Towards Zero Rotation and Beyond: Architecting Neural Networks for Fast Secure Inference with Homomorphic Encryption

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Cai, Yifei, Feng, Yizhou, Zhang, Qiao, Xin, Chunsheng, Wu, Hongyi
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Cai, Yifei
Feng, Yizhou
Zhang, Qiao
Xin, Chunsheng
Wu, Hongyi
author_facet Cai, Yifei
Feng, Yizhou
Zhang, Qiao
Xin, Chunsheng
Wu, Hongyi
contents Privacy-preserving deep learning addresses privacy concerns in Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) by using Homomorphic Encryption (HE) for linear computations. However, the computational overhead remains a major challenge. While prior work has improved efficiency, most approaches build on models originally designed for plaintext inference. Such models incur architectural inefficiencies when adapted to HE. We argue that substantial gains require networks tailored to HE rather than retrofitting plaintext architectures. Our design has two components: the building block and the overall architecture. First, StriaBlock targets the most expensive HE operation, rotation. It integrates ExRot-Free Convolution and a novel Cross Kernel, eliminating external rotations and requiring only 19% of the internal rotations used by plaintext models. Second, our architectural principles include (i) the Focused Constraint Principle, which limits cost-sensitive factors while preserving flexibility elsewhere, and (ii) the Channel Packing-Aware Scaling Principle, which adapts bottleneck ratios to ciphertext channel capacity that varies with depth. Together, these strategies control both local and end-to-end HE cost, enabling a balanced HE-tailored network. We evaluate the resulting StriaNet across datasets of varying scales, including ImageNet, Tiny ImageNet, and CIFAR-10. At comparable accuracy, StriaNet achieves speedups of 9.78x, 6.01x, and 9.24x on ImageNet, Tiny ImageNet, and CIFAR-10, respectively.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_21287
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Zero Rotation and Beyond: Architecting Neural Networks for Fast Secure Inference with Homomorphic Encryption
Cai, Yifei
Feng, Yizhou
Zhang, Qiao
Xin, Chunsheng
Wu, Hongyi
Cryptography and Security
Privacy-preserving deep learning addresses privacy concerns in Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) by using Homomorphic Encryption (HE) for linear computations. However, the computational overhead remains a major challenge. While prior work has improved efficiency, most approaches build on models originally designed for plaintext inference. Such models incur architectural inefficiencies when adapted to HE. We argue that substantial gains require networks tailored to HE rather than retrofitting plaintext architectures. Our design has two components: the building block and the overall architecture. First, StriaBlock targets the most expensive HE operation, rotation. It integrates ExRot-Free Convolution and a novel Cross Kernel, eliminating external rotations and requiring only 19% of the internal rotations used by plaintext models. Second, our architectural principles include (i) the Focused Constraint Principle, which limits cost-sensitive factors while preserving flexibility elsewhere, and (ii) the Channel Packing-Aware Scaling Principle, which adapts bottleneck ratios to ciphertext channel capacity that varies with depth. Together, these strategies control both local and end-to-end HE cost, enabling a balanced HE-tailored network. We evaluate the resulting StriaNet across datasets of varying scales, including ImageNet, Tiny ImageNet, and CIFAR-10. At comparable accuracy, StriaNet achieves speedups of 9.78x, 6.01x, and 9.24x on ImageNet, Tiny ImageNet, and CIFAR-10, respectively.
title Towards Zero Rotation and Beyond: Architecting Neural Networks for Fast Secure Inference with Homomorphic Encryption
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.21287