Advances in Distributed Learning and Gradient Compression

The field of distributed learning is moving towards developing more efficient and resilient algorithms that can handle the challenges of large-scale distributed systems. Researchers are focusing on mitigating the straggler problem, which can significantly slow down the training process. New approaches, such as unbalanced update mechanisms and gradient coding schemes, are being proposed to address this issue. Additionally, there is a growing interest in developing more efficient gradient compression methods, such as Top-K compressors, to reduce communication overhead. These advancements have the potential to significantly improve the scalability and efficiency of distributed learning systems. Notable papers in this area include: Towards Straggler-Resilient Split Federated Learning, which proposes a straggler-resilient algorithm for split federated learning, and An All-Reduce Compatible Top-K Compressor, which introduces a new compressor that aligns sparsity patterns across nodes, enabling efficient All-Reduce operations.

Sources

Towards Straggler-Resilient Split Federated Learning: An Unbalanced Update Approach

Quantitative Bounds for Sorting-Based Permutation-Invariant Embeddings

Davis-Kahan Theorem under a moderate gap condition

Approximate Gradient Coding for Distributed Learning with Heterogeneous Stragglers

$L_p$ Sampling in Distributed Data Streams with Applications to Adversarial Robustness

An All-Reduce Compatible Top-K Compressor for Communication-Efficient Distributed Learning

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