Publications

Selected Recent Publications

• I-Hong Hou, “Network Optimization in Dynamic Systems: Fast Adaptation via Zero-Shot Lagrangian Update,” to appear in Proc. of IEEE Infocom 2025. (acceptance rate = 18.7%)
• I-Hong Hou, “Distributed No-Regret Learning for Multi-Stage Systems with End-to-End Bandit Feedback,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc 2024. (acceptance rate = 24.5%, Best Paper Runner Up Award)
• Daojing Guo, Khaled Nakhleh, I-Hong Hou, Sastry Kompella, and Clement K Kam. “AoI, Timely- Throughput, and Beyond: A Theory of Second-Order Wireless Network Optimization,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 32, no. 6, December, 2024, pp. 4707 – 4721.
• Siqi Fan, I-Hong Hou, and Van Sy Mai, “Dynamic Regret of Randomized Online Service Caching in Edge Computing,” in Proc. of IEEE Infocom 2023. (acceptance rate = 19.2%)
• Khaled Nakhleh and I-Hong Hou, “DeepTOP: Deep Threshold-Optimal Policy for MDPs and RMABs,” accepted in Proc. of NeurIPS 2022. (acceptance rate = 25.6%)

Book

• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “Packets with Deadlines: A Framework for Real-Time Wireless Networks,” Morgan & Claypool, 2013. [Link to the book]

Book Chapter

• Kamyar Mirzazad Barijough, Lin Huang, I-Hong Hou, Sachin S Sapatnekar, Jiang Hu, and Andreas Gerstlauer, “Exploiting Approximations in Real-time Scheduling.” In Approximate Computing Techniques: From Component-to Application-Level, Springer International Publishing, Jan. 2022.
• Jennifer C. Hou, David K. Y. Yau, Chris Y. T. Ma, Yong Yang, Honghai Zhang, I-Hong Hou, Nageswara S. V. Rao, and Mallikarjun Shankar, “Coverage in Wireless Sensor Networks,” In Guide to Wireless Sensor Networks. Sudip Misra, Issac Woungang, Subhas C. Misra (eds), Springer-Verlag (London), June 2009.

