Local adapt-then-combine algorithms for distributed nonsmooth optimization: Achieving provable communication acceleration

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Guo, Luyao, Shi, Xinli, Xu, Wenying, Cao, Jinde
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Guo, Luyao
Shi, Xinli
Xu, Wenying
Cao, Jinde
author_facet Guo, Luyao
Shi, Xinli
Xu, Wenying
Cao, Jinde
contents This paper is concerned with the distributed composite optimization problem over networks, where agents aim to minimize a sum of local smooth components and a common nonsmooth term. Leveraging the probabilistic local updates mechanism, we propose a communication-efficient Adapt-Then-Combine (ATC) framework, FlexATC, unifying numerous ATC-based distributed algorithms. Under stepsizes independent of the network topology and the number of local updates, we establish sublinear and linear convergence rates for FlexATC in convex and strongly convex settings, respectively. Remarkably, in the strong convex setting, the linear rate is decoupled from the objective functions and network topology, and FlexATC permits communication to be skipped in most iterations without any deterioration of the linear rate. In addition, the proposed unified theory demonstrates for the first time that local updates provably lead to communication acceleration for ATC-based distributed algorithms. Numerical experiments further validate the efficacy of the proposed framework and corroborate the theoretical results.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_16148
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Local adapt-then-combine algorithms for distributed nonsmooth optimization: Achieving provable communication acceleration
Guo, Luyao
Shi, Xinli
Xu, Wenying
Cao, Jinde
Optimization and Control
Machine Learning
This paper is concerned with the distributed composite optimization problem over networks, where agents aim to minimize a sum of local smooth components and a common nonsmooth term. Leveraging the probabilistic local updates mechanism, we propose a communication-efficient Adapt-Then-Combine (ATC) framework, FlexATC, unifying numerous ATC-based distributed algorithms. Under stepsizes independent of the network topology and the number of local updates, we establish sublinear and linear convergence rates for FlexATC in convex and strongly convex settings, respectively. Remarkably, in the strong convex setting, the linear rate is decoupled from the objective functions and network topology, and FlexATC permits communication to be skipped in most iterations without any deterioration of the linear rate. In addition, the proposed unified theory demonstrates for the first time that local updates provably lead to communication acceleration for ATC-based distributed algorithms. Numerical experiments further validate the efficacy of the proposed framework and corroborate the theoretical results.
title Local adapt-then-combine algorithms for distributed nonsmooth optimization: Achieving provable communication acceleration
topic Optimization and Control
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16148