Mitigating Modality Quantity and Quality Imbalance in Multimodal Online Federated Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Heqiang, Yang, Weihong, Zhong, Xiaoxiong, Zhou, Jia, Liu, Fangming, Zhang, Weizhe
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Wang, Heqiang
Yang, Weihong
Zhong, Xiaoxiong
Zhou, Jia
Liu, Fangming
Zhang, Weizhe
author_facet Wang, Heqiang
Yang, Weihong
Zhong, Xiaoxiong
Zhou, Jia
Liu, Fangming
Zhang, Weizhe
contents The Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem produces massive volumes of multimodal data from diverse sources, including sensors, cameras, and microphones. With advances in edge intelligence, IoT devices have evolved from simple data acquisition units into computationally capable nodes, enabling localized processing of heterogeneous multimodal data. This evolution necessitates distributed learning paradigms that can efficiently handle such data. Furthermore, the continuous nature of data generation and the limited storage capacity of edge devices demand an online learning framework. Multimodal Online Federated Learning (MMO-FL) has emerged as a promising approach to meet these requirements. However, MMO-FL faces new challenges due to the inherent instability of IoT devices, which often results in modality quantity and quality imbalance (QQI) during data collection. In this work, we systematically investigate the impact of QQI within the MMO-FL framework and present a comprehensive theoretical analysis quantifying how both types of imbalance degrade learning performance. To address these challenges, we propose the Modality Quantity and Quality Rebalanced (QQR) algorithm, a prototype learning based method designed to operate in parallel with the training process. Extensive experiments on two real-world multimodal datasets show that the proposed QQR algorithm consistently outperforms benchmarks under modality imbalance conditions with promising learning performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_11159
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mitigating Modality Quantity and Quality Imbalance in Multimodal Online Federated Learning
Wang, Heqiang
Yang, Weihong
Zhong, Xiaoxiong
Zhou, Jia
Liu, Fangming
Zhang, Weizhe
Machine Learning
The Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem produces massive volumes of multimodal data from diverse sources, including sensors, cameras, and microphones. With advances in edge intelligence, IoT devices have evolved from simple data acquisition units into computationally capable nodes, enabling localized processing of heterogeneous multimodal data. This evolution necessitates distributed learning paradigms that can efficiently handle such data. Furthermore, the continuous nature of data generation and the limited storage capacity of edge devices demand an online learning framework. Multimodal Online Federated Learning (MMO-FL) has emerged as a promising approach to meet these requirements. However, MMO-FL faces new challenges due to the inherent instability of IoT devices, which often results in modality quantity and quality imbalance (QQI) during data collection. In this work, we systematically investigate the impact of QQI within the MMO-FL framework and present a comprehensive theoretical analysis quantifying how both types of imbalance degrade learning performance. To address these challenges, we propose the Modality Quantity and Quality Rebalanced (QQR) algorithm, a prototype learning based method designed to operate in parallel with the training process. Extensive experiments on two real-world multimodal datasets show that the proposed QQR algorithm consistently outperforms benchmarks under modality imbalance conditions with promising learning performance.
title Mitigating Modality Quantity and Quality Imbalance in Multimodal Online Federated Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11159