Journal Articles

• Daojing Guo, Khaled Nakhleh, I-Hong Hou, Sastry Kompella, and Clement K Kam. “AoI, Timely- Throughput, and Beyond: A Theory of Second-Order Wireless Network Optimization.” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 32, no. 6, December, 2024, pp. 4707 – 4721.
• Siqi Fan, Yuxin Zhong, I-Hong Hou, and Clement K Kam, “Optimizing Age of Information in Random Access Networks: A Second-Order Approach for Active/Passive Users,”  accepted for IEEE Transactions on Communications.
• Md Kamran Chowdhury Shisher, Yin Sun, and I-Hong Hou, “Timely Communications for Remote Inference,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol.32, no. 5, October 2024, pp. 3824 – 3829.
• Md Kamran Chowdhury Shisher, Bo Ji, I-Hong Hou, and Yin Sun, “Learning and Communications Co-design for Remote Inference Systems: Feature Length Selection and Transmission Scheduling,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory, vol. 4, October, 2023, pp. 524 – 538.
• Jin Xu, I-Hong Hou, and Natarajan Gautam, “Age of Information for Single Buffer Systems with Vacation Server,” IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, vol. 9, no. 3, May-June 2022, pp. 1198 – 1214. (Finalist of the Best Paper Award in 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting.)
• Daojing Guo and I-Hong Hou, “Scheduling Real-Time Information-Update Flows for the Optimal Confidence in Estimation,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. vol. 39, no. 5, May 2021, pp. 1339 – 1351.
• Yu-Pin Hsu, I-Hong Hou, and Alex Sprintson, “Joint Index Coding and Incentive Design for Selfish Clients,” IEEE Transactions on Communications. vol. 69, no. 4, Apr. 2021, pp. 2176 – 2190.
• Han Deng, Tao Zhao, and I-Hong Hou, “Online Routing and Scheduling With Capacity Redundancy for Timely Delivery Guarantees in Multihop Networks,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. vol. 27, no. 3, Jun. 2019, pp. 1258 – 1271
• Tao Zhao, I-Hong Hou, V. Jorge Leon, Korok Ray, and Jyhwen Wang, “An efficient revenue distribution method in a cyber-enabled manufacturing system,” Manufacturing Letters. vol. 17, Aug. 2018, pp. 19 – 22.
• Ping-Chun Hsieh and I-Hong Hou, “Heavy-Traffic Analysis of QoE Optimality for On-Demand Video Streams Over Fading Channels,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. vol. 26, no. 4, Aug. 2018, pp. 1768 – 1781.
• Tao Zhao, I-Hong Hou, Shiqiang Wang, and Kevin Chan, “RED/LED: An Asymptotically Optimal and Scalable Online Algorithm for Service Caching at the Edge,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. vol. 36, no. 8, Aug. 2018, pp. 1857 – 1870.
• Tao Zhao, Korok Ray, and I-Hong Hou, “A Non-Monetary Mechanism for Optimal Rate Control Through Efficient Cost Allocation,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. vol. 26, no. 3, Jun. 2018, pp. 1418 – 1431.
• Han Deng and I-Hong Hou, “Optimal Capacity Provisioning for Online Job Allocation with Hard Allocation Ratio Requirement,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 26, no. 2, Apr. 2018, pp. 724 – 736.
• I-Hong Hou and Ping-Chun Hsieh, “The Capacity of QoE for Wireless Networks with Unreliable Transmissions,” Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications (QUES), vol. 87, no. 1-2, Oct. 2017, pp. 131 – 159.
• Shuai Zuo, I-Hong Hou, Tie Liu, Ananthram Swami, and Prithwish Basu, “Joint Rate Control and Scheduling for Real-Time Wireless Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 16, no. 7, Jul. 2017, pp. 4562 – 4570.
• Shuai Zuo, Han Deng, and I-Hong Hou, “Energy Efficient Algorithms for Real-Time Traffic over Fading Wireless Channels,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 16, no. 3, Mar. 2017, pp. 1881 – 1892.
• Han Deng and I-Hong Hou, “On the Capacity-Performance Trade-off of Online Policy in Delayed Mobile Offloading,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. 526 – 537.
• Abhishek Jain and I-Hong Hou, “R-PF: Enhancing Service Regularity for Legacy Scheduling Policy,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 258 – 266.
• I-Hong Hou, “Packet Scheduling for Real-Time Surveillance in Multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks with Lossy Channels,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 14, no. 2, Feb. 2015, pp. 1071 – 1079.
• I-Hong Hou, “Broadcasting Delay-Constrained Traffic over Unreliable Wireless Links with Network Coding,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 23, no. 3, Jun. 2015, pp. 728 – 740.
• I-Hong Hou and Piyush Gupta, “Proportionally Fair Distributed Resource Allocation in Multi-Band Wireless Systems,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 22, no. 6, Dec. 2014, pp. 1819 – 1830.
• I-Hong Hou, “Scheduling Heterogeneous Real-Time Traffic over Fading Wireless Channels,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 22, no. 5, Oct. 2014, pp. 1631 – 1644.
• I-Hong Hou and Chung Shue Chen, “An Energy-Aware Protocol for Self-Organizing Heterogeneous LTE Systems,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 31, no. 5, May. 2013, pp. 937 – 946.
• I-Hong Hou and P. R. Kumar, “Real-Time Communication over Unreliable Wireless Links: A Theory and Its Applications,” IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, vol. 19, no. 2, Feb. 2012, pp. 48 – 59.
• I-Hong Hou and P. R. Kumar, “Queueing Systems with Hard Delay Constraints: A Framework for Real-Time Communication over Unreliable Wireless Channels,” Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications (QUESTA), vol. 71, no. 1-2, Jun. 2012, pp. 151 – 177.

