the best overall performance by keeping delay low and aligning BBRv3's sending and delivered rates. We also identify a Wi-Fi-specific effect where CAKE's rapid queue draining, while improving pacing alignment, can trigger brief retransmission bursts during BBRv3's bandwidth probes. These results follow from the interaction of variable Wi-Fi service rates, AQM delay control, and BBRv3's inflight limits, leading to practical guidance to use FQ-CoDel or CAKE and avoid unmanaged FIFO in home Wi-Fi, with potential for Wi-Fi-aware tuning of BBRv3's probing.

Baobao Song, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Athanasios V. Vasilakos et al.

Quantum machine learning (QML) promises significant computational advantages, yet models trained on sensitive data risk memorizing individual records, creating serious privacy vulnerabilities. While Quantum Differential Privacy (QDP) mechanisms provide theoretical worst-case guarantees, they critically lack empirical verification tools for deployed models. We introduce the first black-box privacy auditing framework for QML based on Lifted Quantum Differential Privacy, leveraging quantum canaries (strategically offset-encoded quantum states) to detect memorization and precisely quantify privacy leakage during training. Our framework establishes a rigorous mathematical connection between canary offset and trace distance bounds, deriving empirical lower bounds on privacy budget consumption that bridge the critical gap between theoretical guarantees and practical privacy verification. Comprehensive evaluations across both simulated and physical quantum hardware demonstrate our framework's effectiveness in measuring actual privacy loss in QML models, enabling robust privacy verification in QML systems.

Shanika Iroshi Nanayakkara, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Federated learning (FL) deployed over quantum enabled and heterogeneous classical networks faces significant performance degradation due to uneven client quality, stochastic teleportation fidelity, device instability, and geometric mismatch between local and global models. Classical aggregation rules assume euclidean topology and uniform communication reliability, limiting their suitability for emerging quantum federated systems. This paper introduces A2G (Adaptive Aggregation with Two Gains), a dual gain framework that jointly regulates geometric blending through a geometry gain and modulates client importance using a QoS gain derived from teleportation fidelity, latency, and instability. We develop the A2G update rule, establish convergence guarantees under smoothness and bounded variance assumptions, and show that A2G recovers FedAvg, QoS aware averaging, and manifold based aggregation as special cases. Experiments on a quantum classical hybrid testbed demonstrate improved stability and higher accuracy under heterogeneous and noisy conditions.

Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Naman Yash, Jonathan Kua et al.

Quantum Federated Learning (QFL) is an emerging concept that aims to unfold federated learning (FL) over quantum networks, enabling collaborative quantum model training along with local data privacy. We explore the challenges of deploying QFL on cloud platforms, emphasizing quantum intricacies and platform limitations. The proposed data-encoding-driven QFL, with a proof of concept (GitHub Open Source) using genomic data sets on quantum simulators, shows promising results.

Navneet Singh, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Quantum Machine Learning (QML) continues to evolve, unlocking new opportunities for diverse applications. In this study, we investigate and evaluate the applicability of QML models for binary classification of genome sequence data by employing various feature mapping techniques. We present an open-source, independent Qiskit-based implementation to conduct experiments on a benchmark genomic dataset. Our simulations reveal that the interplay between feature mapping techniques and QML algorithms significantly influences performance. Notably, the Pegasos Quantum Support Vector Classifier (Pegasos-QSVC) exhibits high sensitivity, particularly excelling in recall metrics, while Quantum Neural Networks (QNN) achieve the highest training accuracy across all feature maps. However, the pronounced variability in classifier performance, dependent on feature mapping, highlights the risk of overfitting to localized output distributions in certain scenarios. This work underscores the transformative potential of QML for genomic data classification while emphasizing the need for continued advancements to enhance the robustness and accuracy of these methodologies.

Dev Gurung, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Training with huge datasets and a large number of participating devices leads to bottlenecks in federated learning (FL). Furthermore, the challenges of heterogeneity between multiple FL clients affect the overall performance of the system. In a quantum federated learning (QFL) context, we address these three main challenges: i) training bottlenecks from massive datasets, ii) the involvement of a substantial number of devices, and iii) non-IID data distributions. We introduce a model-driven quantum federated learning algorithm (mdQFL) to tackle these challenges. Our proposed approach is efficient and adaptable to various factors, including different numbers of devices. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first to explore training and update personalization, as well as test generalization within a QFL setting, which can be applied to other FL scenarios. We evaluated the efficiency of the proposed mdQFL framework through extensive experiments under diverse non-IID data heterogeneity conditions using various datasets within the Qiskit environment. Our results demonstrate a nearly 50% decrease in total communication costs while maintaining or, in some cases, exceeding the accuracy of the final model and consistently improving local model training compared to the standard QFL baseline. Moreover, our experimental evaluation thoroughly explores the QFL and mdQFL algorithms, along with several influencing factors. In addition, we present a theoretical analysis to clarify the complexities of the proposed algorithm. The experimental code is available at 1.

