# Digital versus Analog Transmissions for Federated Learning over Wireless Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09657 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.09657/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 18 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Feb 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [A Joint Learning and Communications Framework for Federated Learning over Wireless Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.07972/) (2019)
- [Broadband Analog Aggregation for Low-Latency Federated Edge Learning (Extended Version)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.11494/) (2018)
- [Federated Learning over Wireless Fading Channels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.09769/) (2019)
- [Energy Efficient Federated Learning Over Wireless Communication Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.02417/) (2019)
- [UVeQFed: Universal Vector Quantization for Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.03262/) (2020)
- [Edge Learning for B5G Networks with Distributed Signal Processing: Semantic Communication, Edge Computing, and Wireless Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00422/) (2022)
- [Design and Analysis of Uplink and Downlink Communications for Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04057/) (2020)
- [Quantized Federated Learning under Transmission Delay and Outage Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09397/) (2021)
- [Federated Learning under Importance Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07383/) (2020)
- [Imperfect CSI: A Key Factor of Uncertainty to Over-the-Air Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.12793/) (2023)
- [Intelligent Reflection Enabling Technologies for Integrated and Green Internet-of-Everything Beyond 5G: Communication, Sensing, and Security](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.03182/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we quantitatively compare these two effective communication schemes, i.e., digital and analog ones, for wireless federated learning (FL) over resource-constrained networks, highlighting their essential differences as well as their respective application scenarios. We first examine both digital and analog transmission methods, together with a unified and fair comparison scheme under practical constraints. A universal convergence analysis under various imperfections is established for FL performance evaluation in wireless networks. These analytical results reveal that the fundamental difference between the two paradigms lies in whether communication and computation are jointly designed or not. The digital schemes decouple the communication design from specific FL tasks, making it difficult to support simultaneous uplink transmission of massive devices with limited bandwidth. In contrast, the analog communication allows over-the-air computation (AirComp), thus achieving efficient spectrum utilization. However, computation-oriented analog transmission reduces power efficiency, and its performance is sensitive to computational errors. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to verify these theoretical observations.