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arxivcs.DCcs.AI2026-07-15

The Cost and Network Limits of Space-Based AI Compute

Kees van Berkel

This paper evaluates whether large-scale AI data centers deployed in low-Earth orbit (LEO) could become a cost-effective alternative to terrestrial facilities. The analysis compares orbital and ground-based systems across launch cost, power generation, cooling, radiation exposure, and atmospheric reentry, as well as compute-network performance. A key distinction is the shift from terrestrial Clos networks to space-based mesh networks using laser inter-satellite links. Using bisection bandwidth, bisection intensity, and roofline-style models, we show that while LEO-based inference may be feasible, training frontier-scale LLMs in orbit is unlikely to be competitive with terrestrial data centers.

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arxivcs.DCcs.AI2026-07-16

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Edge computing brings unique challenges as the resources on the edge are highly diverse in capabilities and capacities, and highly distributed across many users and the physical world. Existing distributed computing frameworks cannot adequately handle this level of heterogeneity…

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arxivcs.AIcs.DC2026-07-23

Clustered Edge Intelligence: Beyond Just Convergence of Edge Computing and AI

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We are moving from an information age to the age of intelligence. A decade, or possibly less than that, data will not be the gold anymore rather the derived intelligence out of the data and the information we posses from the edge of the network. Existing Edge Intelligence researc…

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arxivcs.LGcs.AIcs.DCcs.MAcs.NI2026-07-13

PFAdapter: Hierarchical LoRA Decomposition for Personalized Federated MLLMs

Jing Liu, Kun Yang, Yan Wang, Dingkang Yang, Xiaoshuai Hao, Wei Zhang, et al.

Agentic AI systems are reshaping communications and networking by deploying autonomous intelligent agents capable of collaborative learning while maintaining data privacy at network edges. Within distributed network environments, Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) serve as…

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arxivcs.SEcs.AIcs.DCcs.ETcs.MA2026-07-08

Progressive Crystallization: Turning Agent Exploration into Deterministic, Lower-Cost Workflows in Production

Arun Malik

AI agents deployed for IT operations are typically permanent cost centers because every execution requires full LLM inference, even for previously solved problems. This paper introduces progressive crystallization, a lifecycle that treats agent exploration as a discovery mechanis…

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arxivcs.LGcs.AIcs.DC2026-07-03

Decentralised Federated Learning over Temporal Networks: The Role of Heterogeneities

Arash Badie-Modiri, Chiara Boldrini, Lorenzo Valerio, János Kertész, Márton Karsai

Decentralised federated learning, based on peer-to-peer communication, is increasingly proposed for on-device training of machine learning models, promising a privacy-preserving, communication-efficient training process with no risk of single-point failure. However, the role of s…

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arxivcs.LGcs.AIcs.CVcs.DC2026-07-13

Continual Learning with Elastic Regularization and Synthetic Replay for Federated MLLM Fine-Tuning

Jing Liu, Chenxuanyin Zou, Jiayang Ren, Gaoyun Fang, Chengfang Li, Yan Wang, et al.

Federated fine-tuning of Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) across distributed networks enables privacy-sensitive adaptation to evolving data streams, yet a fundamental obstacle prevents robust deployment in dynamic environments: catastrophic forgetting, wherein sequential…

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