arXiv subjects

Karthik Vaidhyanathan

Publications and source records attributed to Karthik Vaidhyanathan.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

POLARIS: Is Multi-Agentic Reasoning the Next Wave in Engineering Self-Adaptive Systems?

The growing scale, complexity, interconnectivity, and autonomy of modern software ecosystems introduce unprecedented uncertainty, challenging the foundations of traditional self-adaptation. Existing approaches, typically rule-driven controllers or isolated learning components, struggle to generalize to novel contexts or coordinate responses across distributed subsystems, leaving them ill-equipped for emergent unknown unknowns. Recent discussions on Self-Adaptation 2.0 emphasize an equal partnership between AI and adaptive systems, merging learning-driven intelligence with adaptive control for predictive and proactive behavior. Building on this foundation, we introduce POLARIS, a three-layer multi-agentic self-adaptation framework that advances beyond reactive adaptation. POLARIS integrates: (1) a low-latency Adapter layer for monitoring and safe execution, (2) a transparent Reasoning layer that generates and verifies plans using tool-aware, explainable agents, and (3) a Meta layer that records experiences and meta-learns improved adaptation policies over time. Through shared knowledge and predictive models, POLARIS handles uncertainty, learns from past actions, and evolves its strategies, enabling systems that anticipate change and maintain resilient, goal-directed behavior. Preliminary evaluation on two self-adaptive exemplars, SWIM and SWITCH, shows that POLARIS consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. We argue this marks a shift toward Self-Adaptation 3.0, akin to Software 3.0: a paradigm where systems not only learn from their environment but also reason about and evolve their own adaptation processes, continuously improving to meet novel challenges.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

APDT: A Digital Twin for Assessing Access Point Characteristics in a Network

Digital twins (DT) have emerged as a transformative technology, enabling real-time monitoring, simulations, and predictive maintenance across various domains, though their Application in the networking domain remains underexplored. This paper focuses on issues such as increasing client density and traffic congestion by proposing a digital twin for computer networks. Our Digital Twin, named Access Point Digital Twin (APDT) is used for tracking user behavior and changing bandwidth demands, directly impacting network performance and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters like latency, jitter, etc. APDT captures the real-time state of networks with data from access points (APs), enabling simulation-based analyses and predictive modelling. APDT facilitates the simulation of various what-if scenarios thereby providing a better understanding of various aspects of the network characteristics. We tested APDT on our University network. APDT uses data collected from three access points via the Ruckus SmartZone API and incorporates NS-3 based simulations. The simulation replicates a real-time snapshot from a Ruckus access point and models metrics such as latency and inter-packet transfer time. Additionally, a forecasting model predicts traffic congestion and suggests proactive client offloading, enhancing network management and performance optimization. Preliminary results indicate that APDT can successfully predict short-term traffic surges, leading to improved QoS and reduced traffic congestion.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Generating Energy-Efficient Code via Large-Language Models -- Where are we now?

Context. The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) has led to their widespread adoption in development pipelines. Goal. We empirically assess the energy efficiency of Python code generated by LLMs against human-written code and code developed by a Green software expert. Method. We test 363 solutions to 9 coding problems from the EvoEval benchmark using 6 widespread LLMs with 4 prompting techniques, and comparing them to human-developed solutions. Energy consumption is measured on three different hardware platforms: a server, a PC, and a Raspberry Pi for a total of ~881h (36.7 days). Results. Human solutions are 16% more energy-efficient on the server and 3% on the Raspberry Pi, while LLMs outperform human developers by 25% on the PC. Prompting does not consistently lead to energy savings, where the most energy-efficient prompts vary by hardware platform. The code developed by a Green software expert is consistently more energy-efficient by at least 17% to 30% against all LLMs on all hardware platforms. Conclusions. Even though LLMs exhibit relatively good code generation capabilities, no LLM-generated code was more energy-efficient than that of an experienced Green software developer, suggesting that as of today there is still a great need of human expertise for developing energy-efficient Python code.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Generative AI for Software Architecture. Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions

