arXiv subjects

Fen Zhou

Publications and source records attributed to Fen Zhou.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

An LLM-Based Framework for Intent-Driven Network Topology Design

Designing deployable and resilient network topologies from natural language requirements remains a challenging problem in network automation. This work investigates the ability of Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate structurally valid and constraint-compliant network topologies through a constraint-driven pipeline combining hierarchical modeling and systematic validation. The framework is evaluated via a multimodel comparison of proprietary and open-weight LLMs across four realistic network scenarios released as a public dataset. We assess structural correctness using node and edge F1-scores against reference topologies, and evaluate resilience through server and content connectivity metrics. In addition, we analyze common failure modes, including interface mismatches and directional inconsistencies in generated topologies. Overall, this work provides a systematic benchmark for understanding how LLMs handle structural and resilience constraints in topology synthesis, and supports informed model selection for AI-driven network design.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2023

Throughput Maximization in Multi-Band Optical Networks with Column Generation

Multi-band transmission is a promising technical direction for spectrum and capacity expansion of existing optical networks. Due to the increase in the number of usable wavelengths in multi-band optical networks, the complexity of resource allocation problems becomes a major concern. Moreover, the transmission performance, spectrum width, and cost constraint across optical bands may be heterogeneous. Assuming a worst-case transmission margin in U, L, and C-bands, this paper investigates the problem of throughput maximization in multi-band optical networks, including the optimization of route, wavelength, and band assignment. We propose a low-complexity decomposition approach based on Column Generation (CG) to address the scalability issue faced by traditional methodologies. We numerically compare the results obtained by our CG-based approach to an integer linear programming model, confirming the near-optimal network throughput. Our results also demonstrate the scalability of the CG-based approach when the number of wavelengths increases, with the computation time in the magnitude order of 10 s for cases varying from 75 to 1200 wavelength channels per link in a 14-node network. Code of this publication is available at github.com/cchen000/CG-Multi-Band.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2021

A Novel Initialization Method for HybridUnderwater Optical Acoustic Networks

To satisfy the high data rate requirement andreliable transmission demands in underwater scenarios, it isdesirable to construct an efficient hybrid underwater opticalacoustic network (UWOAN) architecture by considering the keyfeatures and critical needs of underwater terminals. In UWOANs,optical uplinks and acoustic downlinks are configured betweenunderwater nodes (UWNs) and the base station (BS), wherethe optical beam transmits the high data rate traffic to theBS, while the acoustic waves carry the control information torealize the network management. In this paper, we focus onsolving the network initializing problem in UWOANs, which isa challenging task due to the lack of GPS service and limiteddevice payload in underwater environments. To this end, weleverage acoustic waves for node localization and propose anovel network initialization method, which consists of UWNidentification, discovery, localization, as well as decomposition.Numerical simulations are also conducted to verify the proposedinitialization method.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2021

Throughput Maximization Leveraging Just-Enough SNR Margin and Channel Spacing Optimization

Flexible optical network is a promising technology to accommodate high-capacity demands in next-generation networks. To ensure uninterrupted communication, existing lightpath provisioning schemes are mainly done with the assumption of worst-case resource under-provisioning and fixed channel spacing, which preserves an excessive signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margin. However, under a resource over-provisioning scenario, the excessive SNR margin restricts the transmission bit-rate or transmission reach, leading to physical layer resource waste and stranded transmission capacity. To tackle this challenging problem, we leverage an iterative feedback tuning algorithm to provide a just-enough SNR margin, so as to maximize the network throughput. Specifically, the proposed algorithm is implemented in three steps. First, starting from the high SNR margin setup, we establish an integer linear programming model as well as a heuristic algorithm to maximize the network throughput by solving the problem of routing, modulation format, forward error correction, baud-rate selection, and spectrum assignment. Second, we optimize the channel spacing of the lightpaths obtained from the previous step, thereby increasing the available physical layer resources. Finally, we iteratively reduce the SNR margin of each lightpath until the network throughput cannot be increased. Through numerical simulations, we confirm the throughput improvement in different networks and with different baud-rates. In particular, we find that our algorithm enables over 20\% relative gain when network resource is over-provisioned, compared to the traditional method preserving an excessive SNR margin.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2021