Conference Papers

• I-Hong Hou, “Network Optimization in Dynamic Systems: Fast Adaptation via Zero-Shot Lagrangian Update,” to appear in Proc. of IEEE Infocom 2025. (acceptance rate = 18.7%)
• Siqi Fan and I-Hong Hou, “Second-Order Analysis of CSMA Protocols for Age-of-Information Minimization,” in Proc. of Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers 2024.
• Nida Zamir and I-Hong Hou, “Deep Index Policy for Multi-Resource Restless Matching Bandit and Its Application in Multi-Channel Scheduling,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc 2024. (acceptance rate = 24.5%)
• I-Hong Hou, “Distributed No-Regret Learning for Multi-Stage Systems with End-to-End Bandit Feedback,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc 2024. (acceptance rate = 24.5%, Best Paper Runner Up Award)
• Xin Chen and I-Hong Hou, “Contextual Restless Multi-Armed Bandits with Application to Demand Response Decision-Making,” in Proc. of IEEE CDC, 2024.
• Siqi Fan, Yuxin Zhong, I-Hong Hou, and Clement Kam, “Minimizing Moments of AoI for Both Active and Passive Users through Second-Order Analysis,” in Proc. of IEEE ISIT 2023.
• Siqi Fan, I-Hong Hou, and Van Sy Mai, “Dynamic Regret of Randomized Online Service Caching in Edge Computing,” in Proc. of IEEE Infocom 2023. (acceptance rate = 19.2%)
• Khaled Nakhleh and I-Hong Hou, “DeepTOP: Deep Threshold-Optimal Policy for MDPs and RMABs,” in Proc. of NeurIPS 2022. (acceptance rate = 25.6%)
• Siqi Fan, I-Hong Hou, Van Sy Mai, Lotfi Benmohamed, “Online Service Caching and Routing at the Edge with Unknown Arrivals,” in Proc. of IEEE ICC 2022.
• Daojing Guo, Khaled Nakhleh, I-Hong Hou, Sastry Kompella, and Clement Kam, “A Theory of Second-Order Wireless Network Optimization and Its Application on AoI,” in IEEE Infocom 2022. (acceptance rate = 19.9%)
• Khaled Nakhleh, Santosh Ganji, Ping-Chun Hsieh, I-Hong Hou, and Srinivas Shakkottai, “NeurWIN: Neural Whittle Index Network For Restless Bandits Via Deep RL,” in NeurIPS 2021. (acceptance rate = 26%)
• Daojing Guo, I-Hong Hou, and Ping-Chun Hsieh, “Optimal Wireless Scheduling for Remote Sensing through Brownian Approximation,” in IEEE Infocom 2021. (acceptance rate = 19.9%)
• Ping-Chun Hsieh, Xi Liu, and I-Hong Hou, “Fresher Content or Smoother Playback? A Brownian-Approximation Framework for Scheduling Real-Time Wireless Video Streams,” in ACM MobiHoc 2020. (acceptance rate = 15%, Best Paper Award)
• I-Hong Hou, Narges Zarnaghi Naghsh, Sibendu Paul, Y. Charlie Hu, and Atilla Eryilmaz, “Predictive Scheduling for Virtual Reality,” in IEEE Infocom 2020. (acceptance rate = 19.8%) [slides] [video link]
• Lin Huang, I-Hong Hou, Sachin S. Sapatnekar, and Jiang Hu, “Improving QoS for Global Dual-Criticality Scheduling on Multiprocessors,” in Proc. of RTCSA 2019.
• Daojing Guo and I-Hong Hou, “On the Credibility of Information Flows in Real-Time Wireless Networks,” in Proc. of WiOpt 2019. (Runner-Up for Best Paper Award)
• Aria HasanzadeZonuzy, I-Hong Hou, and Srinivas Shakkottai, “Broadcasting Real-Time Flows in Integrated Backhaul and Access 5G Networks,” in Proc. of WiOpt 2019.
• Archana Sasikumar, Tao Zhao, I-Hong Hou, and Srinivas Shakkottai, “Cache-Version Selection and Content Placement for Adaptive Video Streaming in Wireless Edge Networks,” in Proc. of WiOpt, 2019.
• Lin Huang, I-Hong Hou, Sachin Sapatnekar and Jiang Hu,” Graceful Degradation of Low-Criticality Tasks in Multiprocessor Dual-Criticality Systems,” in Proc. of RTNS, 2018.
• Ping-Chun Hsieh and I-Hong Hou, “A Decentralized Medium Access Protocol for Real-Time Wireless Ad Hoc Networks With Unreliable Transmissions,” in Proc. of IEEE ICDCS, 2018. [slides]
• Simon Yau, Ping-Chun Hsieh, Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Kartic Bhargav K. R., Srinivas Shakkottai, I-Hong Hou, P. R. Kumar, “PULS: Processor-supported Ultra-low Latency Scheduling,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc, 2018. (acceptance rate = 17%, Finalist for Best Paper)
• Ping-Chun Hsieh, Xi Liu, Jian Jiao, I-Hong Hou, Yunlong Zhang, P. R. Kumar, “Throughput-Optimal Scheduling for Multi-Hop Networked Transportation Systems With Switch-Over Delay,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc, 2017. (acceptance rate = 17%, Best Paper Award)
• Tao Zhao, Korok Ray, and I-Hong Hou, “A Non-Monetary Mechanism for Optimal Rate Control Through Efficient Delay Allocation,” in Proc. of WiOpt, 2017. (Best Student Paper Award)
• I-Hong Hou, Tao Zhao, Shiqiang Wang, and Kevin Chan, “Asymptotically Optimal Algorithm for Online Reconfiguration of Edge-Clouds,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc, 2016. (acceptance rate = 18.7%)
• Han Deng and I-Hong Hou, “A New Competitive Ratio for Network Applications with Hard Performance Guarantees,” in Proc. of SPCOM, 2016. (invited)
• I-Hong Hou, “On the Modeling and Optimization of Short-Term Performance for Real-Time Wireless Networks,” in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2016. (acceptance rate = 18%)
