Towards Federated Learning: A Case Study in the Telecommunication Domain

Abstract

Federated Learning, as a distributed learning technique, has emerged with the improvement of the performance of IoT and edge devices. The emergence of this learning method alters the situation in which data must be centrally uploaded to the cloud for processing and maximizes the utilization of edge devices’ computing and storage capabilities. The learning approach eliminates the need to upload large amounts of local data and reduces data transfer latency with local data processing. Since the Federated Learning technique does not require centralized data for model training, it is better suited to edge learning scenarios in which nodes have limited data. However, despite the fact that Federated Learning has significant benefits, we discovered that companies struggle with integrating Federated Learning components into their systems. In this paper, we present case study research that describes reasons why companies anticipate Federated Learning as an applicable technique. Secondly, we summarize the services that a complete Federated Learning system needs to support in industrial scenarios and then identify the key challenges for industries to adopt and transition to Federated Learning. Finally, based on our empirical findings, we suggest five criteria for companies implementing reliable Federated Learning systems.