Maximizing Revenue with Adaptive Modulation and Multiple FECs in Flexible Optical Networks

Flexible optical networks (FONs) are being adopted to accommodate the increasingly heterogeneous traffic in today's Internet. However, in presence of high traffic load, not all offered traffic can be satisfied at all time. As carried traffic load brings revenues to operators, traffic blocking due to limited spectrum resource leads to revenue losses. In this study, given a set of traffic requests to be provisioned, we consider the problem of maximizing operator's revenue, subject to limited spectrum resource and physical layer impairments (PLIs), namely amplified spontaneous emission noise (ASE), self-channel interference (SCI), cross-channel interference (XCI), and node crosstalk. In FONs, adaptive modulation, multiple FEC, and the tuning of power spectrum density (PSD) can be effectively employed to mitigate the impact of PLIs. Hence, in our study, we propose a universal bandwidth-related impairment evaluation model based on channel bandwidth, which allows a performance analysis for different PSD, FEC and modulations. Leveraging this PLI model and a piecewise linear fitting function, we succeed to formulate the revenue maximization problem as a mixed integer linear program. Then, to solve the problem on larger network instances, a fast two-phase heuristic algorithm is also proposed, which is shown to be near-optimal for revenue maximization. Through simulations, we demonstrate that using adaptive modulation enables to significantly increase revenues in the scenario of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), where the revenue can even be doubled for high traffic load, while using multiple FECs is more profitable for scenarios with low SNR.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2021

Four-state reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution with non-qubit sources

The discrepancy between theory and experiment severely limits the development of quantum key distribution (QKD). Reference-frame-independent (RFI) protocol has been proposed to avoid alignment of the reference frame. However, multiple optical modes caused by Trojan horse attacks and equipment loopholes lead to the imperfect emitted signal unavoidably. In this paper, we analyzed the security of the RFI-QKD protocol with non-qubit sources based on generalizing loss-tolerant techniques. The simulation results show that our work can effectively defend against non-qubit sources including a misaligned reference frame, state preparation flaws, multiple optical modes, and Trojan horse attacks. Moreover, it only requires the preparation of four quantum states, which reduces the complexity of the experiment in the future.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Radio Frequency Fingerprint Identification Based on Denoising Autoencoders

Radio Frequency Fingerprinting (RFF) is one of the promising passive authentication approaches for improving the security of the Internet of Things (IoT). However, with the proliferation of low-power IoT devices, it becomes imperative to improve the identification accuracy at low SNR scenarios. To address this problem, this paper proposes a general Denoising AutoEncoder (DAE)-based model for deep learning RFF techniques. Besides, a partially stacking method is designed to appropriately combine the semi-steady and steady-state RFFs of ZigBee devices. The proposed Partially Stacking-based Convolutional DAE (PSC-DAE) aims at reconstructing a high-SNR signal as well as device identification. Experimental results demonstrate that compared to Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), PSCDAE can improve the identification accuracy by 14% to 23.5% at low SNRs (from -10 dB to 5 dB) under Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) corrupted channels. Even at SNR = 10 dB, the identification accuracy is as high as 97.5%.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

On Virtual Network Embedding: Paths and Cycles

Network virtualization provides a promising solution to overcome the ossification of current networks, allowing multiple Virtual Network Requests (VNRs) embedded on a common infrastructure. The major challenge in network virtualization is the Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) problem, which is to embed VNRs onto a shared substrate network and known to be $\mathcal{NP}$-hard. The topological heterogeneity of VNRs is one important factor hampering the performance of the VNE. However, in many specialized applications and infrastructures, VNRs are of some common structural features $\textit{e.g.}$, paths and cycles. To achieve better outcomes, it is thus critical to design dedicated algorithms for these applications and infrastructures by taking into accounting topological characteristics. Besides, paths and cycles are two of the most fundamental topologies that all network structures consist of. Exploiting the characteristics of path and cycle embeddings is vital to tackle the general VNE problem. In this paper, we investigated the path and cycle embedding problems. For path embedding, we proved its $\mathcal{NP}$-hardness and inapproximability. Then, by utilizing Multiple Knapsack Problem (MKP) and Multi-Dimensional Knapsack Problem (MDKP), we proposed an efficient and effective MKP-MDKP-based algorithm. For cycle embedding, we proposed a Weighted Directed Auxiliary Graph (WDAG) to develop a polynomial-time algorithm to determine the least-resource-consuming embedding. Numerical results showed our customized algorithms can boost the acceptance ratio and revenue compared to generic embedding algorithms in the literature.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2018

