METHODS, APPARATUS AND MACHINE-READABLE MEDIA RELATING TO MACHINE-LEARNING IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK

A method performed by a first entity in a communications network is provided. The first entity belongs to a plurality of entities configured to perform federated learning to develop a model. In the method, the first entity trains a model using a machine-learning algorithm, generating a model update. The first entity generates a first mask, receives an indication of one or more respective second masks from a subset of the remaining entities of the plurality of entities, and combines the first mask and the respective second masks to generate a combined mask. The first entity transmits an indication of the first mask to one or more third entities of the plurality of entities. The first entity applies the combined mask to the model update to generate a masked model update and transmits the masked model update to an aggregating entity of the communications network.