Confederated MLOps With Affinity Grouping for Data-Scarce Federated Learning

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Solution Overview

Problem

Federated learning faces challenges in domains with data scarcity and data quality issues, particularly in automotive manufacturing and software-defined vehicles, where data cannot be easily shared due to privacy concerns and transferring data to central servers is costly.

Innovation Solution

A participatory Distributed Confederate Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) framework with Stochastic Optimization and affinity index-based selection of collaborating members, enabling group-based data sharing among nodes with similar features, using Generative AI for data augmentation, and hierarchical optimization to reduce communication overhead and improve convergence speed.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If federated learning is used to enable collaborative ML without centralized training data, then data privacy and security are improved, but data scarcity at individual client nodes worsens

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata privacy and securityVSAvoiddata quantity at client nodes
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments client nodes into groups based on feature similarity (affinity index), allowing localized data sharing within groups while maintaining privacy. This segmentation enables data scarcity to be addressed at the group level without compromising individual node privacy, as data remains distributed but collaborative within homogeneous groups.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary aggregation mechanism that facilitates controlled data sharing between client nodes. The system uses affinity index calculations and group-based aggregation to mediate data exchange, enabling clients to share data selectively with similar nodes while preserving overall data privacy and security.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Manufacturing precision

If data sharing is enabled to address data scarcity, then model accuracy is improved, but communication overhead and data transfer costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemodel accuracyVSAvoidcommunication overhead and data transfer costs
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements local quality by enabling data sharing only within groups of client nodes that have similar features (high affinity index). This localized approach ensures that data exchange occurs only when beneficial for model accuracy, avoiding unnecessary communication with dissimilar nodes and reducing overall communication overhead.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary affinity index calculations to identify suitable collaborating nodes before data sharing begins. This preliminary classification allows the system to pre-organize data exchange pathways, reducing communication overhead during actual data transfer by avoiding inefficient broad-based data sharing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Manufacturing precision

If group-based data sharing is implemented, then data quality is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata qualityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system uses parameter changes by calculating an affinity index based on feature similarity metrics to dynamically determine group memberships. This parameter-based approach automatically adapts to different data characteristics and can reconfigure groups as needed, managing system complexity through algorithmic automation rather than manual configuration.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentEP4668168A1Participatory distributed confederate mlops framework with stochastic optimization and affinity index-based selection of collaborating members
Publication Date: 2025.12.24 TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD
  • EP4668168A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4668168A1 patent drawingFigure 2A
  • EP4668168A1 patent drawingFigure 2B

AI summary

State of art techniques. A method and system for participatory Distributed Confederate Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) framework with Stochastic Optimization and affinity index-based selection of collaborating members is disclosed. , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The MLOps framework addresses the gap in the space of federated learning by enabling or supporting data sharing within group having members with commonality. The commonality is defined based on an affinity index based grouping of members participating in collaborative learning. Even after data sharing, the data may still be insufficient, thus Time series based data augmentation techniques using Generative AI can be used to generate synthetic data for initial training iterations. The client and server/aggregator time allotment during the training of ML models is guided by stochastic gradient descent optimization (SDCA) enabling faster convergence with desirable ML accuracy.