DICOMPUTE: An Economic and Privacy-Aware Framework for Distributed Artificial Intelligence Inference

Abstract:The prevailing design of large-scale artificial intelligence inference concentrates accelerators, model weights, and request processing in centralized computing facilities. Centralization offers important benefits in accelerator utilization, high-bandwidth interconnects, operational control, and serving efficiency. Yet centralized infrastructure is not always the least-cost or most governance-compatible choice for every inference workload. This paper develops a research framework for DICOMPUTE, a heterogeneous distributed inference architecture in which policy-constrained scheduling can allocate suitable requests across privately controlled, regional, and independently operated computing resources. We derive a full-cost comparison that accounts for capital amortization, energy, network transfer, orchestration, utilization, failures, and trust-related expenses; characterize conditions under which distributed inference can outperform centralized alternatives; and specify a privacy model separating data residency, transport confidentiality, execution confidentiality, and verifiable accounting. We propose falsifiable hypotheses and a reproducible experimental design, without presenting simulated examples as measured performance. Our central conclusion is conditional: distributed inference is most promising for divisible, latency-tolerant or locality-sensitive workloads on underutilized compatible hardware, while centralized clusters retain structural advantages for tightly coupled, memory-intensive, high-throughput inference. The framework is intended to support rigorous evaluation rather than to assert universal superiority. Submission history Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: References & Citations Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Bookmark Institution arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.