arXiv Machine Learning September 18, 2026 By Davide Avesani (CEDRIC - ROC), Pengwenlong Gu (CEDRIC - ROC), Sotiris Skaperas (Cnam), Stefano Secci (CEDRIC - ROC)

The Life of a Token: from Words to Bits on the Wire

Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →

The article "The Life of a Token: from Words to Bits on the Wire" explores how large language models convert text into network traffic during training. It traces the transformation from words to tokens, then to vectors, and finally to binary streams that traverse high‑performance computing systems. Using Dante’s Divine Comedy as a case study, the tutorial examines how tokenization, embeddings, and parallelization affect the volume, structure, and timing of data exchanged across the network, and provides analytical traffic models and numerical examples to clarify the communication demands of LLM training.

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