About
I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of The Ohio State University, advised by Prof. Ness Shroff. I am currently a Presidential Fellow at OSU, the most prestigious award in graduate programs. I am broadly interested in cloud computing, networking, optimization and energy efficient communications.
I graduated from BUPT with a B.S. and Tsinghua Univeristy with a M.S., both in Electrical Engineering. Here is my CV.
Email: zhou (dot) 2055 (at) osu (dot) edu
Research Overview
My research interests lie in the broad area of applied probability, stochastic systems, optimization and signal processing, with applications in data centers, cloud computing, and energy-efficient communications. The goal of my research is to provide a sharp understanding of fundamental limits of systems, and develop efficient and flexible algorithms that achieve provably good performance.
Load balancing
Load balancing, which is responsible for dispatching jobs on parallel servers, is a key component in computer networks and distributed computing systems, with broad applications in Web service, cloud computing, distributed cashing system, and grid computing. My PhD research activities in this area can be organized as follows:
Algorithm design: This is aimed at designing low-complexity and flexible load balancing schemes with rigorous theoretical guarantees on performance optimality. (i) To address the fact that existing policies are often too restrictive, we identify a class of load balancing policies that enjoy a nice trade-off between flexibility and performance guarantee. (ii) To achieve the advantages of both push-based and pull-based schemes at the same time, we propose a new load balancing scheme that carries out the principles emanating from the theoretical foundations.
(i): Performance 2018 | (ii) Sigmetrics 2018 (summer)
Performance analysis: This is aimed at the mathematical analysis of load balancing schemes with proper metrics to establish tight characterizations of performance and to reveal the limits of their applicability. (i) We establish the necessary and sufficient conditions for a general class of pull-based load balancing schemes to achieve optimal delay in heavy traffic, which resolves a generalized version of the conjecture by Kelly and Laws. (ii) We devise a refined performance evaluation metric, which allows us not only to successfully distinguish between good and poor load balancing schemes, but to guide the design of new schemes.
(i): Sigmetrics/Performance 2019 | (ii): Sigmetrics 2018 (fall)
Optimization and machine learning
Besides load balancing, I am also interested in the understanding of the key aspects of optimization and machine learning. (i) To this end, I have provided a comprehensive summary on the fundamental concepts in optimization such as strong convexity, Lipschitz continuous gradient as well as a simple proof of the Fenchel duality between them. (ii) Motivated by my personal strong interest in the Impressionism, I have adopted transfer learning to automatically distinguish the paintings by Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh, which is able to achieve a test accuracy of 98.3%.
(i): Strong convexity- Lipschitz continuous gradient-Fenchel duality | (ii): ML Report
Energy-efficient communications
During my master study, I work on energy-efficient communications in MIMO systems. (i) In contrast to previous works, we consider a holistic power model to maximize the capacity with efficient antenna selection schemes. (ii) We also consider the maximization of energy efficiency (bits per Joule) with antenna selection in MIMO systems.
