# pMixFed: Efficient Personalized Federated Learning through Adaptive Layer-Wise Mixup

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11002 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.11002/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 63 of its 100 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Jan 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 63)

- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [mixup: Beyond Empirical Risk Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09412/) (2017)
- [Advances and Open Problems in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04977/) (2019)
- [Federated Optimization in Heterogeneous Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.06127/) (2018)
- [CutMix: Regularization Strategy to Train Strong Classifiers with Localizable Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.04899/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning: Strategies for Improving Communication Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.05492/) (2016)
- [Model-Contrastive Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.16257/) (2021)
- [Federated Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.10467/) (2017)
- [Ditto: Fair and Robust Federated Learning Through Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04221/) (2020)
- [Federated Learning with Personalization Layers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.00818/) (2019)
- [Exploiting Shared Representations for Personalized Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.07078/) (2021)
- [Towards Personalized Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00710/) (2021)
- [FedMD: Heterogenous Federated Learning via Model Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.03581/) (2019)
- [Data-Free Knowledge Distillation for Heterogeneous Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.10056/) (2021)
- [Rapid Learning or Feature Reuse? Towards Understanding the Effectiveness of MAML](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.09157/) (2019)
- [Think Locally, Act Globally: Federated Learning with Local and Global Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.01523/) (2020)
- [Personalized Federated Learning: A Meta-Learning Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.07948/) (2020)
- [Personalized Cross-Silo Federated Learning on Non-IID Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.03797/) (2020)
- [Communication-Efficient On-Device Machine Learning: Federated Distillation and Augmentation under Non-IID Private Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.11479/) (2018)
- [Personalized Federated Learning using Hypernetworks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04628/) (2021)
- [How Does Mixup Help With Robustness and Generalization?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.04819/) (2020)
- [FedBABU: Towards Enhanced Representation for Federated Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06042/) (2021)
- [MixUp as Locally Linear Out-Of-Manifold Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.02499/) (2018)
- [Remix: Rebalanced Mixup](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.03943/) (2020)
- [Salvaging Federated Learning by Local Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.04758/) (2020)
- [Overcoming Forgetting in Federated Learning on Non-IID Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07796/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning with Partial Model Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03809/) (2022)
- [Multi-Center Federated Learning: Clients Clustering for Better Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.08647/) (2021)
- [Rethinking Architecture Design for Tackling Data Heterogeneity in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06047/) (2021)
- [FedMix: Approximation of Mixup under Mean Augmented Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.00233/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [A Survey on Personalized Alignment -- The Missing Piece for Large Language Models in Real-World Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17003/) (2025)
- [Distributed LLMs and Multimodal Large Language Models: A Survey on Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16585/) (2025)
- [FedLoRD: Personalized Federated Learning based on Low-Rank Structures of Model Parameter Differences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.17621/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Traditional Federated Learning (FL) methods encounter significant challenges when dealing with heterogeneous data and providing personalized solutions for non-IID scenarios. Personalized Federated Learning (PFL) approaches aim to address these issues by balancing generalization and personalization, often through parameter decoupling or partial models that freeze some neural network layers for personalization while aggregating other layers globally. However, existing methods still face challenges of global-local model discrepancy, client drift, and catastrophic forgetting, which degrade model accuracy. To overcome these limitations, we propose textitpMixFed, a dynamic, layer-wise PFL approach that integrates textitmixup between shared global and personalized local models. Our method introduces an adaptive strategy for partitioning between personalized and shared layers, a gradual transition of personalization degree to enhance local client adaptation, improved generalization across clients, and a novel aggregation mechanism to mitigate catastrophic forgetting. Extensive experiments demonstrate that pMixFed outperforms state-of-the-art PFL methods, showing faster model training, increased robustness, and improved handling of data heterogeneity under different heterogeneous settings.