Definition
In RAG architectures, connection pooling is the management of a cache of persistent network connections to vector databases and LLM APIs to avoid the high-latency overhead of establishing a new TCP/TLS handshake for every retrieval or inference request. This is critical for scaling AI agents that require multiple sequential tool calls or concurrent document fetches.
Focuses on network socket reuse for vector stores and inference endpoints rather than standard SQL database pools.
"A row of idling taxi cabs waiting outside a hotel, ready for immediate departure, instead of calling a new car and waiting for it to arrive for every passenger."
- Vector Database(Component)
- Inference Latency(Optimization Target)
- Concurrent Request Handling(Prerequisite)
- Keep-Alive Headers(Underlying Mechanism)
Conceptual Overview
In RAG architectures, connection pooling is the management of a cache of persistent network connections to vector databases and LLM APIs to avoid the high-latency overhead of establishing a new TCP/TLS handshake for every retrieval or inference request. This is critical for scaling AI agents that require multiple sequential tool calls or concurrent document fetches.
Disambiguation
Focuses on network socket reuse for vector stores and inference endpoints rather than standard SQL database pools.
Visual Analog
A row of idling taxi cabs waiting outside a hotel, ready for immediate departure, instead of calling a new car and waiting for it to arrive for every passenger.