Sequential Monte Carlo methods are typically not straightforward to implement on parallel architectures. This is because standard resampling schemes involve communication between all particles. The $\alpha$-sequential Monte Carlo method was proposed recently as a potential solution to this which limits communication between particles. This limited communication is controlled through a sequence of stochastic matrices known as $\alpha$-matrices. We study the influence of the communication structure on the convergence and stability properties of the resulting algorithms. In particular, we quantitatively show that the mixing properties of the $\alpha$-matrices play an important role in the stability properties of the algorithm. Moreover, we prove that one can ensure good mixing properties by using randomized communication structures where each particle only communicates with a few neighboring particles. The resulting algorithms converge at the usual Monte Carlo rate. This leads to efficient versions of distributed sequential Monte Carlo.
We study a new two-time-scale stochastic gradient method for solving optimization problems, where the gradients are computed with the aid of an auxiliary variable under samples generated by time-varying Markov random processes parameterized by the underlying optimization variable. These time-varying samples make gradient directions in our update biased and dependent, which can potentially lead to the divergence of the iterates. In our two-time-scale approach, one scale is to estimate the true gradient from these samples, which is then used to update the estimate of the optimal solution. While these two iterates are implemented simultaneously, the former is updated "faster" (using bigger step sizes) than the latter (using smaller step sizes). Our first contribution is to characterize the finite-time complexity of the proposed two-time-scale stochastic gradient method. In particular, we provide explicit formulas for the convergence rates of this method under different structural assumptions, namely, strong convexity, convexity, the Polyak-Lojasiewicz condition, and general non-convexity. We apply our framework to two problems in control and reinforcement learning. First, we look at the standard online actor-critic algorithm over finite state and action spaces and derive a convergence rate of O(k^(-2/5)), which recovers the best known rate derived specifically for this problem. Second, we study an online actor-critic algorithm for the linear-quadratic regulator and show that a convergence rate of O(k^(-2/3)) is achieved. This is the first time such a result is known in the literature. Finally, we support our theoretical analysis with numerical simulations where the convergence rates are visualized.
Quantum communications is a promising technology that will play a fundamental role in the design of future networks. In fact, significant efforts are being dedicated by both the quantum physics and the classical communications communities on developing new architectures, solutions, and practical implementations of quantum communication networks (QCNs). Although these efforts led to various advances in today's technologies, there still exists a non-trivial gap between the research efforts of the two communities on designing and optimizing the QCN performance. For instance, most prior works by the classical communications community ignore important quantum physics-based constraints when designing QCNs. For example, many works on entanglement distribution do not account for the decoherence of qubits inside quantum memories and, thus, their designs become impractical since they assume an infinite quantum states' lifetime. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework, dubbed physics-informed QCNs, for designing and analyzing the performance of QCNs, by relying on the quantum physics principles that underly the different QCN components. The need of the proposed approach is then assessed and its fundamental role in designing practical QCNs is analyzed across various open research areas. Moreover, we identify novel physics-informed performance metrics and controls that enable QCNs to leverage the state-of-the-art advancements in quantum technologies to enhance their performance. Finally, we analyze multiple pressing challenges and open research directions in QCNs that must be treated using a physics-informed approach to lead practically viable results. Ultimately, this work attempts to bridge the gap between the classical communications and the quantum physics communities in the area of QCNs to foster the development of future communication networks (6G and beyond, and the quantum Internet).
In this paper, we consider a resilient consensus problem for the multi-agent network where some of the agents are subject to Byzantine attacks and may transmit erroneous state values to their neighbors. In particular, we develop an event-triggered update rule to tackle this problem as well as reduce the communication for each agent. Our approach is based on the mean subsequence reduced (MSR) algorithm with agents being capable to communicate with multi-hop neighbors. Since delays are critical in such an environment, we provide necessary graph conditions for the proposed algorithm to perform well with delays in the communication. We highlight that through multi-hop communication, the network connectivity can be reduced especially in comparison with the common onehop communication case. Lastly, we show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by a numerical example.
In this paper, we introduce $\mathsf{CO}_3$, an algorithm for communication-efficiency federated Deep Neural Network (DNN) training.$\mathsf{CO}_3$ takes its name from three processing applied steps which reduce the communication load when transmitting the local gradients from the remote users to the Parameter Server.Namely:(i) gradient quantization through floating-point conversion, (ii) lossless compression of the quantized gradient, and (iii) quantization error correction.We carefully design each of the steps above so as to minimize the loss in the distributed DNN training when the communication overhead is fixed.In particular, in the design of steps (i) and (ii), we adopt the assumption that DNN gradients are distributed according to a generalized normal distribution.This assumption is validated numerically in the paper. For step (iii), we utilize an error feedback with memory decay mechanism to correct the quantization error introduced in step (i). We argue that this coefficient, similarly to the learning rate, can be optimally tuned to improve convergence. The performance of $\mathsf{CO}_3$ is validated through numerical simulations and is shown having better accuracy and improved stability at a reduced communication payload.