Context: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is transforming much of software development, yet its application in software architecture is still in its infancy, and no prior study has systematically addressed the topic. Aim: We aim to systematically synthesize the use, rationale, contexts, usability, and future challenges of GenAI in software architecture. Method: We performed a multivocal literature review (MLR), analyzing peer-reviewed and gray literature, identifying current practices, models, adoption contexts, and reported challenges, extracting themes via open coding. Results: Our review identified significant adoption of GenAI for architectural decision support and architectural reconstruction. OpenAI GPT models are predominantly applied, and there is consistent use of techniques such as few-shot prompting and retrieved-augmented generation (RAG). GenAI has been applied mostly to initial stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), such as Requirements-to-Architecture and Architecture-to-Code. Monolithic and microservice architectures were the dominant targets. However, rigorous testing of GenAI outputs was typically missing from the studies. Among the most frequent challenges are model precision, hallucinations, ethical aspects, privacy issues, lack of architecture-specific datasets, and the absence of sound evaluation frameworks. Conclusions: GenAI shows significant potential in software design, but several challenges remain on its path to greater adoption. Research efforts should target designing general evaluation methodologies, handling ethics and precision, increasing transparency and explainability, and promoting architecture-specific datasets and benchmarks to bridge the gap between theoretical possibilities and practical use.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Greening AI-enabled Systems with Software Engineering: A Research Agenda for Environmentally Sustainable AI Practices

The environmental impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled systems is increasing rapidly, and software engineering plays a critical role in developing sustainable solutions. The "Greening AI with Software Engineering" CECAM-Lorentz workshop (no. 1358, 2025) funded by the Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire and the Lorentz Center, provided an interdisciplinary forum for 29 participants, from practitioners to academics, to share knowledge, ideas, practices, and current results dedicated to advancing green software and AI research. The workshop was held February 3-7, 2025, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Through keynotes, flash talks, and collaborative discussions, participants identified and prioritized key challenges for the field. These included energy assessment and standardization, benchmarking practices, sustainability-aware architectures, runtime adaptation, empirical methodologies, and education. This report presents a research agenda emerging from the workshop, outlining open research directions and practical recommendations to guide the development of environmentally sustainable AI-enabled systems rooted in software engineering principles.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

HarmonE: A Self-Adaptive Approach to Architecting Sustainable MLOps

Machine Learning Enabled Systems (MLS) are becoming integral to real-world applications, but ensuring their sustainable performance over time remains a significant challenge. These systems operate in dynamic environments and face runtime uncertainties like data drift and model degradation, which affect the sustainability of MLS across multiple dimensions: technical, economical, environmental, and social. While Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) addresses the technical dimension by streamlining the ML model lifecycle, it overlooks other dimensions. Furthermore, some traditional practices, such as frequent retraining, incur substantial energy and computational overhead, thus amplifying sustainability concerns. To address them, we introduce HarmonE, an architectural approach that enables self-adaptive capabilities in MLOps pipelines using the MAPE-K loop. HarmonE allows system architects to define explicit sustainability goals and adaptation thresholds at design time, and performs runtime monitoring of key metrics, such as prediction accuracy, energy consumption, and data distribution shifts, to trigger appropriate adaptation strategies. We validate our approach using a Digital Twin (DT) of an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), focusing on traffic flow prediction as our primary use case. The DT employs time series ML models to simulate real-time traffic and assess various flow scenarios. Our results show that HarmonE adapts effectively to evolving conditions while maintaining accuracy and meeting sustainability goals.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Small Models, Big Tasks: An Exploratory Empirical Study on Small Language Models for Function Calling

Function calling is a complex task with widespread applications in domains such as information retrieval, software engineering and automation. For example, a query to book the shortest flight from New York to London on January 15 requires identifying the correct parameters to generate accurate function calls. Large Language Models (LLMs) can automate this process but are computationally expensive and impractical in resource-constrained settings. In contrast, Small Language Models (SLMs) can operate efficiently, offering faster response times, and lower computational demands, making them potential candidates for function calling on edge devices. In this exploratory empirical study, we evaluate the efficacy of SLMs in generating function calls across diverse domains using zero-shot, few-shot, and fine-tuning approaches, both with and without prompt injection, while also providing the finetuned models to facilitate future applications. Furthermore, we analyze the model responses across a range of metrics, capturing various aspects of function call generation. Additionally, we perform experiments on an edge device to evaluate their performance in terms of latency and memory usage, providing useful insights into their practical applicability. Our findings show that while SLMs improve from zero-shot to few-shot and perform best with fine-tuning, they struggle significantly with adhering to the given output format. Prompt injection experiments further indicate that the models are generally robust and exhibit only a slight decline in performance. While SLMs demonstrate potential for the function call generation task, our results also highlight areas that need further refinement for real-time functioning.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2025