• Han Deng and I-Hong Hou, “Online Job Allocation with Hard Allocation Ratio Requirement,” in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2016. (acceptance rate = 18%)
• Ping-Chun Hsieh and I-Hong Hou, “Heavy-Traffic Analysis of QoE Optimality for On-Demand Video Streams Over Fading Channels,” in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2016. (acceptance rate = 18%)
• I-Hong Hou and Ping-Chun Hsieh, “QoE-Optimal Scheduling for On-Demand Video Streams over Unreliable Wireless Networks,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc, 2015. (acceptance rate = 14.8%)
• Xiaohan Kang, I-Hong Hou, and Lei Ying, “On the Capacity Requirement of Largest-Deficit-First for Scheduling Real-Time Traffic in Wireless Networks,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc, 2015. (acceptance rate = 14.8%)
• Han Deng and I-Hong Hou, “Online Scheduling for Delayed Mobile Offloading,” to appear in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2015. (acceptance rate = 19%) [slides]
• Shuai Zuo and I-Hong Hou, “Online Scheduling for Energy Efficiency in Real-Time Wireless Networks,” in Proc. of Allerton, 2014.
• Rahul Singh, I-Hong Hou, and P. R. Kumar, “Fluctuation Analysis of Debt Based Policies for Wireless Networks with Hard Delay Constraints,” in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2014. (acceptance rate = 19%)
• I-Hong Hou, “Providing End-to-End Delay Guarantees for Multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks,” in Proc. of IEEE Globecom, 2013. [slides]
• I-Hong Hou, Jing Zhu, and Rath Vannithamby, “Incentive-Oriented Downlink Scheduling for Wireless Networks with Real-Time and Non-Real-Time Flows,” in IEEE BWA workshop, collocated with IEEE Globecom, 2013. [slides]
• Rahul Singh, I-Hong Hou, and P. R. Kumar, “Pathwise Performance of Debt Based Policies for Wireless Networks with Hard Delay Constraints,” in Proc. of IEEE CDC, 2013.
• I-Hong Hou, Yu-Pin Hsu, and Alex Sprintson, “Truthful and Non-Monetary Mechanism for Direct Data Exchange,” in Proc. of Allerton, 2013. [slides]
• I-Hong Hou, and Rahul Singh, “Scheduling of Access Points for Multiple Live Video Streams,” in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc, 2013. (short paper, acceptance rate = 18%)
• Yu-Pin Hsu, I-Hong Hou, and Alex Sprintson, “The Index Coding Problem: A Game-Theoretical Perspective,” in Proc. of IEEE ISIT, 2013.
• I-Hong Hou, Yao Liu, and Alex Sprintson, “A Non-Monetary Protocol for Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution in Wireless Broadcast Networks with Network Coding,” in Proc. of WiOpt, 2013. [slides]
• I-Hong Hou and Chung Shue Chen, “Self-Organized Resource Allocation in LTE Systems with Weighted Proportional Fairness,” in Proc. of IEEE ICC, 2012.[slides]
• I-Hong Hou, Anh Truong, Santanu Chakraborty, and P.R. Kumar, “Optimality of Periodwise Static Priority Policies in Real-time Communications,” in Proc. of IEEE CDC, 2011. (Invited) [slides]
• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “Scheduling Periodic Real-Time Tasks with Heterogeneous Reward Requirements,” in Proc. of IEEE RTSS 2011 (acceptance rate=21%). [slides]
• I-Hong Hou and Piyush Gupta, “Distributed Resource Allocation for Proportional Fairness in Multi-Band Wireless Systems,” Proc. of IEEE ISIT, 2011.
• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “Broadcasting Delay-Constrained Traffic over Unreliable Wireless Links with Network Coding,” Proc. of ACM MOBIHOC, 2011. (acceptance rate=20%) [slides]
• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “A Survey of Recent Results on Real-Time Wireless Networks,” Proc. of  Real-time Wireless for Industrial Applications, CPS week, 2011. (Invited)
• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “Utility-Optimal Scheduling in Time-Varying Wireless Networks with Delay Constraints,” Proc. of ACM MOBIHOC, 2010 (acceptance rate=17%). [slides]
• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “Utility Maximization for Delay Constrained QoS in Wireless,” Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2010. (acceptance rate=18%) [slides]
• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “Scheduling Heterogeneous Real-Time Traffic over Fading Wireless Channels,” Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2010. (acceptance rate=18%) [slides]
• I-Hong Hou and P.R. Kumar, “Admission Control and Scheduling for QoS Guarantees for Variable-Bit-Rate Applications on Wireless Channels,” Proc. of ACM MOBIHOC, 2009. (acceptance rate = 18%) [slides]
• I-Hong Hou, Vivek Borkar, and P.R. Kuamr, “A Theory of QoS for Wireless,” Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2009. (acceptance rate=20%) [slides]
• Yong Yang, I-Hong Hou, Jennifer C. Hou, Mallikarjn Shanka, and Nageswara S. Rao, “Sensor Placement for Detecting Propagative Sources in Populated Environments,” Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2009. (acceptance rate=20%)
• I-Hong Hou, Yu-En Tsai, Tarek F. Abdelzaher, and Indranil Gupta, “AdapCode: Adaptive Network Coding for Code Updates in Wireless Sensor Networks,” Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, 2008. (acceptance rate = 20%) [slides]

