Towards Privacy-Preserving and Heterogeneity-aware Split Federated Learning via Probabilistic Masking

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wang, Xingchen, Wu, Feijie, Miao, Chenglin, Li, Tianchun, Hu, Haoyu, Cao, Qiming, Gao, Jing, Su, Lu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914224447422464
author Wang, Xingchen
Wu, Feijie
Miao, Chenglin
Li, Tianchun
Hu, Haoyu
Cao, Qiming
Gao, Jing
Su, Lu
author_facet Wang, Xingchen
Wu, Feijie
Miao, Chenglin
Li, Tianchun
Hu, Haoyu
Cao, Qiming
Gao, Jing
Su, Lu
contents Split Federated Learning (SFL) has emerged as an efficient alternative to traditional Federated Learning (FL) by reducing client-side computation through model partitioning. However, exchanging of intermediate activations and model updates introduces significant privacy risks, especially from data reconstruction attacks that recover original inputs from intermediate representations. Existing defenses using noise injection often degrade model performance. To overcome these challenges, we present PM-SFL, a scalable and privacy-preserving SFL framework that incorporates Probabilistic Mask training to add structured randomness without relying on explicit noise. This mitigates data reconstruction risks while maintaining model utility. To address data heterogeneity, PM-SFL employs personalized mask learning that tailors submodel structures to each client's local data. For system heterogeneity, we introduce a layer-wise knowledge compensation mechanism, enabling clients with varying resources to participate effectively under adaptive model splitting. Theoretical analysis confirms its privacy protection, and experiments on image and wireless sensing tasks demonstrate that PM-SFL consistently improves accuracy, communication efficiency, and robustness to privacy attacks, with particularly strong performance under data and system heterogeneity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_14603
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Privacy-Preserving and Heterogeneity-aware Split Federated Learning via Probabilistic Masking
Wang, Xingchen
Wu, Feijie
Miao, Chenglin
Li, Tianchun
Hu, Haoyu
Cao, Qiming
Gao, Jing
Su, Lu
Machine Learning
Split Federated Learning (SFL) has emerged as an efficient alternative to traditional Federated Learning (FL) by reducing client-side computation through model partitioning. However, exchanging of intermediate activations and model updates introduces significant privacy risks, especially from data reconstruction attacks that recover original inputs from intermediate representations. Existing defenses using noise injection often degrade model performance. To overcome these challenges, we present PM-SFL, a scalable and privacy-preserving SFL framework that incorporates Probabilistic Mask training to add structured randomness without relying on explicit noise. This mitigates data reconstruction risks while maintaining model utility. To address data heterogeneity, PM-SFL employs personalized mask learning that tailors submodel structures to each client's local data. For system heterogeneity, we introduce a layer-wise knowledge compensation mechanism, enabling clients with varying resources to participate effectively under adaptive model splitting. Theoretical analysis confirms its privacy protection, and experiments on image and wireless sensing tasks demonstrate that PM-SFL consistently improves accuracy, communication efficiency, and robustness to privacy attacks, with particularly strong performance under data and system heterogeneity.
title Towards Privacy-Preserving and Heterogeneity-aware Split Federated Learning via Probabilistic Masking
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14603