Federated Learning (FL) has gained prominence as a solution for preserving data privacy in machine learning applications. However, existing FL frameworks pose challenges for software engineers due to implementation complexity, limited customization options, and scalability issues. These limitations prevent the practical deployment of FL, especially in dynamic and resource-constrained edge environments, preventing its widespread adoption. To address these challenges, we propose EdgeFL, an efficient and low-effort FL framework designed to overcome centralized aggregation, implementation complexity and scalability limitations. EdgeFL applies a decentralized architecture that eliminates reliance on a central server by enabling direct model training and aggregation among edge nodes, which enhances fault tolerance and adaptability to diverse edge environments. We conducted experiments and a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of EdgeFL. Our approach focuses on reducing weight update latency and facilitating faster model evolution on edge devices. Our findings indicate that EdgeFL outperforms existing FL frameworks in terms of learning efficiency and performance. By enabling quicker model evolution on edge devices, EdgeFL enhances overall efficiency and responsiveness to changing data patterns. EdgeFL offers a solution for software engineers and companies seeking the benefits of FL, while effectively overcoming the challenges and privacy concerns associated with traditional FL frameworks. Its decentralized approach, simplified implementation, combined with enhanced customization and fault tolerance, make it suitable for diverse applications and industries.

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising approach for collaborative machine learning, addressing data privacy concerns. As data security and privacy concerns continue to gain prominence, FL stands out as an option to enable organizations to leverage collective knowledge without compromising sensitive data. However, existing FL platforms and frameworks often present challenges for software engineers in terms of complexity, limited customization options, and scalability limitations. In this paper, we introduce EdgeFL, an edge-only lightweight decentralized FL framework, designed to overcome the limitations of centralized aggregation and scalability in FL deployments. By adopting an edge-only model training and aggregation approach, EdgeFL eliminates the need for a central server, enabling seamless scalability across diverse use cases. Our results show that EdgeFL reduces weights update latency and enables faster model evolution, enhancing the efficiency of edge model learning. Moreover, EdgeFL exhibits improved classification accuracy compared to traditional centralized FL approaches. By leveraging EdgeFL, software engineers can harness the benefits of Federated Learning while overcoming the challenges associated with existing FL platforms/frameworks.

Deep reinforcement learning has advanced signifi-cantly in recent years, and it is now used in embedded systems in addition to simulators and games. Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms are currently being used to enhance device operation so that they can learn on their own and offer clients better services. It has recently been studied in a variety of industrial applications. However, reinforcement learning, especially when controlling a large number of agents in an industrial environment, has been demonstrated to be unstable and unable to adapt to realistic situations when used in a real-world setting. To address this problem, the goal of this study is to enable multiple reinforcement learning agents to independently learn control policies on their own in dynamic industrial contexts. In order to solve the problem, we propose a dynamic multi-agent reinforcement learning (dynamic multi-RL) method along with adaptive exploration (AE) and vector-based action selection (VAS) techniques for accelerating model convergence and adapting to a complex industrial environment. The proposed algorithm is tested for validation in emergency situations within the telecommunications industry. In such circumstances, three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV-BSs) are used to provide temporary coverage to mission-critical (MC) customers in disaster zones when the original serving base station (BS) is destroyed by natural disasters. The algorithm directs the participating agents automatically to enhance service quality. Our findings demonstrate that the proposed dynamic multi-RL algorithm can proficiently manage the learning of multiple agents and adjust to dynamic industrial environments. Additionally, it enhances learning speed and improves the quality of service.

In recent years, Federated Learning, as an approach to distributed learning, has shown its potential with the increasing number of devices on the edge and the development of computing power. The method enables large-scale training on the device that creates the data but with the sensitive data remaining within the data’s owner. In reality, however, the vast majority of enterprises have the problem of low data volume and poor model quality to support the implementation of Federated Learning methods. Learning quality assurance for edge devices is still the major issue which prevents Federated Learning to be applied in industrial contexts, especially in safety-critical applications. In this paper, we propose a quality-based asynchronous Federated Learning algorithm (QuaFedAsync) to address these challenges. We report on a study in which we used two well-known data sets, i.e., DDAD and KITTI datasets, and validate the proposed algorithm on an industrial use case concerned with monocular depth estimation in the automotive domain. Our results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the prediction performance compared to the commonly applied aggregation protocols while maintaining the same level of accuracy as centralized machine learning. Based on the results, we prove the learning efficiency and robustness when applying the algorithm to industrial scenarios.

Reinforcement learning, particularly deep reinforcement learning, has made remarkable progress in recent years and is now used not only in simulators and games but is also making its way into embedded systems as another software-intensive domain. However, when implemented in a real-world context, reinforcement learning is typically shown to be fragile and incapable of adapting to dynamic environments. In this paper, we provide a novel dynamic reinforcement learning algorithm for adapting to complex industrial situations. We apply and validate our approach using a telecommunications use case. The proposed algorithm can dynamically adjust the position and antenna tilt of a drone-based base station to maintain reliable wireless connectivity for mission-critical users. When compared to traditional reinforcement learning approaches, the dynamic reinforcement learning algorithm improves the overall service performance of a drone-based base station by roughly 20%. Our results demonstrate that the algorithm can quickly evolve and continuously adapt to the complex dynamic industrial environment.

