Generative AI-Powered Plugin for Robust Federated Learning in Heterogeneous IoT Networks

Abstract

Federated learning enables edge devices to collaboratively train a global model while maintaining data privacy by keeping data localized. However, the Non-IID nature of data distribution across devices often hinders model convergence and reduces performance. In this paper, we propose a novel plugin for federated optimization methods that approximates Non-IID data distributions to IID through generative AI-enhanced data augmentation and balanced sampling strategy. The key idea is to synthesize additional data for underrepresented classes on each edge device, leveraging generative AI to create a more balanced dataset across the FL network. Additionally, a balanced sampling approach at the central server selectively includes only the most IID-like devices, accelerating convergence while maximizing the global model's performance. Experimental results validate that our approach significantly improves convergence speed and robustness against data imbalance, establishing a flexible, privacy-preserving FL plugin that is applicable even in data-scarce environments.