DRAFT-ing Architectural Design Decisions using LLMs

Architectural Knowledge Management (AKM) is crucial for software development but remains challenging due to the lack of standardization and high manual effort. Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) provide a structured approach to capture Architecture Design Decisions (ADDs), but their adoption is limited due to the manual effort involved and insufficient tool support. Our previous work has shown that Large Language Models (LLMs) can assist in generating ADDs. However, simply prompting the LLM does not produce quality ADDs. Moreover, using third-party LLMs raises privacy concerns, while self-hosting them poses resource challenges. To this end, we experimented with different approaches like few-shot, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and fine-tuning to enhance LLM's ability to generate ADDs. Our results show that both techniques improve effectiveness. Building on this, we propose Domain Specific Retreival Augumented Few Shot Fine Tuninng, DRAFT, which combines the strengths of all these three approaches for more effective ADD generation. DRAFT operates in two phases: an offline phase that fine-tunes an LLM on generating ADDs augmented with retrieved examples and an online phase that generates ADDs by leveraging retrieved ADRs and the fine-tuned model. We evaluated DRAFT against existing approaches on a dataset of 4,911 ADRs and various LLMs and analyzed them using automated metrics and human evaluations. Results show DRAFT outperforms all other approaches in effectiveness while maintaining efficiency. Our findings indicate that DRAFT can aid architects in drafting ADDs while addressing privacy and resource constraints.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Architecting Digital Twins for Intelligent Transportation Systems

Modern transportation systems face growing challenges in managing traffic flow, ensuring safety, and maintaining operational efficiency amid dynamic traffic patterns. Addressing these challenges requires intelligent solutions capable of real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and adaptive control. This paper proposes an architecture for DigIT, a Digital Twin (DT) platform for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), designed to overcome the limitations of existing frameworks by offering a modular and scalable solution for traffic management. Built on a Domain Concept Model (DCM), the architecture systematically models key ITS components enabling seamless integration of predictive modeling and simulations. The architecture leverages machine learning models to forecast traffic patterns based on historical and real-time data. To adapt to evolving traffic patterns, the architecture incorporates adaptive Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), automating the deployment and lifecycle management of predictive models. Evaluation results highlight the effectiveness of the architecture in delivering accurate predictions and computational efficiency.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

EdgeMLBalancer: A Self-Adaptive Approach for Dynamic Model Switching on Resource-Constrained Edge Devices

The widespread adoption of machine learning on edge devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, IoT devices, etc., has enabled real-time AI applications in resource-constrained environments. Existing solutions for managing computational resources often focus narrowly on accuracy or energy efficiency, failing to adapt dynamically to varying workloads. Furthermore, the existing system lack robust mechanisms to adaptively balance CPU utilization, leading to inefficiencies in resource-constrained scenarios like real-time traffic monitoring. To address these limitations, we propose a self-adaptive approach that optimizes CPU utilization and resource management on edge devices. Our approach, EdgeMLBalancer balances between models through dynamic switching, guided by real-time CPU usage monitoring across processor cores. Tested on real-time traffic data, the approach adapts object detection models based on CPU usage, ensuring efficient resource utilization. The approach leverages epsilon-greedy strategy which promotes fairness and prevents resource starvation, maintaining system robustness. The results of our evaluation demonstrate significant improvements by balancing computational efficiency and accuracy, highlighting the approach's ability to adapt seamlessly to varying workloads. This work lays the groundwork for further advancements in self-adaptation for resource-constrained environments.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

LLMs for Generation of Architectural Components: An Exploratory Empirical Study in the Serverless World

