Dr. Zonghang Li

Hi! I am Zonghang Li, a Ph.D. graduate from the School of Information and Communication Engineering at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), advised by Prof. Hongfang Yu. Before that, I received my Bachelor’s degree (2018) from UESTC. I visited University of Oxford in 2018, Peng Cheng Laboratory in 2020 advised by Prof. Zenglin Xu, and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2021 advised by Prof. Dusit Niyato and Prof. Han Yu. Now, I am doing postdoc research at MBZUAI with Prof. Mohsen Guizani.

My research interests are mainly in Distributed AI Systems, including:

Optimizations for Large Model Training & Inference
Computer Network for Distributed ML Systems
Efficient and Robust Federated Learning

Now, I have published more than 30 papers in top-tier journals including IEEE/ACM TON, IEEE TSC, IEEE TMC, IEEE JSAC, IEEE COMST, IEEE Wire. Comm., IEEE TCC, IEEE TNSM, etc. I also contributed to a work adopted by a paper on NSDI 2024. Additionally, I obtained 6 CN Patents and authored one book titled “Geo-distributed Machine Learning: Enabling Integration of Intelligence on Multiple Clouds”. My work GeoMX won the Future Network Leading Innovative Scientific and Technological Achievement Award of China Institute of Communications in 2021, and our papers won the Best Paper Award of Guangdong Computer Society and Best Paper Award of IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing in 2023. I serve as an assistant area editor in IEEE IoT-J, an assistant editor in IEEE COMST and IEEE Network, an assistant guest editor in IEEE VTM, IEEE IoTM, and a TPC member in HPCC 2021, WCNC 2022-2023, and iThings 2023.

news

Mar 26, 2025	I am invited to give a talk on edge AI at the University of Birmingham Dubai. Wonderful roundtable discussion with professors!
Dec 12, 2024	Our paper “Hfedms: Heterogeneous Federated Learning with Memorable Data Semantics in Industrial Metaverse” was awarded the 2023 Best Paper Award from IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing
Aug 05, 2024	Our paper titled “Energy-Efficient Hierarchical Collaborative Learning over LEO Satellite Constellations” is accepted by IEEE JSAC (CCF A)!
Jun 06, 2024	Our paper titled “Accelerating Geo-distributed Machine Learning with Network-Aware Adaptive Tree and Auxiliary Route” is accepted by IEEE/ACM TON (CCF A)!
Jun 05, 2024	I joined MBZUAI as a postdoc researcher, the first AI University in the world, with Prof. Mohsen Guizani!

selected publications

ACM TON (CCF A)

Accelerating Geo-distributed Machine Learning with Network-Aware Adaptive Tree and Auxiliary Route

Zonghang Li, Wenjiao Feng, Weibo Cai, and 5 more authors

IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 2024

Bib HTML PDF

@article{li2024accelerating,
  title = {Accelerating Geo-distributed Machine Learning with Network-Aware Adaptive Tree and Auxiliary Route},
  author = {Li, Zonghang and Feng, Wenjiao and Cai, Weibo and Yu, Hongfang and Luo, Long and Sun, Gang and Du, Hongyang and Niyato, Dusit},
  journal = {IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {IEEE/ACM},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2404.11352},
}

Book

Geo-distributed Machine Learning: Enabling Integration of Intelligence on Multiple Clouds

Hongfang Yu, Zonghang Li, Gang Sun, and 1 more author

Publishing House of Electronics Industry. Student first author , 2023

Bib HTML

@book{li2023geomx-book,
  title = {Geo-distributed Machine Learning: Enabling Integration of Intelligence on Multiple Clouds},
  author = {Yu, Hongfang and Li, Zonghang and Sun, Gang and Luo, Long},
  year = {2023},
  publisher = {Publishing House of Electronics Industry},
}

IEEE TSC (CCF A)

ESync: Accelerating Intra-Domain Federated Learning in Heterogeneous Data Centers

Zonghang Li, Huaman Zhou, Tianyao Zhou, and 3 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 2022

