# TAMUNA: Doubly Accelerated Distributed Optimization under Partial Participation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.09832 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09832/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 37 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Feb 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 37)

- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Advances and Open Problems in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04977/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning: Challenges, Methods, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07873/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning: Strategies for Improving Communication Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.05492/) (2016)
- [On the Convergence of FedAvg on Non-IID Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.02189/) (2019)
- [Local SGD Converges Fast and Communicates Little](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.09767/) (2018)
- [Federated Optimization: Distributed Machine Learning for On-Device Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02527/) (2016)
- [A Field Guide to Federated Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.06917/) (2021)
- [Tighter Theory for Local SGD on Identical and Heterogeneous Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.04746/) (2019)
- [SGD: General Analysis and Improved Rates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.09401/) (2019)
- [On the Convergence of Local Descent Methods in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.14425/) (2019)
- [Minibatch vs Local SGD for Heterogeneous Distributed Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.04735/) (2020)
- [On Biased Compression for Distributed Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.12410/) (2020)
- [ProxSkip: Yes! Local Gradient Steps Provably Lead to Communication Acceleration! Finally!](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09357/) (2022)
- [EF21: A New, Simpler, Theoretically Better, and Practically Faster Error Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.05203/) (2021)
- [Linear Convergence in Federated Learning: Tackling Client Heterogeneity and Sparse Gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.07053/) (2021)
- [Distributed Learning with Compressed Gradient Differences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.09269/) (2019)
- [Natural Compression for Distributed Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.10988/) (2019)
- [Acceleration for Compressed Gradient Descent in Distributed and Federated Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.11364/) (2020)
- [Local SGD: Unified Theory and New Efficient Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.02828/) (2020)
- [A Unified Theory of SGD: Variance Reduction, Sampling, Quantization and Coordinate Descent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11261/) (2019)
- [Variance-Reduced Methods for Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.00892/) (2020)
- [From Local SGD to Local Fixed-Point Methods for Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.01442/) (2020)
- [FedVARP: Tackling the Variance Due to Partial Client Participation in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.14130/) (2022)
- [Linearly Converging Error Compensated SGD](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12292/) (2020)
- [Faster Non-Convex Federated Learning via Global and Local Momentum](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04061/) (2020)
- [Bidirectional compression in heterogeneous settings for distributed or federated learning with partial participation: tight convergence guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.14591/) (2020)
- [Optimal Gradient Compression for Distributed and Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.03246/) (2020)
- [Sharp Bounds for Federated Averaging (Local SGD) and Continuous Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.03741/) (2021)
- [Variance Reduced ProxSkip: Algorithm, Theory and Application to Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.04338/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Correlated Quantization for Faster Nonconvex Distributed Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.05518/) (2024)
- [Beyond Communication Overhead: A Multilevel Monte Carlo Approach for Mitigating Compression Bias in Distributed Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05508/) (2025)
- [SA-PEF: Step-Ahead Partial Error Feedback for Efficient Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.20738/) (2026)
- [Theoretical Foundations of Communication-Efficient, Robust, and Practical Distributed and Federated Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.06563/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In distributed optimization and federated learning, slow and costly communication between parallel devices and the central server constitutes the primary bottleneck. To alleviate this burden, two strategies have emerged: 1) local training (LT), which reduces communication frequency by performing multiple local computations between rounds, and 2) compression (CC), which consists of transmitting lower-dimensional, compact representations. Recent theoretical advances have successfully combined LT and CC to achieve doubly-accelerated communication rates, with respect to both condition number and model dimension. However, these methods have a major drawback: they require full client participation and break down when idle clients miss communication triggers. We introduce TAMUNA, the first algorithm to successfully intertwine LT, CC, and partial participation. By decoupling primal model updates from dual control variates, TAMUNA overcomes the architectural deadlock of prior methods. In the strongly convex setting, TAMUNA converges linearly to the exact solution, establishing a new state of the art by exhibiting doubly-accelerated convergence, while supporting arbitrary levels of client participation.
