CarbonEdge: Carbon-Aware Deep Learning Inference Framework for Sustainable Edge Computing

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Guilin, Guo, Wulan, Tan, Ziqi, Sun, Chuanyi, Jiang, Hailong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Zhang, Guilin
Guo, Wulan
Tan, Ziqi
Sun, Chuanyi
Jiang, Hailong
author_facet Zhang, Guilin
Guo, Wulan
Tan, Ziqi
Sun, Chuanyi
Jiang, Hailong
contents Deep learning applications at the network edge lead to a significant growth in AI-related carbon emissions, presenting a critical sustainability challenge. The existing edge computing frameworks optimize for latency and throughput, but they largely ignore the environmental impact of inference workloads. This paper introduces CarbonEdge, a carbon-aware deep learning inference framework that extends adaptive model partitioning with carbon footprint estimation and green scheduling apabilities. We propose a carbon-aware scheduling algorithm that extends traditional weighted scoring with a carbon efficiency metric, supporting a tunable performance--carbon trade-off (demonstrated via weight sweep). Experimental evaluations on Docker-simulated heterogeneous edge environments show that CarbonEdge-Green mode achieves a 22.9% reduction in carbon emissions compared to monolithic execution. The framework achieves 1.3x improvement in carbon efficiency (245.8 vs 189.5 inferences per gram CO2) with negligible scheduling overhead (0.03ms per task). These results highlight the framework's potential for sustainable edge AI deployment, providing researchers and practitioners a tool to quantify and minimize the environmental footprint of distributed deep learning inference.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_27420
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CarbonEdge: Carbon-Aware Deep Learning Inference Framework for Sustainable Edge Computing
Zhang, Guilin
Guo, Wulan
Tan, Ziqi
Sun, Chuanyi
Jiang, Hailong
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
C.2.4; I.2.6
Deep learning applications at the network edge lead to a significant growth in AI-related carbon emissions, presenting a critical sustainability challenge. The existing edge computing frameworks optimize for latency and throughput, but they largely ignore the environmental impact of inference workloads. This paper introduces CarbonEdge, a carbon-aware deep learning inference framework that extends adaptive model partitioning with carbon footprint estimation and green scheduling apabilities. We propose a carbon-aware scheduling algorithm that extends traditional weighted scoring with a carbon efficiency metric, supporting a tunable performance--carbon trade-off (demonstrated via weight sweep). Experimental evaluations on Docker-simulated heterogeneous edge environments show that CarbonEdge-Green mode achieves a 22.9% reduction in carbon emissions compared to monolithic execution. The framework achieves 1.3x improvement in carbon efficiency (245.8 vs 189.5 inferences per gram CO2) with negligible scheduling overhead (0.03ms per task). These results highlight the framework's potential for sustainable edge AI deployment, providing researchers and practitioners a tool to quantify and minimize the environmental footprint of distributed deep learning inference.
title CarbonEdge: Carbon-Aware Deep Learning Inference Framework for Sustainable Edge Computing
topic Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
C.2.4; I.2.6
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27420