# Data-Aware Gradient Compression for FL in Communication-Constrained Mobile Computing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.07324 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.07324/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 36 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Nov 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 36)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Fashion-MNIST: a Novel Image Dataset for Benchmarking Machine Learning Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.07747/) (2017)
- [Federated Optimization in Heterogeneous Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.06127/) (2018)
- [Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12712/) (2023)
- [Federated Learning: Challenges, Methods, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07873/) (2019)
- [Speech Commands: A Dataset for Limited-Vocabulary Speech Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.03209/) (2018)
- [signSGD: Compressed Optimisation for Non-Convex Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.04434/) (2018)
- [Federated Learning on Non-IID Data Silos: An Experimental Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02079/) (2021)
- [Federated Learning with Matched Averaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.06440/) (2020)
- [Deep Gradient Compression: Reducing the Communication Bandwidth for Distributed Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.01887/) (2017)
- [Robust and Communication-Efficient Federated Learning from Non-IID Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.02891/) (2019)
- [Google Landmarks Dataset v2 -- A Large-Scale Benchmark for Instance-Level Recognition and Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.01804/) (2020)
- [The Non-IID Data Quagmire of Decentralized Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.00189/) (2019)
- [Sparse Communication for Distributed Gradient Descent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.05021/) (2017)
- [PowerSGD: Practical Low-Rank Gradient Compression for Distributed Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.13727/) (2019)
- [Client-Edge-Cloud Hierarchical Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.06641/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning with Compression: Unified Analysis and Sharp Guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.01154/) (2020)
- [Sharper Convergence Guarantees for Asynchronous SGD for Distributed and Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08307/) (2022)
- [Adaptive Communication Strategies to Achieve the Best Error-Runtime Trade-off in Local-Update SGD](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.08313/) (2018)
- [Practical One-Shot Federated Learning for Cross-Silo Setting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.01017/) (2020)
- [Error Compensated Quantized SGD and its Applications to Large-scale Distributed Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.08054/) (2018)
- [Mixed-Precision Neural Network Quantization via Learned Layer-wise Importance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08368/) (2022)
- [Sparse Binary Compression: Towards Distributed Deep Learning with minimal Communication](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.08768/) (2018)
- [Rethinking gradient sparsification as total error minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.00951/) (2021)
- [An Efficient Statistical-based Gradient Compression Technique for Distributed Training Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.10761/) (2021)
- [FEDZIP: A Compression Framework for Communication-Efficient Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.01593/) (2021)
- [Demystifying Why Local Aggregation Helps: Convergence Analysis of Hierarchical SGD](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12998/) (2020)
- [Smoothness Matrices Beat Smoothness Constants: Better Communication Compression Techniques for Distributed Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.07245/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Retraining-free Model Quantization via One-Shot Weight-Coupling Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.01543/) (2024)
- [Optimizing Communication and Device Clustering for Clustered Federated Learning with Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07320/) (2025)
- [Staleness-Centric Optimizations for Parallel Diffusion MoE Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16786/) (2024)
- [Taming Latency and Bandwidth: A Theoretical Framework and Adaptive Algorithm for Communication-Constrained Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.17346/) (2025)
- [Addressing the Collaboration Dilemma in Low-Data Federated Learning via Transient Sparsity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00932/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Federated Learning (FL) in mobile environments faces significant communication bottlenecks. Gradient compression has proven as an effective solution to this issue, offering substantial benefits in environments with limited bandwidth and metered data. Yet, it encounters severe performance drops in non-IID environments due to a one-size-fits-all compression approach, which does not account for the varying data volumes across workers. Assigning varying compression ratios to workers with distinct data distributions and volumes is therefore a promising solution. This work derives the convergence rate of distributed SGD with non-uniform compression, which reveals the intricate relationship between model convergence and the compression ratios applied to individual workers. Accordingly, we frame the relative compression ratio assignment as an n-variable chi-squared nonlinear optimization problem, constrained by a limited communication budget. We propose DAGC-R, which assigns conservative compression to workers handling larger data volumes. Recognizing the computational limitations of mobile devices, we propose the DAGC-A, which is computationally less demanding and enhances the robustness of compression in non-IID scenarios. Our experiments confirm that the DAGC-R and DAGC-A can speed up the training speed by up to 25.43% and 16.65% compared to the uniform compression respectively, when dealing with highly imbalanced data volume distribution and restricted communication.