Recently, the exponential growth in capability and pervasiveness of Large Language Models (LLMs) has led to significant work done in the field of code generation. However, this generation has been limited to code snippets. Going one step further, our desideratum is to automatically generate architectural components. This would not only speed up development time, but would also enable us to eventually completely skip the development phase, moving directly from design decisions to deployment. To this end, we conduct an exploratory study on the capability of LLMs to generate architectural components for Functions as a Service (FaaS), commonly known as serverless functions. The small size of their architectural components make this architectural style amenable for generation using current LLMs compared to other styles like monoliths and microservices. We perform the study by systematically selecting open source serverless repositories, masking a serverless function and utilizing state of the art LLMs provided with varying levels of context information about the overall system to generate the masked function. We evaluate correctness through existing tests present in the repositories and use metrics from the Software Engineering (SE) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) domains to evaluate code quality and the degree of similarity between human and LLM generated code respectively. Along with our findings, we also present a discussion on the path forward for using GenAI in architectural component generation.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Leveraging LLMs for Dynamic IoT Systems Generation through Mixed-Initiative Interaction

IoT systems face significant challenges in adapting to user needs, which are often under-specified and evolve with changing environmental contexts. To address these complexities, users should be able to explore possibilities, while IoT systems must learn and support users in the process of providing proper services, e.g., to serve novel experiences. The IoT-Together paradigm aims to meet this demand through the Mixed-Initiative Interaction (MII) paradigm that facilitates a collaborative synergy between users and IoT systems, enabling the co-creation of intelligent and adaptive solutions that are precisely aligned with user-defined goals. This work advances IoT-Together by integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) into its architecture. Our approach enables intelligent goal interpretation through a multi-pass dialogue framework and dynamic service generation at runtime according to user needs. To demonstrate the efficacy of our methodology, we design and implement the system in the context of a smart city tourism case study. We evaluate the system's performance using agent-based simulation and user studies. Results indicate efficient and accurate service identification and high adaptation quality. The empirical evidence indicates that the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) into IoT architectures can significantly enhance the architectural adaptability of the system while ensuring real-world usability.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Approach Towards Semi-Automated Certification for Low Criticality ML-Enabled Airborne Applications

As Machine Learning (ML) makes its way into aviation, ML enabled systems including low criticality systems require a reliable certification process to ensure safety and performance. Traditional standards, like DO 178C, which are used for critical software in aviation, do not fully cover the unique aspects of ML. This paper proposes a semi automated certification approach, specifically for low criticality ML systems, focusing on data and model validation, resilience assessment, and usability assurance while integrating manual and automated processes. Key aspects include structured classification to guide certification rigor on system attributes, an Assurance Profile that consolidates evaluation outcomes into a confidence measure the ML component, and methodologies for integrating human oversight into certification activities. Through a case study with a YOLOv8 based object detection system designed to classify military and civilian vehicles in real time for reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, we show how this approach supports the certification of ML systems in low criticality airborne applications.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

LoCoML: A Framework for Real-World ML Inference Pipelines

The widespread adoption of machine learning (ML) has brought forth diverse models with varying architectures, and data requirements, introducing new challenges in integrating these systems into real-world applications. Traditional solutions often struggle to manage the complexities of connecting heterogeneous models, especially when dealing with varied technical specifications. These limitations are amplified in large-scale, collaborative projects where stakeholders contribute models with different technical specifications. To address these challenges, we developed LoCoML, a low-code framework designed to simplify the integration of diverse ML models within the context of the \textit{Bhashini Project} - a large-scale initiative aimed at integrating AI-driven language technologies such as automatic speech recognition, machine translation, text-to-speech, and optical character recognition to support seamless communication across more than 20 languages. Initial evaluations show that LoCoML adds only a small amount of computational load, making it efficient and effective for large-scale ML integration. Our practical insights show that a low-code approach can be a practical solution for connecting multiple ML models in a collaborative environment.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

