English

Mixture-of-Experts Serving

Data Structures and Algorithms 2026-07-20 v1

Abstract

Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models route each token to only a few expert networks, distributing the serving load across experts whose popularity shifts over time. A serving system must therefore dynamically decide how many GPUs to assign to each expert, trading off service latency against the cost of reconfiguring the assignment. We introduce a formal model of MoE Serving and initiate a principled study of online and offline algorithms for it. Our main result is a polynomial-time O(logk)O(\sqrt{\log k})-competitive online algorithm, where kk is the number of GPUs beyond one per expert. We complement it with a matching Ω(logk)\Omega(\sqrt{\log k}) barrier for the online dual problem underlying our analysis. In the offline setting, we give a constant-factor approximation, show that MoE Serving is NP-hard, and rule out an FPTAS assuming ETH.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.17880,
  title  = {Mixture-of-Experts Serving},
  author = {Zhiyi Huang and Qinpei Lou and Tao Xiao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.17880},
  year   = {2026}
}