UFO: Unlocking Ultra-Efficient Quantized Private Inference with Protocol and Algorithm Co-Optimization

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Main Authors: Zeng, Wenxuan, Yang, Chao, Xu, Tianshi, Zhang, Bo, Ren, Changrui, Dong, Jin, Li, Meng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Zeng, Wenxuan
Yang, Chao
Xu, Tianshi
Zhang, Bo
Ren, Changrui
Dong, Jin
Li, Meng
author_facet Zeng, Wenxuan
Yang, Chao
Xu, Tianshi
Zhang, Bo
Ren, Changrui
Dong, Jin
Li, Meng
contents Private convolutional neural network (CNN) inference based on secure two-party computation (2PC) suffers from high communication and latency overhead, especially from convolution layers. In this paper, we propose UFO, a quantized 2PC inference framework that jointly optimizes the 2PC protocols and quantization algorithm. UFO features a novel 2PC protocol that systematically combines the efficient Winograd convolution algorithm with quantization to improve inference efficiency. However, we observe that naively combining quantization and Winograd convolution faces the following challenges: 1) From the inference perspective, Winograd transformations introduce extensive additions and require frequent bit width conversions to avoid inference overflow, leading to non-negligible communication overhead; 2) From the training perspective, Winograd transformations introduce weight outliers that make quantization-aware training (QAT) difficult, resulting in inferior model accuracy. To address these challenges, we co-optimize both protocol and algorithm. 1) At the protocol level, we propose a series of graph-level optimizations for 2PC inference to minimize the communication. 2) At the algorithm level, we develop a mixed-precision QAT algorithm based on layer sensitivity to optimize model accuracy given communication constraints. To accommodate the outliers, we further introduce a 2PC-friendly bit re-weighting algorithm to increase the representation range without explicitly increasing bit widths. With extensive experiments, UFO demonstrates 11.7x, 3.6x, and 6.3x communication reduction with 1.29%, 1.16%, and 1.29% higher accuracy compared to state-of-the-art frameworks SiRNN, COINN, and CoPriv, respectively.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_18758
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle UFO: Unlocking Ultra-Efficient Quantized Private Inference with Protocol and Algorithm Co-Optimization
Zeng, Wenxuan
Yang, Chao
Xu, Tianshi
Zhang, Bo
Ren, Changrui
Dong, Jin
Li, Meng
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Private convolutional neural network (CNN) inference based on secure two-party computation (2PC) suffers from high communication and latency overhead, especially from convolution layers. In this paper, we propose UFO, a quantized 2PC inference framework that jointly optimizes the 2PC protocols and quantization algorithm. UFO features a novel 2PC protocol that systematically combines the efficient Winograd convolution algorithm with quantization to improve inference efficiency. However, we observe that naively combining quantization and Winograd convolution faces the following challenges: 1) From the inference perspective, Winograd transformations introduce extensive additions and require frequent bit width conversions to avoid inference overflow, leading to non-negligible communication overhead; 2) From the training perspective, Winograd transformations introduce weight outliers that make quantization-aware training (QAT) difficult, resulting in inferior model accuracy. To address these challenges, we co-optimize both protocol and algorithm. 1) At the protocol level, we propose a series of graph-level optimizations for 2PC inference to minimize the communication. 2) At the algorithm level, we develop a mixed-precision QAT algorithm based on layer sensitivity to optimize model accuracy given communication constraints. To accommodate the outliers, we further introduce a 2PC-friendly bit re-weighting algorithm to increase the representation range without explicitly increasing bit widths. With extensive experiments, UFO demonstrates 11.7x, 3.6x, and 6.3x communication reduction with 1.29%, 1.16%, and 1.29% higher accuracy compared to state-of-the-art frameworks SiRNN, COINN, and CoPriv, respectively.
title UFO: Unlocking Ultra-Efficient Quantized Private Inference with Protocol and Algorithm Co-Optimization
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.18758