Dev Gurung, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Inspired by the power of large language models (LLMs), our research adapts them to quantum federated learning (QFL) to boost efficiency and performance. We propose a federated fine-tuning method that distills an LLM within QFL, allowing each client to locally adapt the model to its own data while preserving privacy and reducing unnecessary global updates. The fine-tuned LLM also acts as a reinforcement agent, optimizing QFL by adjusting optimizer steps, cutting down communication rounds, and intelligently selecting clients. Experiments show significant efficiency gains. We pioneer a synergy between LLM and QFL, offering: i) practical efficiency: Reduced communication costs and faster convergence. ii) theoretical rigor: Provable guarantees for adaptive federated optimization. iii) scalability: PEFT methods (LoRA, QLoRA) enable deployment on resource-constrained quantum devices. Code implementation is available here 1.

Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Deol Satish, Jonathan Kua et al.

The growing complexity of network traffic and demand for ultra-low latency communication require smarter packet traffic management. Existing Deep Learning-based queuing approaches struggle with dynamic network scenarios and demand high engineering effort. We propose AQM-LLM, distilling Large Language Models (LLMs) with few-shot learning, contextual understanding, and pattern recognition to improve Active Queue Management (AQM) [RFC 9330] with minimal manual effort. We consider a specific case where AQM is Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) and our design of AQM-LLM builds on speculative decoding and reinforcement-based distilling of LLM by tackling congestion prevention in the L4S architecture using Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) [RFC 9331] and periodic packet dropping. We develop a new open-source experimental platform by executing L4S-AQM on FreeBSD-14, providing interoperable modules to support LLM integration and facilitate IETF recognition through wider testing. Our extensive evaluations show L4S-LLM enhances queue management, prevents congestion, reduces latency, and boosts network performance, showcasing LLMs' adaptability and efficiency in uplifting AQM systems.

Navneet Singh, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Quantum Machine Learning (QML) offers significant potential for complex tasks like genome sequence classification, but quantum noise on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices poses practical challenges. This study systematically evaluates how various quantum noise models including dephasing, amplitude damping, depolarizing, thermal noise, bit-flip, and phase-flip affect key QML algorithms (QSVC, Peg-QSVC, QNN, VQC) and feature mapping techniques (ZFeatureMap, ZZFeatureMap, and PauliFeatureMap). Results indicate that QSVC is notably robust under noise, whereas Peg-QSVC and QNN are more sensitive, particularly to depolarizing and amplitude-damping noise. The PauliFeatureMap is especially vulnerable, highlighting difficulties in maintaining accurate classification under noisy conditions. These findings underscore the critical importance of feature map selection and noise mitigation strategies in optimizing QML for genomic classification, with promising implications for personalized medicine.

Sanjaya Khanal, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

This research analyzes, models and develops a novel Digital Learning Environment (DLE) fortified by the innovative Private Learning Intelligence (PLI) framework. The proposed PLI framework leverages federated machine learning (FL) techniques to autonomously construct and continuously refine personalized learning models for individual learners, ensuring robust privacy protection. Our approach is pivotal in advancing DLE capabilities, empowering learners to actively participate in personalized real-time learning experiences. The integration of PLI within a DLE also streamlines instructional design and development demands for personalized teaching/learning. We seek ways to establish a foundation for the seamless integration of FL into learning systems, offering a transformative approach to personalized learning in digital environments. Our implementation details and code are made public.

Navneet Singh, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

In this paper, we explore the power of Quantum Machine Learning as we extend, implement and evaluate algorithms like Quantum Support Vector Classifier (QSVC), Pegasos-QSVC, Variational Quantum Circuits (VQC), and Quantum Neural Networks (QNN) in Qiskit with diverse feature mapping techniques for genomic sequence classification.

Swathi Chandrasekhar, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Swati Kumari et al.

Escalating cyber threats and the high-dimensional complexity of IoT traffic have outpaced classical anomaly detection methods. While deep learning offers improvements, computational bottlenecks limit real-time deployment at scale. We present a quantum autoencoder (QAE) framework that compresses network traffic into discriminative latent representations and employs quantum support vector classification (QSVC) for intrusion detection. Evaluated on three datasets, our approach achieves improved accuracy on ideal simulators and on the IBM Quantum hardware demonstrating practical quantum advantage on current NISQ devices. Crucially, moderate depolarizing noise acts as implicit regularization, stabilizing training and enhancing generalization. This work establishes quantum machine learning as a viable, hardware-ready solution for real-world cybersecurity challenges.

