Predictive Prefetching for Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Wuyang, Pei, Shichao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Zhang, Wuyang
Pei, Shichao
author_facet Zhang, Wuyang
Pei, Shichao
contents Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) improves factual grounding in large language models but suffers from substantial latency due to synchronous retrieval. While recent work explores asynchronous retrieval, existing approaches rely on heuristic coordination between retrieval and generation and assume stable information demands during decoding that often break in complex, multi-domain settings. In this paper, we propose an advanced asynchronous retrieval framework that enables predictive prefetching aligned with evolving information needs. The framework explicitly predicts when retrieval should be triggered and what information should be retrieved using three components, a retrieval predictor, a context monitor, and a query generator, by exploiting semantic precursors in generation dynamics that emerge several tokens before uncertainty becomes critical. Experiments on multiple benchmarks demonstrate up to 43.5% end-to-end latency reduction and 62.4% improvement in time-to-first-token, while maintaining answer quality comparable to synchronous RAG baselines.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_17989
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Predictive Prefetching for Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Zhang, Wuyang
Pei, Shichao
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) improves factual grounding in large language models but suffers from substantial latency due to synchronous retrieval. While recent work explores asynchronous retrieval, existing approaches rely on heuristic coordination between retrieval and generation and assume stable information demands during decoding that often break in complex, multi-domain settings. In this paper, we propose an advanced asynchronous retrieval framework that enables predictive prefetching aligned with evolving information needs. The framework explicitly predicts when retrieval should be triggered and what information should be retrieved using three components, a retrieval predictor, a context monitor, and a query generator, by exploiting semantic precursors in generation dynamics that emerge several tokens before uncertainty becomes critical. Experiments on multiple benchmarks demonstrate up to 43.5% end-to-end latency reduction and 62.4% improvement in time-to-first-token, while maintaining answer quality comparable to synchronous RAG baselines.
title Predictive Prefetching for Retrieval-Augmented Generation
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.17989