arXiv:2506.10911cs.LG2025-06被引 5

不依赖全局同步,用随机权重平均实现低通信大模型训练。

NoLoCo: No-all-reduce Low Communication Training Method for Large Models

  • 用随机选择的模型副本部分平均权重,隐式同步参数。
  • 在125M到68亿参数模型上,通信量比DiLoCo降低一个数量级。
  • 适合大规模分布式训练,尤其适用于低带宽网络环境。

大规模语言模型训练通常依赖包含数万加速器的集群,通过高速互联通信。扩大集群成本高昂且可能不切实际,限制了可训练模型规模。尽管已有多种低通信训练方法,但它们仍需对所有模型副本进行参数同步,在低带宽网络下依然昂贵。本文提出新优化方法NoLoCo,训练过程中不显式同步全部模型参数,因此无需任何集体通信。NoLoCo通过一种新型Nesterov动量变体,将模型权重与随机选择的另一副本部分平均,实现隐式同步。我们提供了该优化器的理论收敛分析及语言模型训练的实证结果。在125M至68亿参数模型、多种加速器数量下进行基准测试,结果显示:相比全分片数据并行或广泛使用的低通信方法DiLoCo,NoLoCo显著减少通信开销;同步步骤在数百个加速器通过互联网训练时,速度比DiLoCo中的all-reduce快一个数量级;且无全局阻塞通信,降低加速器空闲时间。相较于DiLoCo,NoLoCo在多种模型规模和加速器数量下,收敛速度最快提升4%。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Training large language models is generally done via optimization methods on clusters containing tens of thousands of accelerators, communicating over a high-bandwidth interconnect. Scaling up these clusters is expensive and can become impractical, imposing limits on the size of models that can be trained. Several recent studies have proposed training methods that are less communication intensive, avoiding the need for a highly connected compute cluster. These state-of-the-art low communication training methods still employ a synchronization step for model parameters, which, when performed over all model replicas, can become costly on a low-bandwidth network. In this work, we propose a novel optimization method, NoLoCo, that does not explicitly synchronize all model parameters during training and, as a result, does not require any collective communication. NoLoCo implicitly synchronizes model weights via a novel variant of the Nesterov momentum optimizer by partially averaging model weights with a randomly selected other one. We provide both a theoretical convergence analysis for our proposed optimizer as well as empirical results from language model training. We benchmark NoLoCo on a wide range of accelerator counts and model sizes, between 125M to 6.8B parameters. Our method requires significantly less communication overhead than fully sharded data parallel training or even widely used low communication training method, DiLoCo. The synchronization step itself is estimated to be one magnitude faster than the all-reduce used in DiLoCo for few hundred accelerators training over the internet. We also do not have any global blocking communication that reduces accelerator idling time. Compared to DiLoCo, we also observe up to $4\%$ faster convergence rate with wide range of model sizes and accelerator counts.

大模型训练低通信分布式优化Nesterov动量

Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。