Navneet Singh, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Trajectory forecasting for autonomous driving must deliver accurate, calibrated multi-modal futures under tight compute and latency constraints. We propose a compact hybrid quantum architecture that aligns quantum inductive bias with road-scene structure by operating in an ego-centric, lane-aligned frame and predicting residual corrections to a kinematic baseline instead of absolute poses. The model combines a transformer-inspired quantum attention encoder (9 qubits), a parameter-lean quantum feedforward stack (64 layers, ${\sim}1200$ trainable angles), and a Fourier-based decoder that uses shallow entanglement and phase superposition to generate 16 trajectory hypotheses in a single pass, with mode confidences derived from the latent spectrum. All circuit parameters are trained with Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA), avoiding backpropagation through non-analytic components. In the Waymo Open Motion Dataset, the model achieves minADE (minimum Average Displacement Error) of \SI{1.94}{m} and minFDE (minimum Final Displacement Error) of \SI{3.56}{m} in the $16$ models predicted over the horizon of \SI{2.0}{s}, consistently outperforming a kinematic baseline with reduced miss rates and strong recall. Ablations confirm that residual learning in the lane frame, truncated Fourier decoding, shallow entanglement, and spectrum-based ranking focus capacity where it matters, yielding stable optimization and reliable multi-modal forecasts from small, shallow quantum circuits on a modern autonomous-driving benchmark.

Swathi Chandrasekhar, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Navneet Singh

Accurate prediction of bond dissociation energies (BDEs) underpins mechanistic insight and the rational design of molecules and materials. We present a systematic, reproducible benchmark comparing quantum and classical machine learning models for BDE prediction using a chemically curated feature set encompassing atomic properties (atomic numbers, hybridization), bond characteristics (bond order, type), and local environmental descriptors. Our quantum framework, implemented in Qiskit Aer on six qubits, employs ZZFeatureMap encodings with variational ansatz (RealAmplitudes) across multiple architectures Variational Quantum Regressors (VQR), Quantum Support Vector Regressors (QSVR), Quantum Neural Networks (QNN), Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks (QCNN), and Quantum Random Forests (QRF). These are rigorously benchmarked against strong classical baselines, including Support Vector Regression (SVR), Random Forests (RF), and Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLP). Comprehensive evaluation spanning absolute and relative error metrics, threshold accuracies, and error distributions shows that top-performing quantum models (QCNN, QRF) match the predictive accuracy and robustness of classical ensembles and deep networks, particularly within the chemically prevalent mid-range BDE regime. These findings establish a transparent baseline for quantum-enhanced molecular property prediction and outline a practical foundation for advancing quantum computational chemistry toward near chemical accuracy.

Devashish Chaudhary, Sutharshan Rajasegarar, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

This survey explores the integration of Federated Learning (FL) with Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS), with particular emphasis on deep learning and quantum machine learning approaches. FL enables collaborative model training across distributed devices while preserving data privacy-a critical requirement in network security contexts where sensitive traffic data cannot be centralized. Our comprehensive analysis systematically examines the full spectrum of FL architectures, deployment strategies, communication protocols, and aggregation methods specifically tailored for intrusion detection. We provide an in-depth investigation of privacy-preserving techniques, model compression approaches, and attack-specific federated solutions for threats including DDoS, MITM, and botnet attacks. The survey further delivers a pioneering exploration of Quantum FL (QFL), discussing quantum feature encoding, quantum machine learning algorithms, and quantum-specific aggregation methods that promise exponential speedups for complex pattern recognition in network traffic. Through rigorous comparative analysis of classical and quantum approaches, identification of research gaps, and evaluation of real-world deployments, we outline a concrete roadmap for industrial adoption and future research directions. This work serves as an authoritative reference for researchers and practitioners seeking to enhance privacy, efficiency, and robustness of federated intrusion detection systems in increasingly complex network environments, while preparing for the quantum-enhanced cybersecurity landscape of tomorrow.

Dev Gurung, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Recent breakthroughs in quantum computing present transformative opportunities for advancing Federated Learning (FL), particularly in non-terrestrial environments characterized by stringent communication and coordination constraints. In this study, we propose orbital QFL, termed orb-QFL, a novel quantum-assisted Federated Learning framework tailored for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. Distinct from conventional FL paradigms, termed orb-QFL operates without centralized servers or global aggregation mechanisms (e.g., FedAvg), instead leveraging quantum entanglement and local quantum processing to facilitate decentralized, inter-satellite collaboration. This design inherently addresses the challenges of orbital dynamics, such as intermittent connectivity, high propagation delays, and coverage variability. The framework enables continuous model refinement through direct quantum-based synchronization between neighboring satellites, thereby enhancing resilience and preserving data locality. To validate our approach, we integrate the Qiskit quantum machine learning toolkit with Poliastro-based orbital simulations and conduct experiments using Statlog dataset.

