Towards Adapting Federated & Quantum Machine Learning for Network Intrusion Detection: A Survey

This survey explores the integration of Federated Learning (FL) with Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS), with particular emphasis on deep learning and quantum machine learning approaches. FL enables collaborative model training across distributed devices while preserving data privacy-a critical requirement in network security contexts where sensitive traffic data cannot be centralized. Our comprehensive analysis systematically examines the full spectrum of FL architectures, deployment strategies, communication protocols, and aggregation methods specifically tailored for intrusion detection. We provide an in-depth investigation of privacy-preserving techniques, model compression approaches, and attack-specific federated solutions for threats including DDoS, MITM, and botnet attacks. The survey further delivers a pioneering exploration of Quantum FL (QFL), discussing quantum feature encoding, quantum machine learning algorithms, and quantum-specific aggregation methods that promise exponential speedups for complex pattern recognition in network traffic. Through rigorous comparative analysis of classical and quantum approaches, identification of research gaps, and evaluation of real-world deployments, we outline a concrete roadmap for industrial adoption and future research directions. This work serves as an authoritative reference for researchers and practitioners seeking to enhance privacy, efficiency, and robustness of federated intrusion detection systems in increasingly complex network environments, while preparing for the quantum-enhanced cybersecurity landscape of tomorrow.