# Deep Efficient Private Neighbor Generation for Subgraph Federated Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.04336 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.04336/

## Key facts

- Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 38 of its 69 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Jan 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 38)

- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [How Powerful are Graph Neural Networks?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.00826/) (2018)
- [Deep Learning with Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.00133/) (2016)
- [Variational Graph Auto-Encoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07308/) (2016)
- [LightGCN: Simplifying and Powering Graph Convolution Network for Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.02126/) (2020)
- [Graph Convolutional Neural Networks for Web-Scale Recommender Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.01973/) (2018)
- [Deep Leakage from Gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08935/) (2019)
- [Pitfalls of Graph Neural Network Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.05868/) (2018)
- [Strategies for Pre-training Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.12265/) (2019)
- [Unsupervised Deep Embedding for Clustering Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.06335/) (2015)
- [Inverting Gradients -- How easy is it to break privacy in federated learning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.14053/) (2020)
- [DropEdge: Towards Deep Graph Convolutional Networks on Node Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.10903/) (2019)
- [FedProto: Federated Prototype Learning across Heterogeneous Clients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.00243/) (2021)
- [The Composition Theorem for Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1311.0776/) (2013)
- [GRAM: Graph-based Attention Model for Healthcare Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07012/) (2016)
- [Subgraph Federated Learning with Missing Neighbor Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.13430/) (2021)
- [FedVision: An Online Visual Object Detection Platform Powered by Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.06202/) (2020)
- [Federated Graph Classification over Non-IID Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.13423/) (2021)
- [Feature Inference Attack on Model Predictions in Vertical Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.10152/) (2020)
- [Secure Federated Matrix Factorization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05108/) (2019)
- [FedGNN: Federated Graph Neural Network for Privacy-Preserving Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.04925/) (2021)
- [Transfer Learning of Graph Neural Networks with Ego-graph Information Maximization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.05204/) (2020)
- [Vertically Federated Graph Neural Network for Privacy-Preserving Node Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11903/) (2020)
- [Personalized Subgraph Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10206/) (2022)
- [Local Augmentation for Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.03856/) (2021)
- [FedE: Embedding Knowledge Graphs in Federated Setting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12882/) (2020)
- [Differentially Private Federated Knowledge Graphs Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.07615/) (2021)
- [FederatedScope-GNN: Towards a Unified, Comprehensive and Efficient Package for Federated Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.05562/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Towards Effective Federated Graph Foundation Model via Mitigating Knowledge Entanglement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12684/) (2025)
- [MM-OpenFGL: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Multimodal Federated Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.22416/) (2026)
- [FedBook: A Unified Federated Graph Foundation Codebook with Intra-domain and Inter-domain Knowledge Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07755/) (2025)
- [A Comprehensive Data-centric Overview of Federated Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16541/) (2025)
- [Subgraph Federated Learning via Spectral Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25657/) (2025)
- [Federated Continual Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18919/) (2024)
- [Decoupled Subgraph Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19163/) (2024)
- [FedGraph: A Research Library and Benchmark for Federated Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06340/) (2024)
- [PRISM: Topology-Aware Cross-Modal Imputation for Modality-Deficient Federated Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.09301/) (2026)
- [Rethinking Client-oriented Federated Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14188/) (2025)
- [Federated Prototype Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09493/) (2025)
- [Towards Unbiased Federated Graph Learning: Label and Topology Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09963/) (2025)
- [Towards Effective Federated Multimodal Graph Learning via Navigating Multifaceted Heterogeneity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.00623/) (2026)
- [Federated Layer-Wise Exchange for Cross-Client Money Laundering Pattern Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.06433/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Behemoth graphs are often fragmented and separately stored by multiple data owners as distributed subgraphs in many realistic applications. Without harming data privacy, it is natural to consider the subgraph federated learning (subgraph FL) scenario, where each local client holds a subgraph of the entire global graph, to obtain globally generalized graph mining models. To overcome the unique challenge of incomplete information propagation on local subgraphs due to missing cross-subgraph neighbors, previous works resort to the augmentation of local neighborhoods through the joint FL of missing neighbor generators and GNNs. Yet their technical designs have profound limitations regarding the utility, efficiency, and privacy goals of FL. In this work, we propose FedDEP to comprehensively tackle these challenges in subgraph FL. FedDEP consists of a series of novel technical designs: (1) Deep neighbor generation through leveraging the GNN embeddings of potential missing neighbors; (2) Efficient pseudo-FL for neighbor generation through embedding prototyping; and (3) Privacy protection through noise-less edge-local-differential-privacy. We analyze the correctness and efficiency of FedDEP, and provide theoretical guarantees on its privacy. Empirical results on four real-world datasets justify the clear benefits of proposed techniques.