Rakshitha De Silva, Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Jonathan Kua et al.

Satellite Communication (SatCom) networks represent a fundamental pillar in modern global connectivity, facilitating reliable service and extensive coverage across a plethora of applications. The expanding demand for high-bandwidth services and the proliferation of mega satellite constellations highlight the limitations of traditional exclusive satellite spectrum allocation approaches. Cognitive Radio (CR) leading to Cognitive Satellite (CogSat) networks through Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM), which enables the dynamic adaptability of radio equipment to environmental conditions for optimal performance, presents a promising solution for the emerging spectrum scarcity. In this survey, we explore the adaptation of intelligent DSM methodologies to SatCom, leveraging satellite network integrations. We discuss contributions and hurdles in regulations and standardizations in realizing intelligent DSM in SatCom, and deep dive into DSM techniques, which enable CogSat networks. Furthermore, we extensively evaluate and categorize state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) methods leveraged for DSM while exploring operational resilience and robustness of such integrations. In addition, performance evaluation metrics critical for adaptive resource management and system optimization in CogSat networks are thoroughly investigated. This survey also identifies open challenges and outlines future research directions in regulatory frameworks, network architectures, and intelligent spectrum management, paving the way for sustainable and scalable SatCom networks for enhanced global connectivity.

Shanika Iroshi Nanayakkara, Shiva Raj Pokhrel

Client heterogeneity poses significant challenges to the performance of Quantum Federated Learning (QFL). To overcome these limitations, we propose a new approach leveraging deep unfolding, which enables clients to autonomously optimize hyperparameters, such as learning rates and regularization factors, based on their specific training behavior. This dynamic adaptation mitigates overfitting and ensures robust optimization in highly heterogeneous environments where standard aggregation methods often fail. Our framework achieves approximately 90% accuracy, significantly outperforming traditional methods, which typically yield around 55% accuracy, as demonstrated through real-time training on IBM quantum hardware and Qiskit Aer simulators. By developing self adaptive fine tuning, the proposed method proves particularly effective in critical applications such as gene expression analysis and cancer detection, enhancing diagnostic precision and predictive modeling within quantum systems. Our results are attributed to convergence-aware, learnable optimization steps intrinsic to the deep unfolded framework, which maintains the generalization. Hence, this study addresses the core limitations of conventional QFL, streamlining its applicability to any complex challenges such as healthcare and genomic research.

Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Luxing Yang, Sutharshan Rajasegarar et al.

This paper introduces a robust zero-trust architecture (ZTA) tailored for the decentralized system that empowers efficient remote work and collaboration within IoT networks. Using blockchain-based federated learning principles, our proposed framework includes a robust aggregation mechanism designed to counteract malicious updates from compromised clients, enhancing the security of the global learning process. Moreover, secure and reliable trust computation is essential for remote work and collaboration. The robust ZTA framework integrates anomaly detection and trust computation, ensuring secure and reliable device collaboration in a decentralized fashion. We introduce an adaptive algorithm that dynamically adjusts to varying user contexts, using unsupervised clustering to detect novel anomalies, like zero-day attacks. To ensure a reliable and scalable trust computation, we develop an algorithm that dynamically adapts to varying user contexts by employing incremental anomaly detection and clustering techniques to identify and share local and global anomalies between nodes. Future directions include scalability improvements, Dirichlet process for advanced anomaly detection, privacy-preserving techniques, and the integration of post-quantum cryptographic methods to safeguard against emerging quantum threats.

Shiva Raj Pokhrel, Jonathan Kua, Deol Satish et al.

In this work, we propose and develop a simple experimental testbed to study the feasibility of a novel idea by coupling radio frequency (RF) sensing technology with Correlated Knowledge Distillation (CKD) theory towards designing lightweight, near real-time and precise human pose monitoring systems. The proposed CKD framework transfers and fuses pose knowledge from a robust "Teacher" model to a parameterized "Student" model, which can be a promising technique for obtaining accurate yet lightweight pose estimates. To assure its efficacy, we implemented CKD for distilling logits in our integrated Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based experimental setup and investigated the RF-visual signal correlation. Our CKD-RF sensing technique is characterized by two modes - a camera-fed Teacher Class Network (e.g., images, videos) with an SDR-fed Student Class Network (e.g., RF signals). Specifically, our CKD model trains a dual multi-branch teacher and student network by distilling and fusing knowledge bases. The resulting CKD models are then subsequently used to identify the multimodal correlation and teach the student branch in reverse. Instead of simply aggregating their learnings, CKD training comprised multiple parallel transformations with the two domains, i.e., visual images and RF signals. Once trained, our CKD model can efficiently preserve privacy and utilize the multimodal correlated logits from the two different neural networks for estimating poses without using visual signals/video frames (by using only the RF signals).