mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Chimera: Latency- and Performance-Aware Multi-agent Serving for Heterogeneous LLMs

arXiv 2603.22206 ↗First posted 23 Mar 2026cs.LGcited by 4

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Software engineering coding agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Multi-agent applications often execute complex tasks as multi-stage workflows, where each stage is an LLM call whose output becomes part of context for subsequent steps. Existing LLM serving systems largely assume homogeneous clusters with identical model replicas. This design overlooks the potential of heterogeneous deployments, where models of different sizes and capabilities enable finer trade-offs between latency and performance. However, heterogeneity introduces new challenges in scheduling across models with diverse throughput and performance. We present Chimera, a predictive scheduling system for multi-agent workflow serving on heterogeneous LLM clusters that jointly improves end-to-end latency and task performance. Chimera applies semantic routing to estimate per-model confidence scores for each request, predicts the total remaining output length of the workflow, and estimates per-model congestion using in-flight predicted token volumes for load balancing. We evaluate Chimera on representative agentic workflows for code generation and math reasoning using multiple heterogeneous LLM configurations. Across comparable settings, Chimera traces the best latency-performance frontier, reducing end-to-end latency by 1.2--2.4× and improving task performance by 8.0-9.5 percentage points on average over competitive baselines including vLLM.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 29 of its 39 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 23 Mar 2026.

Builds on

29 of 39 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineering6 May
  2. 2023AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversation16 Aug
  3. 2023ChatDev: Communicative Agents for Software Development16 Jul

Other references · 26

  1. 2024The Llama 3 Herd of Modelscited by 14,192
  2. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  3. 2023Efficient Memory Management for Large Language Model Serving with PagedAttentioncited by 5,767
  4. 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Frameworkcited by 1,761
  5. 2023CAMEL: Communicative Agents for "Mind" Exploration of Large Language Model Societycited by 1,348
  6. 2024Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challengescited by 752
  7. 2024RouteLLM: Learning to Route LLMs with Preference Datacited by 633
  8. 2024DistServe: Disaggregating Prefill and Decoding for Goodput-optimized Large Language Model Servingcited by 595
  9. 2024Smarter, Better, Faster, Longer: A Modern Bidirectional Encoder for Fast, Memory Efficient, and Long Context Finetuning and Inferencecited by 527
  10. 2024Taming Throughput-Latency Tradeoff in LLM Inference with Sarathi-Servecited by 507
  11. 2024GraphRouter: A Graph-based Router for LLM Selectionscited by 154
  12. 2024Inference without Interference: Disaggregate LLM Inference for Mixed Downstream Workloadscited by 120
14 more
  1. 2025Agentic Large Language Models, a surveycited by 105
  2. 2024Parrot: Efficient Serving of LLM-based Applications with Semantic Variablecited by 96
  3. 2023Response Length Perception and Sequence Scheduling: An LLM-Empowered LLM Inference Pipelinecited by 86
  4. 2024Efficient LLM Scheduling by Learning to Rankcited by 83
  5. 2025Universal Model Routing for Efficient LLM Inferencecited by 80
  6. 2024Efficient Interactive LLM Serving with Proxy Model-based Sequence Length Predictioncited by 64
  7. 2025Router-R1: Teaching LLMs Multi-Round Routing and Aggregation via Reinforcement Learningcited by 64
  8. 2025BEST-Route: Adaptive LLM Routing with Test-Time Optimal Computecited by 63
  9. 2025MixLLM: Dynamic Routing in Mixed Large Language Modelscited by 56
  10. 2024EmbedLLM: Learning Compact Representations of Large Language Modelscited by 46
  11. 2025IRT-Router: Effective and Interpretable Multi-LLM Routing via Item Response Theorycited by 40
  12. 2025Capability Instruction Tuning: A New Paradigm for Dynamic LLM Routingcited by 25
  13. 2024Enabling Efficient Batch Serving for LMaaS via Generation Length Predictioncited by 20
  14. 2025IPR: Intelligent Prompt Routing with User-Controlled Quality-Cost Trade-offscited by 5

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.

4 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Pythia: Exploiting Workflow Predictability for Efficient Agent-Native LLM Serving
  2. 2026HexAGenT: Efficient Agentic LLM Serving via Workflow- and Heterogeneity-Aware Scheduling
  3. 2026Do More Agents Help? Controlled and Protocol-Aligned Evaluation of LLM Agent Workflows
  4. 2026ProgRouter: Online Progress-Guided Orchestration for Multi-Agent LLM Workflows under Quality-Cost Tradeoffs
  5. 2026Scaling LLM-Driven Multi-Agent Systems: Design Principles and Architectural Scalability Analysis
  6. 2026Efficient LLM Serving for Agentic Workflows: A Data Systems Perspective
  7. 2026HeraSys: Collaborative Serving of Multiple LLM Workflows via Fine-Grained End-to-End Optimization
  8. 2025Astraea: A State-Aware Scheduling Engine for LLM-Powered Agents