POSEIDON : Efficient Function Placement at the Edge using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Edge computing allows for reduced latency and operational costs compared to centralized cloud systems. In this context, serverless functions are emerging as a lightweight and effective paradigm for managing computational tasks on edge infrastructures. However, the placement of such functions in constrained edge nodes remains an open challenge. On one hand, it is key to minimize network delays and optimize resource consumption; on the other hand, decisions must be made in a timely manner due to the highly dynamic nature of edge environments. In this paper, we propose POSEIDON, a solution based on Deep Reinforcement Learning for the efficient placement of functions at the edge. POSEIDON leverages Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) to place functions across a distributed network of nodes under highly dynamic workloads. A comprehensive empirical evaluation demonstrates that POSEIDON significantly reduces execution time, network delay, and resource consumption compared to state-of-the-art methods.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2025

Engineering LLM Powered Multi-agent Framework for Autonomous CloudOps

Cloud Operations (CloudOps) is a rapidly growing field focused on the automated management and optimization of cloud infrastructure which is essential for organizations navigating increasingly complex cloud environments. MontyCloud Inc. is one of the major companies in the CloudOps domain that leverages autonomous bots to manage cloud compliance, security, and continuous operations. To make the platform more accessible and effective to the customers, we leveraged the use of GenAI. Developing a GenAI-based solution for autonomous CloudOps for the existing MontyCloud system presented us with various challenges such as i) diverse data sources; ii) orchestration of multiple processes; and iii) handling complex workflows to automate routine tasks. To this end, we developed MOYA, a multi-agent framework that leverages GenAI and balances autonomy with the necessary human control. This framework integrates various internal and external systems and is optimized for factors like task orchestration, security, and error mitigation while producing accurate, reliable, and relevant insights by utilizing Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Evaluations of our multi-agent system with the help of practitioners as well as using automated checks demonstrate enhanced accuracy, responsiveness, and effectiveness over non-agentic approaches across complex workflows.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2024

EcoMLS: A Self-Adaptation Approach for Architecting Green ML-Enabled Systems

The sustainability of Machine Learning-Enabled Systems (MLS), particularly with regard to energy efficiency, is an important challenge in their development and deployment. Self-adaptation techniques, recognized for their potential in energy savings within software systems, have yet to be extensively explored in Machine Learning-Enabled Systems (MLS), where runtime uncertainties can significantly impact model performance and energy consumption. This variability, alongside the fluctuating energy demands of ML models during operation, necessitates a dynamic approach. Addressing these challenges, we introduce EcoMLS approach, which leverages the Machine Learning Model Balancer concept to enhance the sustainability of MLS through runtime ML model switching. By adapting to monitored runtime conditions, EcoMLS optimally balances energy consumption with model confidence, demonstrating a significant advancement towards sustainable, energy-efficient machine learning solutions. Through an object detection exemplar, we illustrate the application of EcoMLS, showcasing its ability to reduce energy consumption while maintaining high model accuracy throughout its use. This research underscores the feasibility of enhancing MLS sustainability through intelligent runtime adaptations, contributing a valuable perspective to the ongoing discourse on energy-efficient machine learning.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2024

Reimagining Self-Adaptation in the Age of Large Language Models

Modern software systems are subjected to various types of uncertainties arising from context, environment, etc. To this end, self-adaptation techniques have been sought out as potential solutions. Although recent advances in self-adaptation through the use of ML techniques have demonstrated promising results, the capabilities are limited by constraints imposed by the ML techniques, such as the need for training samples, the ability to generalize, etc. Recent advancements in Generative AI (GenAI) open up new possibilities as it is trained on massive amounts of data, potentially enabling the interpretation of uncertainties and synthesis of adaptation strategies. In this context, this paper presents a vision for using GenAI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of architectural adaptation. Drawing parallels with human operators, we propose that LLMs can autonomously generate similar, context-sensitive adaptation strategies through its advanced natural language processing capabilities. This method allows software systems to understand their operational state and implement adaptations that align with their architectural requirements and environmental changes. By integrating LLMs into the self-adaptive system architecture, we facilitate nuanced decision-making that mirrors human-like adaptive reasoning. A case study with the SWIM exemplar system provides promising results, indicating that LLMs can potentially handle different adaptation scenarios. Our findings suggest that GenAI has significant potential to improve software systems' dynamic adaptability and resilience.

cs.SE↗