Asynchronous Federated Reinforcement Learning with Policy Gradient Updates: Algorithm Design and Convergence Analysis

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Lan, Guangchen, Han, Dong-Jun, Hashemi, Abolfazl, Aggarwal, Vaneet, Brinton, Christopher G.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Lan, Guangchen
Han, Dong-Jun
Hashemi, Abolfazl
Aggarwal, Vaneet
Brinton, Christopher G.
author_facet Lan, Guangchen
Han, Dong-Jun
Hashemi, Abolfazl
Aggarwal, Vaneet
Brinton, Christopher G.
contents To improve the efficiency of reinforcement learning (RL), we propose a novel asynchronous federated reinforcement learning (FedRL) framework termed AFedPG, which constructs a global model through collaboration among $N$ agents using policy gradient (PG) updates. To address the challenge of lagged policies in asynchronous settings, we design a delay-adaptive lookahead technique \textit{specifically for FedRL} that can effectively handle heterogeneous arrival times of policy gradients. We analyze the theoretical global convergence bound of AFedPG, and characterize the advantage of the proposed algorithm in terms of both the sample complexity and time complexity. Specifically, our AFedPG method achieves $O(\frac{ε^{-2.5}}{N})$ sample complexity for global convergence at each agent on average. Compared to the single agent setting with $O(ε^{-2.5})$ sample complexity, it enjoys a linear speedup with respect to the number of agents. Moreover, compared to synchronous FedPG, AFedPG improves the time complexity from $O(\frac{t_{\max}}{N})$ to $O({\sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{1}{t_{i}}})^{-1}$, where $t_{i}$ denotes the time consumption in each iteration at agent $i$, and $t_{\max}$ is the largest one. The latter complexity $O({\sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{1}{t_{i}}})^{-1}$ is always smaller than the former one, and this improvement becomes significant in large-scale federated settings with heterogeneous computing powers ($t_{\max}\gg t_{\min}$). Finally, we empirically verify the improved performance of AFedPG in four widely used MuJoCo environments with varying numbers of agents. We also demonstrate the advantages of AFedPG in various computing heterogeneity scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_08003
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Asynchronous Federated Reinforcement Learning with Policy Gradient Updates: Algorithm Design and Convergence Analysis
Lan, Guangchen
Han, Dong-Jun
Hashemi, Abolfazl
Aggarwal, Vaneet
Brinton, Christopher G.
Machine Learning
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Networking and Internet Architecture
I.2.6; I.2.11
To improve the efficiency of reinforcement learning (RL), we propose a novel asynchronous federated reinforcement learning (FedRL) framework termed AFedPG, which constructs a global model through collaboration among $N$ agents using policy gradient (PG) updates. To address the challenge of lagged policies in asynchronous settings, we design a delay-adaptive lookahead technique \textit{specifically for FedRL} that can effectively handle heterogeneous arrival times of policy gradients. We analyze the theoretical global convergence bound of AFedPG, and characterize the advantage of the proposed algorithm in terms of both the sample complexity and time complexity. Specifically, our AFedPG method achieves $O(\frac{ε^{-2.5}}{N})$ sample complexity for global convergence at each agent on average. Compared to the single agent setting with $O(ε^{-2.5})$ sample complexity, it enjoys a linear speedup with respect to the number of agents. Moreover, compared to synchronous FedPG, AFedPG improves the time complexity from $O(\frac{t_{\max}}{N})$ to $O({\sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{1}{t_{i}}})^{-1}$, where $t_{i}$ denotes the time consumption in each iteration at agent $i$, and $t_{\max}$ is the largest one. The latter complexity $O({\sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{1}{t_{i}}})^{-1}$ is always smaller than the former one, and this improvement becomes significant in large-scale federated settings with heterogeneous computing powers ($t_{\max}\gg t_{\min}$). Finally, we empirically verify the improved performance of AFedPG in four widely used MuJoCo environments with varying numbers of agents. We also demonstrate the advantages of AFedPG in various computing heterogeneity scenarios.
title Asynchronous Federated Reinforcement Learning with Policy Gradient Updates: Algorithm Design and Convergence Analysis
topic Machine Learning
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Networking and Internet Architecture
I.2.6; I.2.11
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.08003