Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A model gets partitioned by layer ranges into stages: layers 0 to 15 on one node, 16 to 31 on the next, and so on down the pipeline. Numbers in this example are arbitrary. How does it actually work? What if the model’s number of layers is 33, or 34? Is there a document explaining all constraints of this implementation?
It depends on the size / structure of the model… but generally you can check out the MeshLLM huggingface org for pre-computed model splits. We have a job that will take popular models, and dice them up and post on HF. When that specific model is served, the layers will be shovelled around the available nodes on the mesh.
Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
101–110 of 110 posts
Re: Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
#102Re: Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
#103I'm more interested in running distributed inference for purpose built small language models than these coding LLMs. Say a distributed inference for image processing, SDR, local weather monitoring etc. These will run on mediocre specs and produce dependable output. Nicely done OP.
Something like this is nice, where instead of having 1 model with X active experts, you have 10 different models, all small and dense, trained on specific information. and loaded on 10 different servers, with one router.
Re: Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
#104Does this support Qwen 3.6 (e.g. 27B) and the myriad of llama.cpp options (batch sizes, quantization, etc.)? I'd love to see some performance data.
Re: Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
#105difference between this and Exo?
Re: Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
#106I thought about this too, but the throughput over a network is incredibly slow. It’s not usable for interactive use.
Throughput is not a problem as you just share relatively small vectors (a few kilobytes in size), the key issue is network latency .
Re: Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
#107I’m one of the contributors to Mesh LLM and happy to answer any questions. I authored the skippy engine that allows you to split large models across nodes.
Re: Mesh LLM: distributed AI computing on iroh
#108Does this have intelligent expert handling for high parallelism MOE? You can get very high throughput for highly parallel MOE if you can mix different queries at each expert stage, but if the batch has to run together for the whole pipeline you get a parallelism loss instead of gain.
We did have a version of things which used expert islands for MoE parallel alternative (I think that has been mostly scrubbed from the code). It showed early promise by having trunk+hot experts together, but as models got larger, it made both that very large on its own but also didn't seem to work as well (or we just weren't good at grouping experts), the idea being to really side step latency and route sessions to those islands. It felt like as models scaled it didn't stay smart (as diverse experts activated more than I thought they would). Could be our mistake (was an exciting possibility though - if you don't mind accepting some loss).
tldr; yes this seems a very nice enhancement for smarter batching/keeping things busy and seems like most larger models we look at are MoE!