# Centralized vs Decentralized Federated Learning: A trade-off performance analysis

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16089 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.16089/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 30 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 May 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Advances and Open Problems in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04977/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning: Challenges, Methods, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07873/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning: Strategies for Improving Communication Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.05492/) (2016)
- [Towards Federated Learning at Scale: System Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.01046/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning in Mobile Edge Networks: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.11875/) (2019)
- [Federated Learning for Internet of Things: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.07914/) (2021)
- [Federated Learning for Internet of Things: Recent Advances, Taxonomy, and Open Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.13012/) (2020)
- [Decentralized Federated Learning: Fundamentals, State of the Art, Frameworks, Trends, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.08413/) (2022)
- [BrainTorrent: A Peer-to-Peer Environment for Decentralized Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.06731/) (2019)
- [Decentralized Federated Learning: A Survey and Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01603/) (2023)
- [Federated Learning for Healthcare Domain - Pipeline, Applications and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.07893/) (2022)
- [Fusion of Federated Learning and Industrial Internet of Things: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.00798/) (2021)
- [Semi-Decentralized Federated Learning with Collaborative Relaying](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10998/) (2022)
- [Decentral and Incentivized Federated Learning Frameworks: A Systematic Literature Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.07855/) (2022)
- [Fedstellar: A Platform for Decentralized Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09750/) (2023)
- [Taming the Cross Entropy Loss](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.05075/) (2018)
- [A Systematic Literature Review on Blockchain Enabled Federated Learning Framework for Internet of Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.05192/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Asynchronous Decentralized Federated Learning over Lossy Wireless Links via Reception- and Age-Aware Aggregation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.10774/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising paradigm for collaborative model training across distributed edge devices while preserving data privacy especially with the huge increase amount of data due to the adoption of technologies which contributes to the growing number of IoT devices. Storing this amount of data centrally is challenging due to issues like limited communication, privacy, and regulations. FL can be Centralized (CFL), Decentralized (DFL), and Semi-decentralized (SDFL). Choosing the right FL architecture depends on the application's needs. However, very few research studies have experimentally compared these three types of architectures to not only understand the respective strengths and limitations, but also trade-offs between different performance indicators. This paper overcome this lack of analysis, conducting experimental analyses using the Fedstellar simulator, MNIST dataset, and MLP classifier.