How the Network Topology, Traffic Distribution, and Routing Scheme Impact on the Spectrum Usage in Elastic Optical Networks

Elastic Optical Network (EON) has been considered as a promising optical networking technology to architect the next-generation backbone networks. Routing and Spectrum Assignment (RSA) is the fundamental problem in EONs to realize service provisioning. Generally, the RSA is solved by routing the requests with lightpaths first and then assigning spectrum resources to the lightpaths to optimize the spectrum usage. Thus, the spectrum assignment explicitly decide the final spectrum usage of EONs. However, besides the spectrum assignment, there are three other factors, the network topology, traffic distribution and routing scheme, implicitly impact on the spectrum usage. Few related work involves in the implicit impact mechanism. In this paper, we aim to provide a thoroughly theoretical analysis on the impact of the three key factors on the spectrum usage. To this end, two theoretical chains are proposed: (1) The optimal spectrum usage can be measured by the chromatic number of the conflict graph, which is positively correlated to the intersecting probability, \emph{i.e.}, the smaller the intersecting probability, the smaller the optimal spectrum usage; (2) The intersecting probability is decided by the network topology, traffic distribution and routing scheme via a quadratic programming parameterized with a matrix of conflict coefficients. The effectiveness of our theoretical analysis has been validated by extensive numerical results. Meanwhile, our theoretical deductions also permit to give several constant approximation ratios for RSA algorithms.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2015

Optimisation using Natural Language Processing: Personalized Tour Recommendation for Museums

This paper proposes a new method to provide personalized tour recommendation for museum visits. It combines an optimization of preference criteria of visitors with an automatic extraction of artwork importance from museum information based on Natural Language Processing using textual energy. This project includes researchers from computer and social sciences. Some results are obtained with numerical experiments. They show that our model clearly improves the satisfaction of the visitor who follows the proposed tour. This work foreshadows some interesting outcomes and applications about on-demand personalized visit of museums in a very near future.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2011

Maximum Bounded Rooted-Tree Packing Problem

Given a graph and a root, the Maximum Bounded Rooted-Tree Packing (MBRTP) problem aims at finding K rooted-trees that span the largest subset of vertices, when each vertex has a limited outdegree. This problem is motivated by peer-to-peer streaming overlays in under-provisioned systems. We prove that the MBRTP problem is NP-complete. We present two polynomial-time algorithms that computes an optimal solution on complete graphs and trees respectively.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2010

Light-Hierarchy: The Optimal Structure for Multicast Routing in WDM Mesh Networks

Based on the false assumption that multicast incapable (MI) nodes could not be traversed twice on the same wavelength, the light-tree structure was always thought to be optimal for multicast routing in sparse splitting Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks. In fact, for establishing a multicast session, an MI node could be crosswise visited more than once to switch a light signal towards several destinations with only one wavelength through different input and output pairs. This is called Cross Pair Switching (CPS). Thus, a new multicast routing structure light-hierarchy is proposed for all-optical multicast routing, which permits the cycles introduced by the CPS capability of MI nodes. We proved that the optimal structure for minimizing the cost of multicast routing is a set of light-hierarchies rather than the light-trees in sparse splitting WDM networks. Integer linear programming (ILP) formulations are developed to search the optimal light-hierarchies. Numerical results verified that the light-hierarchy structure could save more cost than the light-tree structure.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2010

Avoidance of multicast incapable branching nodes for multicast routing in WDM networks

