Multi-Session Budget Optimization for Forward Auction-based Federated Learning

Xiaoli Tang, Han Yu, Zengxiang Li, Xiaoxiao Li
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 267:59005-59016, 2025.

Abstract

Auction-based Federated Learning (AFL) has emerged as an important research field in recent years. The prevailing strategies for FL data consumers (DCs) assume that the entire team of the required data owners (DOs) for an FL task must be assembled before training can commence. In practice, a DC can trigger the FL training process multiple times. DOs can thus be gradually recruited over multiple FL model training sessions. Existing bidding strategies for AFL DCs are not designed to handle such scenarios. Therefore, the problem of multi-session AFL remains open. To address this problem, we propose the Multi-session Budget Optimization Strategy for forward Auction-based Federated Learning (MBOS-AFL). Based on hierarchical reinforcement learning, MBOS-AFL jointly optimizes intersession budget pacing and intra-session bidding for AFL DCs, with the objective of maximizing the total utility. Extensive experiments on six benchmark datasets show that it significantly outperforms seven state-of-the-art approaches. On average, MBOS-AFL achieves 12.28% higher utility, 14.52% more data acquired through auctions for a given budget, and 1.23% higher test accuracy achieved by the resulting FL model compared to the best baseline. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first budget optimization decision support method with budget pacing capability designed for DCs in multi-session forward AFL.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v267-tang25m, title = {Multi-Session Budget Optimization for Forward Auction-based Federated Learning}, author = {Tang, Xiaoli and Yu, Han and Li, Zengxiang and Li, Xiaoxiao}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning}, pages = {59005--59016}, year = {2025}, editor = {Singh, Aarti and Fazel, Maryam and Hsu, Daniel and Lacoste-Julien, Simon and Berkenkamp, Felix and Maharaj, Tegan and Wagstaff, Kiri and Zhu, Jerry}, volume = {267}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {13--19 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mlresearch/v267/main/assets/tang25m/tang25m.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/tang25m.html}, abstract = {Auction-based Federated Learning (AFL) has emerged as an important research field in recent years. The prevailing strategies for FL data consumers (DCs) assume that the entire team of the required data owners (DOs) for an FL task must be assembled before training can commence. In practice, a DC can trigger the FL training process multiple times. DOs can thus be gradually recruited over multiple FL model training sessions. Existing bidding strategies for AFL DCs are not designed to handle such scenarios. Therefore, the problem of multi-session AFL remains open. To address this problem, we propose the Multi-session Budget Optimization Strategy for forward Auction-based Federated Learning (MBOS-AFL). Based on hierarchical reinforcement learning, MBOS-AFL jointly optimizes intersession budget pacing and intra-session bidding for AFL DCs, with the objective of maximizing the total utility. Extensive experiments on six benchmark datasets show that it significantly outperforms seven state-of-the-art approaches. On average, MBOS-AFL achieves 12.28% higher utility, 14.52% more data acquired through auctions for a given budget, and 1.23% higher test accuracy achieved by the resulting FL model compared to the best baseline. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first budget optimization decision support method with budget pacing capability designed for DCs in multi-session forward AFL.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Multi-Session Budget Optimization for Forward Auction-based Federated Learning %A Xiaoli Tang %A Han Yu %A Zengxiang Li %A Xiaoxiao Li %B Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2025 %E Aarti Singh %E Maryam Fazel %E Daniel Hsu %E Simon Lacoste-Julien %E Felix Berkenkamp %E Tegan Maharaj %E Kiri Wagstaff %E Jerry Zhu %F pmlr-v267-tang25m %I PMLR %P 59005--59016 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/tang25m.html %V 267 %X Auction-based Federated Learning (AFL) has emerged as an important research field in recent years. The prevailing strategies for FL data consumers (DCs) assume that the entire team of the required data owners (DOs) for an FL task must be assembled before training can commence. In practice, a DC can trigger the FL training process multiple times. DOs can thus be gradually recruited over multiple FL model training sessions. Existing bidding strategies for AFL DCs are not designed to handle such scenarios. Therefore, the problem of multi-session AFL remains open. To address this problem, we propose the Multi-session Budget Optimization Strategy for forward Auction-based Federated Learning (MBOS-AFL). Based on hierarchical reinforcement learning, MBOS-AFL jointly optimizes intersession budget pacing and intra-session bidding for AFL DCs, with the objective of maximizing the total utility. Extensive experiments on six benchmark datasets show that it significantly outperforms seven state-of-the-art approaches. On average, MBOS-AFL achieves 12.28% higher utility, 14.52% more data acquired through auctions for a given budget, and 1.23% higher test accuracy achieved by the resulting FL model compared to the best baseline. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first budget optimization decision support method with budget pacing capability designed for DCs in multi-session forward AFL.
APA
Tang, X., Yu, H., Li, Z. & Li, X.. (2025). Multi-Session Budget Optimization for Forward Auction-based Federated Learning. Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 267:59005-59016 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/tang25m.html.

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