# Networking-Aware Energy Efficiency in Agentic AI Inference: A Survey

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.07857 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.07857/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agentic AI for wireless networks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 55 of its 125 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Apr 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Agentic AI for wireless networks](https://mlsanity.com/agents/agentic-ai-for-wireless-networks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 55)

- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Efficient Memory Management for Large Language Model Serving with PagedAttention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.06180/) (2023)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [FlashAttention: Fast and Memory-Efficient Exact Attention with IO-Awareness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.14135/) (2022)
- [Informer: Beyond Efficient Transformer for Long Sequence Time-Series Forecasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07436/) (2020)
- [SparseGPT: Massive Language Models Can Be Accurately Pruned in One-Shot](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00774/) (2023)
- [KIVI: A Tuning-Free Asymmetric 2bit Quantization for KV Cache](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02750/) (2024)
- [Quest: Query-Aware Sparsity for Efficient Long-Context LLM Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10774/) (2024)
- [Efficient Processing of Deep Neural Networks: A Tutorial and Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.09039/) (2017)
- [DeepSpeed-MoE: Advancing Mixture-of-Experts Inference and Training to Power Next-Generation AI Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05596/) (2022)
- [Atom: Low-bit Quantization for Efficient and Accurate LLM Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19102/) (2023)
- [SpAtten: Efficient Sparse Attention Architecture with Cascade Token and Head Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09852/) (2020)
- [MobileLLM: Optimizing Sub-billion Parameter Language Models for On-Device Use Cases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14905/) (2024)
- [CacheGen: KV Cache Compression and Streaming for Fast Large Language Model Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.07240/) (2023)
- [LLM in a flash: Efficient Large Language Model Inference with Limited Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11514/) (2023)
- [SkipDecode: Autoregressive Skip Decoding with Batching and Caching for Efficient LLM Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.02628/) (2023)
- [Loki: Low-rank Keys for Efficient Sparse Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02542/) (2024)
- [EdgeMoE: Empowering Sparse Large Language Models on Mobile Devices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.14352/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Inference Optimization Techniques for Mixture of Experts Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14219/) (2024)
- [Wireless Communications with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Opportunities and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.03602/) (2016)
- [AIM: Adaptive Inference of Multi-Modal LLMs via Token Merging and Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03248/) (2024)
- [Wireless Federated Distillation for Distributed Edge Learning with Heterogeneous Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.02745/) (2019)
- [Action-Quantized Offline Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Skill Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11731/) (2023)
- [Sustainable LLM Inference for Edge AI: Evaluating Quantized LLMs for Energy Efficiency, Output Accuracy, and Inference Latency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03360/) (2025)
- [Joint Trajectory and Communication Design for Multi-UAV Enabled Wireless Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.02723/) (2017)
- [TAPAS: Thermal- and Power-Aware Scheduling for LLM Inference in Cloud Platforms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.02600/) (2025)
- [SwapMoE: Serving Off-the-shelf MoE-based Large Language Models with Tunable Memory Budget](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.15030/) (2023)
- [CE-CoLLM: Efficient and Adaptive Large Language Models Through Cloud-Edge Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.02829/) (2024)
- [SLO-aware GPU Frequency Scaling for Energy Efficient LLM Inference Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.05235/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) has catalyzed Agentic artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems integrating perception, reasoning, and action into closed-loop pipelines for continuous adaptation. While unlocking transformative applications in mobile edge computing, autonomous systems, and next-generation wireless networks, this paradigm creates fundamental energy challenges through iterative inference and persistent data exchange. Unlike traditional AI where bottlenecks are computational Floating Point Operations (FLOPs), Agentic AI faces compounding computational and communication energy costs. In this survey, we propose an energy accounting framework identifying computational and communication costs across the Perception-Reasoning-Action cycle. We establish a unified taxonomy spanning model simplification, computation control, input and attention optimization, and hardware-aware inference. We explore cross-layer co-design strategies jointly optimizing model parameters, wireless transmissions, and edge resources. Finally, we identify open challenges of federated green learning, carbon-aware agency, 6th generation mobile communication (6G)-native Agentic AI, and self-sustaining systems, providing a roadmap for scalable autonomous intelligence.