Poster Papers

• Han Deng and I-Hong Hou, “On the Capacity Requirement for Arbitrary End-to-End Deadline and Reliability Guarantees in Multi-hop Networks,” Proc. of ACM Sigmetrics 2017. The full paper can be found through this link.

Demos

• Simon Yau, Ping-Chun Hsieh, Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Kartic Bhargav K. R., Srinivas Shakkottai, I-Hong Hou, and P. R. Kumar, “Demo: PULS: Processor-Supported Ultra-Low Latency Scheduling,” ACM MobiHoc 2018.
• Simon Yau, Liang Ge, Ping-Chun Hsieh, I-Hong Hou, Shuguang Cui, P. R. Kumar, Amal Ekbal, Nikhil Kundargi, “WiMAC: Rapid Implementation Platform for User Definable MAC Protocols Through Separation,” ACM Sigcomm 2015. A video of the demo can be found here.
• Jren-chit Chin, I-Hong Hou, Jennifer C. Hou, Chris Ma, Nageswara S. Rao, Mohit Saxena, Mallikarjun Shankar, Yong Yang, and David K. Y. Yau (alphabetical order), “A Sensor-cyber Network Testbed for Plume Detection, Identification, and Tracking,” IPSN ‘07, INFOCOM ‘07, MOBICOM ‘07

Technical Reports and Preprints

• I-Hong Hou, Yan Gao, Yu-En Tsai, and Jennifer Hou, “ERP: An Efficient and Reliable Protocol for Emergency Message Dissemination in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks,” UIUC Technical Report (UILU-ENG-08-2207 DC-236), 2008. [pdf]