提出新算法实现异构联邦学习在马尔可夫数据下的快速收敛,无需投影且通信效率提升。
Achieving Tighter Finite-Time Rates for Heterogeneous Federated Stochastic Approximation under Markovian Sampling
- 设计新算法FedHSA,支持异构本地算子与马尔可夫数据采样
- 证明在不依赖投影的情况下仍能收敛,并实现M倍样本效率提升
- 适用于带函数逼近的异构联邦强化学习场景,如策略评估与控制
针对协作强化学习与时间相关数据下的优化问题,研究包含M个代理的联邦随机逼近问题,每个代理具有特定(可能非线性)的局部算子。目标是通过服务器间断通信,求解各代理局部算子平均值的根。该设定的通用性源于允许(i)每个代理存在马尔可夫数据,以及(ii)各代理局部算子的根存在异质性。现有少数同时考虑这两项特征的工作无法保证收敛至目标点或展示协作优势,且依赖投影步骤确保迭代有界。本文提出新算法FedHSA,证明其可保证收敛至正确点,且由于协作带来样本复杂度的M倍线性加速。据我们所知,这是首个此类有限时间结果,且无需投影,需细致分析马尔可夫采样带来的时序相关、多步本地更新及异构算子引起的漂移效应之间的相互作用。结果对广泛异构联邦强化学习问题(如策略评估与控制)具意义,尤其在函数逼近场景中,代理的马尔可夫决策过程可具有不同的转移核与奖励函数。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Motivated by collaborative reinforcement learning (RL) and optimization with time-correlated data, we study a generic federated stochastic approximation problem involving $M$ agents, where each agent is characterized by an agent-specific (potentially nonlinear) local operator. The goal is for the agents to communicate intermittently via a server to find the root of the average of the agents' local operators. The generality of our setting stems from allowing for (i) Markovian data at each agent and (ii) heterogeneity in the roots of the agents' local operators. The limited recent work that has accounted for both these features in a federated setting fails to guarantee convergence to the desired point or to show any benefit of collaboration; furthermore, they rely on projection steps in their algorithms to guarantee bounded iterates. Our work overcomes each of these limitations. We develop a novel algorithm titled \texttt{FedHSA}, and prove that it guarantees convergence to the correct point, while enjoying an $M$-fold linear speedup in sample-complexity due to collaboration. To our knowledge, \emph{this is the first finite-time result of its kind}, and establishing it (without relying on a projection step) entails a fairly intricate argument that accounts for the interplay between complex temporal correlations due to Markovian sampling, multiple local steps to save communication, and the drift-effects induced by heterogeneous local operators. Our results have implications for a broad class of heterogeneous federated RL problems (e.g., policy evaluation and control) with function approximation, where the agents' Markov decision processes can differ in their probability transition kernels and reward functions.
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