Data collected from in-service products play an important role in enabling software-intensive embedded systems suppliers to embrace data-driven practices. Data can be used in many different ways such as to continuously learn and improve the product, enhance post-deployment services, reduce operational cost or create a better user experience. While there is no shortage of possible use cases leveraging data from in-service products, software-intensive embedded systems companies struggle to continuously collect data from their in-service products. Often, data collection is done in an ad-hoc way and targeting specific use cases or needs. Besides, few studies have investigated data collection challenges in relation to the data dimensions, which are the minimum set of quantifiable data aspects that can define software-intensive embedded product data from a collection point of view. To help address data collection challenges, and to provide companies with guidance on how to improve this process, we conducted a case study at a large multinational telecommunications supplier focusing on data characteristics and collection challenges from the Radio Access Networks (RAN) products. We further investigated the relations of these challenges to the data dimensions to increase our understanding of how data dominions contribute to the challenges.

With the development and the increasing interests in ML/DL fields, companies are eager to apply Machine Learning/Deep Learning approaches to increase service quality and customer experience. Federated Learning was implemented as an effective model training method for distributing and accelerating time-consuming model training while protecting user data privacy. However, common Federated Learning approaches, on the other hand, use a synchronous protocol to conduct model aggregation, which is inflexible and unable to adapt to rapidly changing environments and heterogeneous hardware settings in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we present an approach to real-time end-to-end Federated Learning combined with a novel asynchronous model aggregation protocol. Our method is validated in an industrial use case in the automotive domain, focusing on steering wheel angle prediction for autonomous driving. Our findings show that asynchronous Federated Learning can significantly improve the prediction performance of local edge models while maintaining the same level of accuracy as centralized machine learning. Furthermore, by using a sliding training window, the approach can minimize communication overhead, accelerate model training speed and consume real-time streaming data, proving high efficiency when deploying ML/DL components to heterogeneous real-world embedded systems.

In recent years, with more edge devices being put into use, the amount of data that is created, transmitted and stored is increasing exponentially. Moreover, due to the development of machine learning algorithms, modern software-intensive systems are able to take advantage of the data to further improve their service quality. However, it is expensive and inefficient to transmit large amounts of data to a central location for the purpose of training and deploying machine learning models. Data transfer from edge devices across the globe to central locations may also raise privacy and concerns related to local data regulations. As a distributed learning approach, Federated Learning has been introduced to tackle those challenges. Since Federated Learning simply exchanges locally trained machine learning models rather than the entire data set throughout the training process, the method not only protects user data privacy but also improves model training efficiency. In this paper, we have investigated an advanced machine learning algorithm, Deep Neural Decision Forests (DNDF), which unites classification trees with the representation learning functionality from deep convolutional neural networks. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm, AF-DNDF which extends DNDF with an asynchronous federated aggregation protocol. Based on the local quality of each classification tree, our architecture can select and combine the optimal groups of decision trees from multiple local devices. The introduction of the asynchronous protocol enables the algorithm to be deployed in the industrial context with heterogeneous hardware settings. Our AF-DNDF architecture is validated in an automotive industrial use case focusing on road objects recognition and demonstrated by an empirical experiment with two different data sets. The experimental results show that our AF-DNDF algorithm significantly reduces the communication overhead and accelerates model training speed without sacrificing model classification performance. The algorithm can reach the same classification accuracy as the commonly used centralized machine learning methods but also greatly improve local edge model quality.

In recent years, with the development of computation capability in devices, companies are eager to investigate and utilize suitable ML/DL methods to improve their service quality. However, with the traditional learning strategy, companies need to first build up a powerful data center to collect and analyze data from the edge and then perform centralized model training, which turns out to be inefficient. Federated Learning has been introduced to solve this challenge. Because of its characteristics such as model-only exchange and parallel training, the technique can not only preserve user data privacy but also accelerate model training speed. The method can easily handle real-time data generated from the edge without taking up a lot of valuable network transmission resources. In this paper, we introduce an approach to end-to-end on-device Machine Learning by utilizing Federated Learning. We validate our approach with an important industrial use case in the field of autonomous driving vehicles, the wheel steering angle prediction. Our results show that Federated Learning can significantly improve the quality of local edge models and also reach the same accuracy level as compared to the traditional centralized Machine Learning approach without its negative effects. Furthermore, Federated Learning can accelerate model training speed and reduce the communication overhead, which proves that this approach has great strength when deploying ML/DL components to various real-world embedded systems.

Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have increasingly gained attention in research and industry. Federated Learning, as an approach to distributed learning, shows its potential with the increasing number of devices on the edge and the development of computing power. However, most of the current Federated Learning systems apply a single-server centralized architecture, which may cause several critical problems, such as the single-point of failure as well as scaling and performance problems. In this paper, we propose and compare four architecture alternatives for a Federated Learning system, i.e. centralized, hierarchical, regional and decentralized architectures. We conduct the study by using two well-known data sets and measuring several system performance metrics for all four alternatives. Our results suggest scenarios and use cases which are suitable for each alternative. In addition, we investigate the trade-off between communication latency, model evolution time and the model classification performance, which is crucial to applying the results into real-world industrial systems.