tff.learning.templates.DistributionProcess

A stateful process that distributes values.

Inherits From: MeasuredProcess, IterativeProcess

tff.learning.templates.DistributionProcess(
    initialize_fn, next_fn
)

A DistributionProcess is a tff.templates.MeasuredProcess that formalizes the type signature of initialize_fn and next_fn for distribution.

The initialize_fn and next_fn must have the following type signatures:

  - initialize_fn: ( -> S@SERVER)
  - next_fn: (<S@SERVER, U@SERVER> ->
              <state=S@SERVER, result=V@CLIENTS, measurements=M@SERVER>)

DistributionProcess requires next_fn with a second input argument, which is a value placed at SERVER and to be distributed to CLIENTS.

The result field of the returned tff.templates.MeasuredProcessOutput must be placed at CLIENTS. Its type singature, U', need not be the same as the type signature of the second input argument, U. Note these will be equivalent for a number of implementations of this process, though.

initialize_fn A no-arg tff.Computation that returns the initial state of the measured process. Let the type of this state be called S.
next_fn A tff.Computation that represents the iterated function. The first or only argument must be assignable from ( tff.types.Type.is_assignable_from must return True) the state type S. The return value must be a MeasuredProcessOutput whose state member is assignable to the first argument (same requirement as the S type).
next_is_multi_arg An optional boolean indicating that next_fn will receive more than just the state argument (if True) or only the state argument (if False). This parameter is primarily used to provide better error messages.

TypeError If initialize_fn and next_fn are not instances of tff.Computation.
TemplateInitFnParamNotEmptyError If initialize_fn has any input arguments.
TemplateStateNotAssignableError If the state returned by either initialize_fn or next_fn is not assignable to the first input argument of next_fn.
TemplateNotMeasuredProcessOutputError If next_fn does not return a MeasuredProcessOutput.

initialize A no-arg tff.Computation that returns the initial state.
next A tff.Computation that produces the next state.

Its first argument should always be the current state (originally produced by tff.templates.IterativeProcess.initialize), and the first (or only) returned value is the updated state.

state_type The tff.Type of the state of the process.