Tight analyses of first-order methods with error feedback

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2506.05271v1
• Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2025 17:30:18 GMT
• Title: Tight analyses of first-order methods with error feedback
• Authors: Daniel Berg Thomsen, Adrien Taylor, Aymeric Dieuleveut,
• Abstract summary: Communication between agents often constitutes a major computational bottleneck in distributed learning.<n>One of the most common mitigation strategies is to compress the information exchanged.<n>Error feedback schemes were introduced to counteract the degradation in convergence associated with compressed communication.
• Score: 8.759583928626702
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Communication between agents often constitutes a major computational bottleneck in distributed learning. One of the most common mitigation strategies is to compress the information exchanged, thereby reducing communication overhead. To counteract the degradation in convergence associated with compressed communication, error feedback schemes -- most notably $\mathrm{EF}$ and $\mathrm{EF}^{21}$ -- were introduced. In this work, we provide a tight analysis of both of these methods. Specifically, we find the Lyapunov function that yields the best possible convergence rate for each method -- with matching lower bounds. This principled approach yields sharp performance guarantees and enables a rigorous, apples-to-apples comparison between $\mathrm{EF}$, $\mathrm{EF}^{21}$, and compressed gradient descent. Our analysis is carried out in a simplified yet representative setting, which allows for clean theoretical insights and fair comparison of the underlying mechanisms.

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