On the Arithmetic and Geometric Fusion of Beliefs for Distributed Inference

Mert Kayaalp, Yunus Inan, Emre Telatar, Ali H. Sayed

Abstract: We study the asymptotic learning rates of belief vectors in a distributed hypothesis testing problem under linear and log-linear combination rules. We show that under both combination strategies, agents are able to learn the truth exponentially fast, with a faster rate under log-linear fusion. We examine the gap between the rates in terms of network connectivity and information diversity. We also provide closed-form expressions for special cases involving federated architectures and exchangeable networks.