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Main Authors: Rao, Jiansheng, Li, Jiayi, Gong, Zhizhi, Kar, Soummya, Li, Haoxuan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05424
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author Rao, Jiansheng
Li, Jiayi
Gong, Zhizhi
Kar, Soummya
Li, Haoxuan
author_facet Rao, Jiansheng
Li, Jiayi
Gong, Zhizhi
Kar, Soummya
Li, Haoxuan
contents Federated learning (FL) is a widely adopted paradigm for privacy-preserving model training, but FedAvg optimise for the majority while under-serving minority clients. Existing methods such as federated multi-objective learning (FMOL) attempts to import multi-objective optimisation (MOO) into FL. However, it merely delivers task-wise Pareto-stationary points, leaving client fairness to chance. In this paper, we introduce Conically-Regularised FMOL (CR-FMOL), the first federated MOO framework that enforces client-wise Pareto optimality through a novel preference-cone constraint. After local federated multi-gradient descent averaging (FMGDA) / federated stochastic multi-gradient descent averaging (FSMGDA) steps, each client transmits its aggregated task-loss vector as an implicit preference; the server then solves a cone-constrained Pareto-MTL sub-problem centred at the uniform vector, producing a descent direction that is Pareto-stationary for every client within its cone. Experiments on non-IID benchmarks show that CR-FMOL enhances client fairness, and although the early-stage performance is slightly inferior to FedAvg, it is expected to achieve comparable accuracy given sufficient training rounds.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_05424
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Federated Multi-Objective Learning with Controlled Pareto Frontiers
Rao, Jiansheng
Li, Jiayi
Gong, Zhizhi
Kar, Soummya
Li, Haoxuan
Machine Learning
Federated learning (FL) is a widely adopted paradigm for privacy-preserving model training, but FedAvg optimise for the majority while under-serving minority clients. Existing methods such as federated multi-objective learning (FMOL) attempts to import multi-objective optimisation (MOO) into FL. However, it merely delivers task-wise Pareto-stationary points, leaving client fairness to chance. In this paper, we introduce Conically-Regularised FMOL (CR-FMOL), the first federated MOO framework that enforces client-wise Pareto optimality through a novel preference-cone constraint. After local federated multi-gradient descent averaging (FMGDA) / federated stochastic multi-gradient descent averaging (FSMGDA) steps, each client transmits its aggregated task-loss vector as an implicit preference; the server then solves a cone-constrained Pareto-MTL sub-problem centred at the uniform vector, producing a descent direction that is Pareto-stationary for every client within its cone. Experiments on non-IID benchmarks show that CR-FMOL enhances client fairness, and although the early-stage performance is slightly inferior to FedAvg, it is expected to achieve comparable accuracy given sufficient training rounds.
title Federated Multi-Objective Learning with Controlled Pareto Frontiers
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05424