Training federated learning (FL) at scale suffers from severe communication and heterogeneity constraints. These challenges are amplified in quantum federated learning (QFL), especially under non-IID data. We propose a model-driven QFL (mdQFL) framework that addresses communication overhead, scalability, and client drift through adaptive clustering and representative aggregation. The framework enables structured personalization and efficient update compression across rounds. mdQFL is the first QFL approach to jointly analyze training efficiency, personalization, and test generalization under heterogeneous conditions. Experiments across multiple datasets and quantum platforms show 50% communication reduction while maintaining or improving accuracy over standard QFL base-lines. We provide convergence guarantees and communication complexity bounds to establish scalability and robustness.

The integration of quantum machine learning into federated learning paradigms is poised to transform the future of technologies that depend on diverse machine learning methodologies. This research delves into Quantum Federated Learning (QFL), presenting an initial framework modeled on the Federated Averaging (FedAvg) algorithm, implemented via Qiskit. Despite its potential, QFL encounters critical challenges, including (i) susceptibility to a single point of failure , (ii) communication bottlenecks, and (iii) uncertainty in model convergence. Subsequently, we dive deeper into QFL and propose an innovative alternative to traditional server-based QFL. Our approach introduces a chained continuous QFL framework (ccQFL), which eliminates the need for a central server and the FedAvg method. In our framework, clients engage in a chained continuous training process, where they exchange models and collaboratively enhance each other’s performance. This approach improves both the efficiency of communication and the accuracy of the training process. Our experimental evaluation includes a proof-of-concept to demonstrate initial feasibility and a prototype study simulating TCP/IP communication between clients. This simulation enables concurrent operations, verifying the potential of ccQFL for real-world applications. We examine various datasets, including Iris, MNIST, synthetic and Genomic, covering a range of data sizes from small to large. For further validity of our proposed method, we extend our experimental analysis in other frameworks such as PennyLane and TensorCircuit where we include various ablation studies covering major considerations and factors that impact the framework to study validity, robustness, practicality, and others. Our results show that the ccQFL framework achieves model convergence, and we evaluate other critical metrics such as performance and communication delay. In addition, we provide a theoretical analysis to establish and discuss many factors such as model convergence, communication costs, etc.

We present a novel decentralized and trustworthy Quantum Federated Learning (QFL) framework tailored for the emerging Metaverse. This virtual environment, enabling social interaction, gaming, and commerce, demands secure and transparent systems. By integrating blockchain, our QFL framework ensures integrity, resilience, and transparency. Comparative analysis with classical Federated Learning (CFL) highlights its practicality and advantages in distributed settings. New insights discovered emphasize the importance of decentralized systems for the Metaverse’s evolution, with a blockchain-based QFL application demonstrated in a hybrid model. Our evaluation, implementation details and code are publicly available.

We develop a novel method by combining weighted personalization with quantum federated averaging to address impending challenges such as non-IID data distribution and client drift. The proposed weighted personalized Quantum Federated Learning (wpQFL) dynamically adapts to data heterogeneity, improving performance, validated through theoretical insights and empirical observations.