Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence
[Submitted on 11 Sep 2026]
Title:OrchSLM: Probing the Dynamics of Small Language Model Orchestration
View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:Although large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities, their reliance on cloud-scale infrastructure poses fundamental challenges for deployment in agentic pipelines, including latency, privacy, connectivity, and substantial computational cost. Small language models (SLMs) offer a compelling alternative: recent studies suggest that many repetitive and narrowly scoped subtasks in agentic workloads may be better served by specialized SLMs than by monolithic LLMs. However, the limited capacity and context windows of SLMs can constrain long-horizon reasoning and interaction-heavy orchestration strategies such as iterative verification and debate. This motivates a complementary, non-interactive paradigm in which heterogeneous SLMs independently generate candidate solutions and a router orchestrates their cached samples without further model interaction. To further understand the mechanisms of such orchestration, we introduce OrchSLM, a routing framework that unifies existing non-interactive orchestration methods and exposes their underlying design choices as controllable parameters. Using OrchSLM as a systematic probe, we reveal how orchestration behavior emerges from diverse knobs, including the task structure, model-pool composition, and multi-agent consensus.
Loading...
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)
Recommenders and Search Tools
Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
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.