We study the decentralized consensus and stochastic optimization problems with compressed communications over static directed graphs. We propose an iterative gradient-based algorithm that compresses messages according to a desired compression ratio. The proposed method provably reduces the communication overhead on the network at every communication round. Contrary to existing literature, we allow for arbitrary compression ratios in the communicated messages. We show a linear convergence rate for the proposed method on the consensus problem. Moreover, we provide explicit convergence rates for decentralized stochastic optimization problems on smooth functions that are either (i) strongly convex, (ii) convex, or (iii) non-convex. Finally, we provide numerical experiments to illustrate convergence under arbitrary compression ratios and the communication efficiency of our algorithm.
We introduce a restriction of the classical 2-party deterministic communication protocol where Alice and Bob are restricted to using only comparison functions. We show that the complexity of a function in the model is, up to a constant factor, determined by a complexity measure analogous to Yao's tiling number, which we call the geometric tiling number which can be computed in polynomial time. As a warm-up, we consider an analogous restricted decision tree model and observe a 1-dimensional analog of the above results.
Stochastic optimization algorithms implemented on distributed computing architectures are increasingly used to tackle large-scale machine learning applications. A key bottleneck in such distributed systems is the communication overhead for exchanging information such as stochastic gradients between different workers. Sparse communication with memory and the adaptive aggregation methodology are two successful frameworks among the various techniques proposed to address this issue. In this paper, we exploit the advantages of Sparse communication and Adaptive aggregated Stochastic Gradients to design a communication-efficient distributed algorithm named SASG. Specifically, we determine the workers who need to communicate with the parameter server based on the adaptive aggregation rule and then sparsify the transmitted information. Therefore, our algorithm reduces both the overhead of communication rounds and the number of communication bits in the distributed system. We define an auxiliary sequence and provide convergence results of the algorithm with the help of Lyapunov function analysis. Experiments on training deep neural networks show that our algorithm can significantly reduce the communication overhead compared to the previous methods, with little impact on training and testing accuracy.
Federated Learning has promised a new approach to resolve the challenges in machine learning by bringing computation to the data. The popularity of the approach has led to rapid progress in the algorithmic aspects and the emergence of systems capable of simulating Federated Learning. State of art systems in Federated Learning support a single node aggregator that is insufficient to train a large corpus of devices or train larger-sized models. As the model size or the number of devices increase the single node aggregator incurs memory and computation burden while performing fusion tasks. It also faces communication bottlenecks when a large number of model updates are sent to a single node. We classify the workload for the aggregator into categories and propose a new aggregation service for handling each load. Our aggregation service is based on a holistic approach that chooses the best solution depending on the model update size and the number of clients. Our system provides a fault-tolerant, robust and efficient aggregation solution utilizing existing parallel and distributed frameworks. Through evaluation, we show the shortcomings of the state of art approaches and how a single solution is not suitable for all aggregation requirements. We also provide a comparison of current frameworks with our system through extensive experiments.
We demonstrate that merely analog transmissions and match filtering can realize the function of an edge server in federated learning (FL). Therefore, a network with massively distributed user equipments (UEs) can achieve large-scale FL without an edge server. We also develop a training algorithm that allows UEs to continuously perform local computing without being interrupted by the global parameter uploading, which exploits the full potential of UEs' processing power. We derive convergence rates for the proposed schemes to quantify their training efficiency. The analyses reveal that when the interference obeys a Gaussian distribution, the proposed algorithm retrieves the convergence rate of a server-based FL. But if the interference distribution is heavy-tailed, then the heavier the tail, the slower the algorithm converges. Nonetheless, the system run time can be largely reduced by enabling computation in parallel with communication, whereas the gain is particularly pronounced when communication latency is high. These findings are corroborated via excessive simulations.
Although nanorobots have been used as clinical prescriptions for work such as gastroscopy, and even photoacoustic tomography technology has been proposed to control nanorobots to deliver drugs at designated delivery points in real time, and there are cases of eliminating "superbacteria" in blood through nanorobots, most technologies are immature, either with low efficiency or low accuracy, Either it can not be mass produced, so the most effective way to treat cancer diseases at this stage is through chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Patients are suffering and can not be cured. Therefore, this paper proposes an ideal model of a treatment method that can completely cure cancer, a cooperative treatment method based on nano robot queue through team member communication and computer vision image classification (target detection).