Nautilus: A Verifiable Hierarchical Federated Learning Framework for Vehicular-Edge-Cloud Systems

Abstract

Federated Learning (FL) enables privacy-preserving collaborative learning for Internet of Vehicles (IoV) scenarios, but extreme heterogeneity of vehicular-edge-cloud resources severely limits system efficiency. Dynamic scheduling strategies mitigate this issue but introduce new trust concerns: verifying fair scheduling decisions and faithful client execution of compression instructions without privacy leakage remains an open challenge. We propose Nautilus, a verifiable efficient federated learning framework. First, a multi-dimensional resource-aware scheduling algorithm dynamically allocates compression ratios and training tasks based on vehicle bandwidth, latency and computing power, improving training efficiency. Second, a Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) mechanism ensures scheduling fairness and execution compliance while preserving privacy. Experiments show the framework reduces communication overhead and accelerates convergence with guaranteed system integrity.

Preprint, 14-page full paper; accepted for presentation at BlockSys'2026 (The 8th International Conference on Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and Trustworthy Systems). Conference website: https://www.aischolar.com/conference/blocksys2026