Common tips

This document introduces several common techniques for optimizing code to fit Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) constraints. The examples provided demonstrate various workarounds and performance optimizations that you can implement while working with the Concrete library.

All code snippets provided here are temporary workarounds. In future versions of Concrete, some functions described here could be directly available in a more generic and efficient form. These code snippets are coming from support answers in our community forum

Retrieving a value within an encrypted array with an encrypted index

This example demonstrates how to retrieve a value from an array using an encrypted index. The method creates a "selection" array filled with 0s except for the requested index, which will be 1. It then sums the products of all array values with this selection array:

import numpy as np
from concrete import fhe

@fhe.compiler({"array": "encrypted", "index": "encrypted"})
def indexed_value(array, index):
    all_indices = np.arange(array.size)
    index_selection = index == all_indices
    selection_and_zeros = array * index_selection
    selection = np.sum(selection_and_zeros)
    return selection

inputset = [(np.random.randint(0, 16, size=5), np.random.randint(0, 5)) for _ in range(50)]
circuit = indexed_value.compile(inputset)

array = np.random.randint(0, 16, size=5)

index = np.random.randint(0, 5)
assert circuit.encrypt_run_decrypt(array, index) == array[index]

Filter an array with comparison (>)

This example filters an encrypted array with an encrypted condition, in this case a greater than comparison with an encrypted value. It packs all values with a selection bit that results from the comparison, allowing the unpacking of only the filtered values:

import numpy as np
from concrete import fhe

@fhe.compiler({"numbers": "encrypted", "threshold": "encrypted"})
def filtering(numbers, threshold):
    is_greater = numbers > threshold

    shifted_numbers = numbers * 2  # open space for a single bit at the end
    combined_numbers_and_is_greater = shifted_numbers + is_greater  # put is_greater to that bit

    def extract(combination):
        is_greater = (combination % 2) == 1  # extract is_greater back from packing
        if_true = combination // 2  # if is greater is true, we unpack the number and use it
        if_false = 0  # otherwise we set the element to zero
        return np.where(is_greater, if_true, if_false)  # and apply the operation

    return fhe.univariate(extract)(combined_numbers_and_is_greater)

inputset = [(np.random.randint(0, 16, size=5), np.random.randint(0, 16)) for _ in range(50)]
circuit = filtering.compile(inputset)

numbers = np.random.randint(0, 16, size=5)
threshold = np.random.randint(0, 16)
assert np.array_equal(circuit.encrypt_run_decrypt(numbers, threshold), list(map(lambda x: x if x > threshold else 0, numbers)))

Matrix Row/Col means

This example introduces a key concept when using Concrete: maximizing parallelization. Instead of sequentially summing all values to compute a mean, the values are split into sub-groups, and the mean of these sub-group means is computed:

import numpy as np
from concrete import fhe

def smallest_prime_divisor(n):
    if n % 2 == 0:
        return 2

    for i in range(3, int(np.sqrt(n)) + 1):
        if n % i == 0:
            return i

    return n

def mean_of_vector(x):
    assert x.size != 0
    if x.size == 1:
        return x[0]

    group_size = smallest_prime_divisor(x.size)
    if x.size == group_size:
        return np.round(np.sum(x) / x.size).astype(np.int64)

    groups = []
    for i in range(x.size // group_size):
        start = i * group_size
        end = start + group_size
        groups.append(x[start:end])

    mean_of_groups = []
    for group in groups:
        mean_of_groups.append(np.round(np.sum(group) / group_size).astype(np.int64))

    return mean_of_vector(fhe.array(mean_of_groups))

@fhe.compiler(({"x": "encrypted"}))
def mean_of_matrix(x):
    return mean_of_vector(x.flatten())

@fhe.compiler(({"x": "encrypted"}))
def mean_of_rows_of_matrix(x):
    means = []
    for i in range(x.shape[0]):
        means.append(mean_of_vector(x[i]))
    return fhe.array(means)

@fhe.compiler(({"x": "encrypted"}))
def mean_of_columns_of_matrix(x):
    means = []
    for i in range(x.shape[1]):
        means.append(mean_of_vector(x[:, i]))
    return fhe.array(means)


inputset = [np.random.randint(0, 16, size=(5,5)) for _ in range(50)]
matrix = np.random.randint(0, 16, size=(5, 5))

circuit = mean_of_matrix.compile(inputset)
assert circuit.encrypt_run_decrypt(matrix) == round(matrix.mean())

circuit = mean_of_rows_of_matrix.compile(inputset)
assert np.array_equal(circuit.encrypt_run_decrypt(matrix), [round(x) for x in matrix.mean(1)])

circuit = mean_of_columns_of_matrix.compile(inputset)
assert np.array_equal(circuit.encrypt_run_decrypt(matrix), [round(x) for x in matrix.mean(0)])