# Communication-Efficient Federated Learning by Quantized Variance Reduction for Heterogeneous Wireless Edge Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11267 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.11267/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 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 Jan 2025.

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

- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (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)
- [Federated Learning in Mobile Edge Networks: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.11875/) (2019)
- [FedPAQ: A Communication-Efficient Federated Learning Method with Periodic Averaging and Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.13014/) (2019)
- [Parallel Restarted SGD with Faster Convergence and Less Communication: Demystifying Why Model Averaging Works for Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06629/) (2018)
- [Asynchronous Federated Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.03934/) (2019)
- [A Joint Learning and Communications Framework for Federated Learning over Wireless Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.07972/) (2019)
- [Federated Optimization:Distributed Optimization Beyond the Datacenter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.03575/) (2015)
- [Broadband Analog Aggregation for Low-Latency Federated Edge Learning (Extended Version)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.11494/) (2018)
- [Federated Learning with Compression: Unified Analysis and Sharp Guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.01154/) (2020)
- [Mime: Mimicking Centralized Stochastic Algorithms in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.03606/) (2020)
- [FedPD: A Federated Learning Framework with Optimal Rates and Adaptivity to Non-IID Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11418/) (2020)
- [Federated Learning for Internet of Things: Recent Advances, Taxonomy, and Open Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.13012/) (2020)
- [Scheduling Policies for Federated Learning in Wireless Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.06287/) (2019)
- [Client Selection and Bandwidth Allocation in Wireless Federated Learning Networks: A Long-Term Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04314/) (2020)
- [Federated Learning over Wireless Networks: Convergence Analysis and Resource Allocation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.13067/) (2019)
- [Variance Reduced Local SGD with Lower Communication Complexity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.12844/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning With Quantized Global Model Updates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10672/) (2020)
- [Design and Analysis of Uplink and Downlink Communications for Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04057/) (2020)
- [Device Scheduling with Fast Convergence for Wireless Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.00856/) (2019)
- [DAdaQuant: Doubly-adaptive quantization for communication-efficient Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.00465/) (2021)
- [Quantized Federated Learning under Transmission Delay and Outage Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09397/) (2021)
- [Federated Learning in Unreliable and Resource-Constrained Cellular Wireless Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.05137/) (2020)
- [Why Batch Normalization Damage Federated Learning on Non-IID Data?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.02982/) (2023)
- [FedADMM: A Robust Federated Deep Learning Framework with Adaptivity to System Heterogeneity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03529/) (2022)
- [Fast Federated Learning by Balancing Communication Trade-Offs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.11028/) (2021)
- [Communication-Efficient Federated Learning via Quantized Compressed Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.15071/) (2021)
- [Wireless Quantized Federated Learning: A Joint Computation and Communication Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.05878/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [RefProtoFL: Communication-Efficient Federated Learning via External-Referenced Prototype Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.14746/) (2026)
- [Quantization in Federated Learning: Methods, Challenges and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.26822/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Federated learning (FL) has been recognized as a viable solution for local-privacy-aware collaborative model training in wireless edge networks, but its practical deployment is hindered by the high communication overhead caused by frequent and costly server-device synchronization. Notably, most existing communication-efficient FL algorithms fail to reduce the significant inter-device variance resulting from the prevalent issue of device heterogeneity. This variance severely decelerates algorithm convergence, increasing communication overhead and making it more challenging to achieve a well-performed model. In this paper, we propose a novel communication-efficient FL algorithm, named FedQVR, which relies on a sophisticated variance-reduced scheme to achieve heterogeneity-robustness in the presence of quantized transmission and heterogeneous local updates among active edge devices. Comprehensive theoretical analysis justifies that FedQVR is inherently resilient to device heterogeneity and has a comparable convergence rate even with a small number of quantization bits, yielding significant communication savings. Besides, considering non-ideal wireless channels, we propose FedQVR-E which enhances the convergence of FedQVR by performing joint allocation of bandwidth and quantization bits across devices under constrained transmission delays. Extensive experimental results are also presented to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithms over their counterparts in terms of both communication efficiency and application performance.