(i): WCL | (ii): Invited survey-CL
Publications
Heavy-traffic Delay Optimality in Pull-based Load Balancing Systems: Necessary and Sufficient Conditions Xingyu Zhou, Jian Tan and Ness Shroff accepted by ACM Sigmetrics/IFIP Performance 2019
Flexible Load Balancing with Multi-dimensional State-space Collapse: Throughput and Heavy-traffic Delay Optimality Xingyu Zhou, Jian Tan and Ness Shroff accepted by IFIP Performance 2018
Degree of Queue Imbalance: Overcoming the Limitation of Heavy-traffic Delay Optimality in Load Balancing Systems Xingyu Zhou*, Fei Wu*, Jian Tan, Kannan Srinivasan, and Ness Shroff ACM Sigmetrics 2018 (*co-primary author)
Designing Low-Complexity Heavy-Traffic Delay-Optimal Load Balancing Schemes: Theory to Algorithms Xingyu Zhou, Fei Wu, Jian Tan, Yin Sun, Ness Shroff ACM Sigmetrics 2018
Greedy Relay Antenna Selection for Sum Rate Maximization in Amplify-and-Forward MIMO Two-Way Relay Channels Under a Holistic Power Model Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen IEEE Communications Letters
Energy Efficient Relay Antenna Selection for AF MIMO Two-Way Relay Channels Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen IEEE ICC 2015
How Many Antennas Should Be Activated in Keyhole Channels Under a Holistic Power Model Tian Tong, Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen IEEE Communications Letters
Antenna Selection in Energy Efficient MIMO Systems: A Survey Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen China Communications
On Energy Efficiency Maximization of AF MIMO Relay Systems with Antenna Selection Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen, Yuxing Han IEEE GlobalSIP 2014
Energy Efficient Transmission for DF MIMO Relay Systems with Antenna Selection Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen, Yuxing Han IEEE GlobalSIP 2014
Iterative Antenna Selection for Decode-and-Forward MIMO Relay Systems Under a Holistic Power Model Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen IEEE Communications Letters
A Low Complexity Energy Efficiency Maximization Method for Multiuser Amplify-and-Forward MIMO Relay Systems With a Holistic Power Model Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen IEEE Communications Letters
An Iterative Algorithm for Joint Antenna Selection and Power Adaptation in Energy Efficient MIMO Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen IEEE ICC 2014
Iterative Antenna Selection for Multi-Stream MIMO under a Holistic Power Model Xingyu Zhou, Bo Bai, Wei Chen IEEE Wireless Communications Letters
Talks
Heavy-traffic Delay Optimality in Pull-based Load Balancing Systems: Necessary and Sufficient Conditions invited talk at RSRG Seminar, Caltech, Feb. 2019 pdf
Flexible Load Balancing with Multi-dimensional State-space Collapse: Throughput and Heavy-traffic Delay Optimality at IFIP Performance'18, Toulouse, France pdf
Load balancing in heavy traffic: Theory and algorithms invited talk at SQUALL seminar, CMU, Sep. 2018
Degree of Queue Imbalance: Overcoming the Limitation of Heavy-traffic Delay Optimality in Load Balancing Systems at ACM Sigmetrics'18 Irvine pdf
Designing Low-Complexity Heavy-Traffic Delay-Optimal Load Balancing Schemes: Theory to Algorithms at ACM Sigmetrics'18 Irvine pdf
Load Balancing in Heavy-traffic Regime: Theory and Algorithms at the 3rd IMACCS workshop pdf
The Power of Transfer Learning in Artist Identification at machine learning course ECE5523 pdf
Fenchel Duality Between Strong Convexity and Lipschitz Continuous Gradient at course ECE8101 pdf
Load Balancing in Distributed System: A Survey at course ISE8399 pdf
Load Balancing Algorithms in Cloud Networks at PhD Qualify Exam pdf
Energy Efficient Relay Antenna Selection for AF MIMO Two-Way Relay Channels at ICC 2015 pptx
An Iterative Algorithm for Joint Antenna Selection and Power Adaptation in Energy Efficient MIMO at ICC 2014 pptx
On Energy Efficiency Maximization of AF MIMO Relay Systems with Antenna Selection at GlobalSIP 2014 pdf
Award
Presidential Fellowship, The Ohio State University 2019 (the highest honor at OSU).
Student Travel Grant, ACM Sigmetrics 2018.
Student Travel Grant, IFIP Performance 2018.
Excellent Dissertation Award, Chinese Institute of Electronics, 2016
Outstanding Graduate Award of Beijing city, 2012 and 2015.
Outstanding Graduate Award, BUPT and Tsinghua University, 2012 and 2015.
Distinguished Dissertation Award, BUPT and Tsinghua University, 2012 and 2015.
Academic Rising Star Award, Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, 2015.
“The December 9th” Scholarship, Tsinghua University, 2014.
National Scholarship, Ministry of Education, China, 2011 and 2014.
HNA (HaiNan Airlines) Academic Excellence Scholarship, 2011.
First prize in National Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest, 2011.
First prize in National “Freescale Cup” Intelligent Car Competition, 2011.
Others
This is my previous CSDN blog in Chinese and it will not be updated. A new blog has been created recently.
My inspirations of research and life come from two Claudes: Claude Shannon and Claude Monet