# Paper section: PD separation under agentic workloads

This directory collects everything produced for the "PD-sep is net negative
on agentic workloads" paper section. It is one section of a larger paper,
not the whole paper.

## Layout

```
analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/
├── README.md                       # this file
├── system_analysis.md              # why PD-sep loses despite compute-bound prefill (6 layers)
├── scripts/
│   ├── plot_workload.py            # C1: input/output CDF + KV reuse decomposition
│   ├── plot_roofline.py            # C6: prefill roofline at varying cache reuse
│   ├── plot_routing_lever.py       # C7: routing vs PD-sep as design levers
│   ├── plot_kv_memory_wall.py      # KV mem-wall model + empirical anchor
│   └── bench_pd_matrix.sh          # orchestrates the C2/C3/C4/C5 experiment matrix on dash0
└── figures/
    ├── fig_c1a_io_cdf.pdf          # input/output token CDF (from traces/w600_r0.0015_st30.jsonl)
    ├── fig_c1b_reuse.pdf           # KV reuse decomposition: 79% intra-session
    ├── fig_c6_roofline.pdf         # analytical roofline
    ├── fig_c7_routing_lever.pdf    # routing vs PD-sep (legacy data, footer caveat)
    └── fig_kv_memory_wall.pdf      # the explanatory figure for system_analysis.md
```

## Candidate claims -> figures (status)

| Claim | Figure | Status |
|---|---|---|
| C1a: agentic input distribution (p50=33.5k, p90=101k, p99=132k); I/O = 142x | `figures/fig_c1a_io_cdf.pdf` | **rendered** |
| C1b: 79% intra-session reuse + 0.8% cross-session | `figures/fig_c1b_reuse.pdf` | **rendered** |
| C2: PD-sep vs Combined headline (TTFT 69× worse, success 52%) | `figures/fig_c2_pdsep_vs_combined.pdf` | **rendered** (N=3 combined-ca, N=1 each PD-sep config) |
| C3: KV cache time-series — both PD-sep splits hit the wall | `figures/fig_c3_kv_timeseries.pdf` | **rendered** |
| C4: TTFT decomposition — 99% is P-side prefill compute | `figures/fig_c4_ttft_stacked.pdf` | **rendered** |
| C5: cuda-graph ablation (eager vs cudagraph × Combined vs PD-sep) | (not yet) | needs `--with-eager` re-run |
| C6: prefill stays compute-bound at 95% reuse | `figures/fig_c6_roofline.pdf` | **rendered** |
| C7: cache-aware routing is a larger lever than PD-sep | `figures/fig_c7_routing_lever.pdf` | **rendered** (legacy data, footer caveat) |
| KV-WALL: per-D-instance KV demand vs PD layout (system mechanism) | `figures/fig_kv_memory_wall.pdf` | **rendered** (analytical, audit constants in script) |

## System-level argument (`system_analysis.md`)

The doc answers: *if prefill stays compute-bound even at 95% reuse, why
does PD separation not help?* Six layers, each pointing to a figure in
this directory:

1. compute-bound is a *kernel* property, not a system claim
2. absolute prefill work after cache hit is small (~hundreds of ms savings ceiling)
3. PD separation relocates compute; it doesn't accelerate it
4. PD separation's costs (KV transfer, decode-side concentration) scale with workload size
5. **decode-side KV memory wall** — quantified in `fig_kv_memory_wall.pdf`
6. the DistServe / Splitwise assumption that silently breaks: `concurrent × KV/req / (N_D × HBM)` is ≪ 1 for chatbot but ≥ 1 for agentic at p90+ context

## In-place edits made for this task

These edits are in the repo, not in this directory, because they modify
existing launch scripts. `--enforce-eager` was removed so cuda graphs can be
captured — PD-sep's D-node is a particularly clean case for cuda-graph
benefit and the prior methodology suppressed it.

| File | Lines | Change |
|---|---|---|
| `scripts/bench.sh` | 150, 161 | drop `--enforce-eager` (elastic + baseline modes) |
| `scripts/launch_pd_mooncake.sh` | 47, 64 | drop `--enforce-eager` (P and D instances) |
| `scripts/launch_pd_separated.sh` | 52, 68 | drop `--enforce-eager` (P and D instances) |
| `scripts/launch_phase1_ps.sh` | 32, 43 | drop `--enforce-eager` (C and PS instances) |
| `scripts/launch_elastic_p2p.sh` | 57 | drop `--enforce-eager` (kv_both instances) |

`scripts/legacy/*.sh` are intentionally left as-is — they record the
configuration of past experiments.