In this articlewestudy themulticast routing problem in all-opticalWDMnetworks under the spare light splitting constraint. To implement a multicast session, several light-trees may have to be used due to the limited fanouts of network nodes. Although many multicast routing algorithms have been proposed in order to reduce the total number of wavelength channels used (total cost) for a multicast session, the maximum number of wavelengths required in one fiber link (link stress) and the end-to-end delay are two parameters which are not always taken into consideration. It is known that the shortest path tree (SPT) results in the optimal end-to-end delay, but it can not be employed directly for multicast routing in sparse light splitting WDM networks. Hence, we propose a novel wavelength routing algorithm which tries to avoid the multicast incapable branching nodes (MIBs, branching nodes without splitting capability) in the shortest-path-based multicast tree to diminish the link stress. Good parts of the shortest-path-tree are retained by the algorithm to reduce the end-to-end delay. The algorithm consists of tree steps: (1) aDijkstraPro algorithmwith priority assignment and node adoption is introduced to produce a SPT with up to 38% fewer MIB nodes in the NSF topology and 46% fewerMIB nodes in the USA Longhaul topology, (2) critical articulation and deepest branch heuristics are used to process the MIB nodes, (3) a distance-based light-tree reconnection algorithm is proposed to create the multicast light-trees. Extensive simulations demonstrate the algorithm's efficiency in terms of link stress and end-to-end delay.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2010

Hypo-Steiner heuristic for multicast routing in all-optical WDM mesh networks

In sparse light splitting all-optical WDM networks, the more destinations a light-tree can accommodate, the fewer light-trees andwavelengths amulticast session will require. In this article, a Hypo-Steiner light-tree algorithm (HSLT) is proposed to construct a HSLT light-tree to include as many destinations as possible. The upper bound cost of the light-trees built by HSLT is given as N(N -1)/2, where N is the number of nodes in the network. The analytical model proves that, under the same condition, more destinations could be held in a HSLT than a Member-Only (Zhang et al., J. Lightware Technol, 18(12), 1917-1927 2000.) light-tree. Extensive simulations not only validate the proof but also show that the proposed heuristic outperforms the existing multicast routing algorithms by a large margin in terms of link stress, throughput, and efficiency ofwavelength usage.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2010

Is Light-Tree Structure Optimal for Multicast Routing in Sparse Light Splitting WDM Networks?

To minimize the number of wavelengths required by a multicast session in sparse light splitting wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks, a light-hierarchy structure, which occupies the same wavelength on all links, is proposed to span as many destinations as possible. Different from a light-tree, a light-hierarchy accepts cycles, which are used to traverse crosswise a 4-degree (or above) multicast incapable (MI) node twice (or above) and switch two light signals on the same wavelengths to two destinations in the same multicast session. In this paper, firstly, a graph renewal and distance priority light-tree algorithm (GRDP-LT) is introduced to improve the quality of light-trees built for a multicast request. Then, it is extended to compute light-hierarchies. Obtained numerical results demonstrate the GRDP-LT light-trees can achieve a much lower links stress, better wavelength channel cost, and smaller average end-to-end delay as well as diameter than the currently most efficient algorithm. Furthermore, compared to light-trees, the performance in terms of link stress and network throughput is greatly improved again by employing the light-hierarchy, while consuming the same amount of wavelength channel cost.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2009

Distance priority based multicast routing in WDM networks considering sparse light splitting

As we know, the member-only algorithm in provides the best links stress and wavelength usage for the construction of multicast light-trees in WDM networks with sparse splitting. However, the diameter of tree is too big and the average delay is also too large, which are intolerant for QoS required multimedia applications. In this paper, a distance priority based algorithm is proposed to build light-trees for multicast routing, where the Candidate Destinations and the Candidate Connectors are introduced. Simulations show the proposed algorithm is able to greatly reduce the diameter and average delay of the multicast tree (up to 51% and 50% respectively), while keep the same or get a slightly better link stress as well as the wavelength usage than the famous Member-Only algorithm.

cs.NI↗