VMFL: A Verifiable Multiround Aggregation Scheme for Federated Learning in VANETs

In vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), federated learning (FL) enables collaborative training a global intelligent transportation model without sharing vehicles’ raw data. Achieving model convergence in VANETs requires multiple rounds of FL for aggregation and updates. To improve the efficiency of model convergence, researchers explore methods of multiround aggregation. The latest work, Flamingo (S&P 2023), proposes a multiround aggregation scheme based on a reusable key mechanism. Its application in VANETs with dynamic network structures enhances the efficiency of model training. However, this scheme has a defect: vehicles cannot verify the correctness of the aggregation result. Once a semi-trusted server returns incorrect aggregation results due to computational errors, it may reduce the model’s accuracy or even cause training failure. In this scheme, we propose a verifiable multiround aggregation scheme for FL in VANETs (VMFL), enabling vehicles to verify the aggregation results. First, a multiround verification mechanism is designed to reduce the number of interactions for vehicles by using reusable keys. Additionally, we propose a lightweight proof scheme that allows vehicles to verify the results with minimal computation, reducing the computational overhead of the verification process. Finally, a security analysis of VMFL is performed to demonstrate its security in cases of vehicle dropout. We validated the efficiency of VMFL across different datasets through experiments, showing no significant increase in time overhead compared to Flamingo, and demonstrating that its verification time is reduced by about 90% compared to the state-of-the-art scheme, thereby demonstrating the scheme’s usability.