`REPORT.md` and `analysis/pd_separation_analysis.md` still describe the
old `--enforce-eager` setup. Update them once the new runs land.

## Reproducing the figures

From repo root:

```bash
# C1 (needs traces/w600_r0.0015_st30.jsonl; ~1.2 MB, pull from dash0 if missing)
.venv/bin/python analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/scripts/plot_workload.py \
    --trace traces/w600_r0.0015_st30.jsonl

# C6 (analytical, runs anywhere with matplotlib)
.venv/bin/python analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/scripts/plot_roofline.py

# C7 (hardcoded REPORT.md §3.1 numbers; no inputs)
.venv/bin/python analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/scripts/plot_routing_lever.py

# KV mem-wall (analytical; audit constants at top of the script)
.venv/bin/python analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/scripts/plot_kv_memory_wall.py
```

All four default `--outdir` to `analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/figures`.

## Running the experiment matrix (gating C2/C3/C4/C5)

`bench_pd_matrix.sh` orchestrates the experiments that the unrendered
claims depend on. It uses the extended `scripts/bench.sh` (now supports
`--mode pdsep --pd-ratio 4:4|6:2` and `--eager` for the cuda-graph
ablation; all launchers no longer pin `--enforce-eager`).

On dash0:

```bash
cd ~/agentic-kv
# minimal set: 3 configs (combined-ca, pdsep-4p4d, pdsep-6p2d) x 3 seeds
# = 9 runs ~= 2 h
bash analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/scripts/bench_pd_matrix.sh

# full matrix (adds combined-rr and the eager ablation)
bash analysis/pd_sep_paper_section/scripts/bench_pd_matrix.sh \
    --with-rr --with-eager
```

Each run writes to `outputs/pd_matrix/<config>_<mode>_seed<N>/` with
`metrics.summary.json`, `breakdown.json`, `apc.txt`, `gpu_util.csv`, and
per-instance vLLM logs (the latter contain the step-level
`KV cache: X%` lines needed for the C3 time-series figure).

## Caveats / open items

- **C7 uses legacy data**. The footer of `fig_c7_routing_lever.pdf` says so:
  PD-sep numbers come from the random-sampled trace + `--enforce-eager`.
  After `pd_matrix` lands, swap the four numbers in `plot_routing_lever.py`'s
  `ROWS` table and re-render.
- **C2/C3/C4/C5 figures depend on `pd_matrix` outputs**. Followup plotters
  (TBD) will read `outputs/pd_matrix/*/metrics.summary.json`,
  `breakdown.json`, and the `KV cache: X%` lines from per-instance logs to
  produce: bar chart with error bars (C2), KV utilization time-series (C3),
  TTFT stacked breakdown (C4), 2x2 cuda-graph ablation (C5).
- **C8 (mined logs)**: rejected — existing PD-sep `outputs/exp3_*` directories
  have per-request metrics but no per-stage breakdown and no step-level KV
  utilization. C3/C4 require fresh runs with proxy `/breakdown` collection
  (already automatic in `bench.sh collect_artifacts()`).
- **C6 is analytical**, so it is independent of any re-run. The numbers
  match `scripts/compute_roofline.py` (constants are duplicated; if one
  changes, the other must change too).
- **fig_kv_memory_wall.pdf** is analytical with one empirical anchor (the
  star marker for REPORT.md §3.3 6P+2D @ 97 % KV utilization). It does not
  need a re-run, but the empirical anchor's *pinpoint* would be more
  rigorous from a `pd_matrix` 6P+2D log (KV-utilization time-series rather
  than the single snapshot).