Secure Cluster-Based Hierarchical Federated Learning in Vehicular Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: HaghighiFard, M. Saeid, Coleri, Sinem
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author HaghighiFard, M. Saeid
Coleri, Sinem
author_facet HaghighiFard, M. Saeid
Coleri, Sinem
contents Hierarchical Federated Learning (HFL) has recently emerged as a promising solution for intelligent decision-making in vehicular networks, helping to address challenges such as limited communication resources, high vehicle mobility, and data heterogeneity. However, HFL remains vulnerable to adversarial and unreliable vehicles, whose misleading updates can significantly compromise the integrity and convergence of the global model. To address these challenges, we propose a novel defense framework that integrates dynamic vehicle selection with robust anomaly detection within a cluster-based HFL architecture, specifically designed to counter Gaussian noise and gradient ascent attacks. The framework performs a comprehensive reliability assessment for each vehicle by evaluating historical accuracy, contribution frequency, and anomaly records. Anomaly detection combines Z-score and cosine similarity analyses on model updates to identify both statistical outliers and directional deviations in model updates. To further refine detection, an adaptive thresholding mechanism is incorporated into the cosine similarity metric, dynamically adjusting the threshold based on the historical accuracy of each vehicle to enforce stricter standards for consistently high-performing vehicles. In addition, a weighted gradient averaging mechanism is implemented, which assigns higher weights to gradient updates from more trustworthy vehicles. To defend against coordinated attacks, a cross-cluster consistency check is applied to identify collaborative attacks in which multiple compromised clusters coordinate misleading updates. Together, these mechanisms form a multi-level defense strategy to filter out malicious contributions effectively. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly reduces convergence time compared to benchmark methods across both 1-hop and 3-hop topologies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_01186
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Secure Cluster-Based Hierarchical Federated Learning in Vehicular Networks
HaghighiFard, M. Saeid
Coleri, Sinem
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Hierarchical Federated Learning (HFL) has recently emerged as a promising solution for intelligent decision-making in vehicular networks, helping to address challenges such as limited communication resources, high vehicle mobility, and data heterogeneity. However, HFL remains vulnerable to adversarial and unreliable vehicles, whose misleading updates can significantly compromise the integrity and convergence of the global model. To address these challenges, we propose a novel defense framework that integrates dynamic vehicle selection with robust anomaly detection within a cluster-based HFL architecture, specifically designed to counter Gaussian noise and gradient ascent attacks. The framework performs a comprehensive reliability assessment for each vehicle by evaluating historical accuracy, contribution frequency, and anomaly records. Anomaly detection combines Z-score and cosine similarity analyses on model updates to identify both statistical outliers and directional deviations in model updates. To further refine detection, an adaptive thresholding mechanism is incorporated into the cosine similarity metric, dynamically adjusting the threshold based on the historical accuracy of each vehicle to enforce stricter standards for consistently high-performing vehicles. In addition, a weighted gradient averaging mechanism is implemented, which assigns higher weights to gradient updates from more trustworthy vehicles. To defend against coordinated attacks, a cross-cluster consistency check is applied to identify collaborative attacks in which multiple compromised clusters coordinate misleading updates. Together, these mechanisms form a multi-level defense strategy to filter out malicious contributions effectively. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly reduces convergence time compared to benchmark methods across both 1-hop and 3-hop topologies.
title Secure Cluster-Based Hierarchical Federated Learning in Vehicular Networks
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.01186