Adaptive federated learning for resource-constrained IoT devices through edge intelligence and multi-edge clustering

Abstract

In the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, federated learning (FL) plays a crucial role in enhancing the performance of heterogeneous edge computing environments due to its scalability, robustness, and low energy consumption. However, one of the major challenges in such environments is the efficient selection of edge nodes and the optimization of resource allocation, especially in dynamic and resource-constrained settings. To address this, we propose a novel architecture called Multi-Edge Clustered and Edge AI Heterogeneous Federated Learning (MEC-AI HetFL), which leverages multi-edge clustering and AI-driven node communication. This architecture enables edge AI nodes to collaborate, dynamically selecting significant nodes and optimizing global learning tasks with low complexity. Compared to existing solutions like EdgeFed, FedSA, FedMP, and H-DDPG, MEC-AI HetFL improves resource allocation, quality score, and learning accuracy, offering up to 5 times better performance in heterogeneous and distributed environments. The solution is validated through simulations and network traffic tests, demonstrating its ability to address the key challenges in IoT edge computing deployments.