Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 2504.07303

Modeling Response Consistency in Multi-Agent LLM Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Shared and Separate Context Approaches

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly utilized in multi-agent systems (MAS) to enhance collaborative problem-solving and interactive reasoning. Recent advancements have enabled LLMs to function as autonomous agents capable of understanding complex interactions across multiple topics. However, deploying LLMs in MAS introduces challenges related to context management, response consistency, and scalability, especially when agents must operate under memory limitations and handle noisy inputs. While prior research has explored optimizing context sharing and response latency in LLM-driven MAS, these efforts often focus on either fully centralized or decentralized configurations, each with distinct trade-offs. In this paper, we develop a probabilistic framework to analyze the impact of shared versus separate context configurations on response consistency and response times in LLM-based MAS. We introduce the Response Consistency Index (RCI) as a metric to evaluate the effects of context limitations, noise, and inter-agent dependencies on system performance. Our approach differs from existing research by focusing on the interplay between memory constraints and noise management, providing insights into optimizing scalability and response times in environments with interdependent topics. Through this analysis, we offer a comprehensive understanding of how different configurations impact the efficiency of LLM-driven multi-agent systems, thereby guiding the design of more robust architectures.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Tooraj Helmi. 2025-04-09. Modeling Response Consistency in Multi-Agent LLM Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Shared and Separate Context Approaches. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07303

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Highway Congestion Reduction through Reinforcement Learning Based Eulerian Headway Control

Connected automated vehicles (CAVs) equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) create new opportunities for highway congestion mitigation. Traditional practice relies on Eulerian variable speed limits (VSL) which regulate traffic through roadside signs, but suffer from infrequent updates and limited driver compliance. Recent research explored Lagrangian strategies that directly control individual vehicles, offering high reactivity and compliance, yet in realistic multi-lane settings they depend on drivers' latent lane-change intentions, making robust vehicle-level decisions difficult. Hence, we propose an Eulerian control system optimized through reinforcement learning, that (i) leverages ACC for reactivity and compliance, and (ii) obviates dependence on latent driver intentions by regulating aggregate density near bottlenecks, crucially via headway commands rather than speed commands. We evaluate two variants of our system, time-headway and distance-headway control, in large-scale simulations across a range of traffic conditions. Both variants outperform baselines, improving traffic flow by up to 10.6% over human traffic and 6.7% over traditional VSL. To strengthen evaluation, we propose a novel boundary-aware speed metric addressing a recognized flaw in simulation studies with dynamic vehicle entry and exit. The empirical results, together with our emphasis on deployable system design, suggest a path towards practical, safe, and scalable highway congestion mitigation.

cs.MA

The Bystander Effect in Multi-Agent Reasoning: Quantifying Cognitive Loafing in Collaborative Interactions

Multi-agent systems (MAS) assume that collaborating inherently improves Large Language Model (LLM) reasoning. We challenge this by demonstrating that simulated social pressure triggers an algorithmic ``Bystander Effect,'' inducing severe cognitive loafing. By evaluating 22,500 deterministic trajectories across 3 dataset contexts (GAIA, SWE-bench, Multi-Challenge) with 3 state-of-the-art (SOTA) models, we semantically audit internal reasoning traces against external outputs. We formalize the \textit{Interaction Depth Limit} ($D_L$), the exact plurality threshold where an agent's logical sovereignty collapses into social compliance. Crucially, we uncover the \textit{Sovereignty Gap}: models frequently compute the correct derivation internally but suffer ``Alignment Hallucinations'' -- actively subjugating empirical evidence to sycophantically appease a simulated swarm. We prove that multi-agent social load is strictly non-commutative; the "brand" identity of the ``Lead Anchor'' auditor disproportionately dictates the swarm's integrity. These findings expose architectural vulnerabilities, proving that unstructured multi-agent topologies can degrade independent reasoning.

cs.MA

CONCAT: Consensus- and Confidence-Driven Ad Hoc Teaming for Efficient LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems

Although large language model (LLM) based multi-agent systems (MAS) show their capability to solve complex tasks and achieve higher performance over single agent systems, they lead to huge computational overheads because of heavy communication between agents. Previous research has made efforts to train a sparse multi-agent graph or fine-tune a planner to orchestrate the workflow better. However, such extra training processes introduce computational costs and limit MAS to specific domains, therefore compromising their generalizability. In this paper, we propose CONCAT, a training-free multi-agent collaboration framework based on CONsensus and Confidence-driven Ad hoc Teaming to efficiently organize agent interactions. Specifically, agents are clustered based on their initial answers, and leaders of each cluster are selected based on the agents' confidence. Then, a heuristic function based on the Theory of Mind is designed to predict the collaboration benefits between every two leaders according to their answers and confidence. Finally, an ad hoc multi-agent network is organized after evicting a percentage of communications based on the predicted benefits. Experiments across three LLMs and three benchmarks show that CONCAT achieves up to 2.02x higher efficiency (accuracy/latency ratio) than LLM-Debate and outperforms training-aware methods such as AgentDropout, while reducing average latency by 50.1% on Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct, without any task-specific training.

cs.MA