Bib HTML PDF

@article{9292461,
  author = {Li, Zonghang and Zhou, Huaman and Zhou, Tianyao and Yu, Hongfang and Xu, Zenglin and Sun, Gang},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Services Computing},
  title = {ESync: Accelerating Intra-Domain Federated Learning in Heterogeneous Data Centers},
  year = {2022},
  volume = {15},
  number = {4},
  pages = {2261-2274},
  doi = {10.1109/TSC.2020.3044043},
  dimensions = {true}
}

IEEE Network (Q1)

Byzantine Resistant Secure Blockchained Federated Learning at the Edge

Zonghang Li, Hongfang Yu, Tianyao Zhou, and 4 more authors

IEEE Network, 2021

Bib HTML

@article{9382023,
  author = {Li, Zonghang and Yu, Hongfang and Zhou, Tianyao and Luo, Long and Fan, Mochan and Xu, Zenglin and Sun, Gang},
  journal = {IEEE Network},
  title = {Byzantine Resistant Secure Blockchained Federated Learning at the Edge},
  year = {2021},
  volume = {35},
  number = {4},
  pages = {295-301},
  doi = {10.1109/MNET.011.2000604},
  dimensions = {true}
}

IEEE Network (Q1)

KlonetAI: Automating (Com)2Nets Management with Human Language Intents

Qing Li, Yanxu Xiong, Zonghang Li, and 5 more authors

IEEE Network. Corresponding author , 2024

Bib HTML

@article{10770273,
  author = {Li, Qing and Xiong, Yanxu and Li, Zonghang and Ma, Chongxi and Yu, Hongfang and Sun, Gang and Luo, Long and Zhang, Zhaofeng},
  journal = {IEEE Network},
  title = {KlonetAI: Automating (Com)2Nets Management with Human Language Intents},
  year = {2024},
  volume = {},
  number = {},
  pages = {1-1},
  doi = {10.1109/MNET.2024.3507801},
}

IEEE IoTJ (Q1)

Data Heterogeneity-Robust Federated Learning via Group Client Selection in Industrial IoT

Zonghang Li, Yihong He, Hongfang Yu, and 4 more authors

IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2022

Bib HTML PDF

@article{9741255,
  author = {Li, Zonghang and He, Yihong and Yu, Hongfang and Kang, Jiawen and Li, Xiaoping and Xu, Zenglin and Niyato, Dusit},
  journal = {IEEE Internet of Things Journal},
  title = {Data Heterogeneity-Robust Federated Learning via Group Client Selection in Industrial IoT},
  year = {2022},
  volume = {9},
  number = {18},
  pages = {17844-17857},
  doi = {10.1109/JIOT.2022.3161943},
  dimensions = {true}
}

IEEE TMC (CCF A)

Diffusion-based Reinforcement Learning for Edge-enabled AI-Generated Content Services

Hongyang Du, Zonghang Li, Dusit Niyato, and 4 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. Co-first author, corresponding author , 2024

Bib HTML PDF

@article{10409284,
  author = {Du, Hongyang and Li, Zonghang and Niyato, Dusit and Kang, Jiawen and Xiong, Zehui and Huang, Huawei and Mao, Shiwen},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing},
  title = {Diffusion-based Reinforcement Learning for Edge-enabled AI-Generated Content Services},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1109/TMC.2024.3356178},
}

IEEE TSC (CCF A)

NBSync: Parallelism of Local Computing and Global Synchronization for Fast Distributed Machine Learning in WANs

Huaman Zhou, Zonghang Li, Hongfang Yu, and 2 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 2023

Bib HTML

@article{10234675,
  author = {Zhou, Huaman and Li, Zonghang and Yu, Hongfang and Luo, Long and Sun, Gang},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Services Computing},
  title = {NBSync: Parallelism of Local Computing and Global Synchronization for Fast Distributed Machine Learning in WANs},
  year = {2023},
  volume = {16},
  number = {6},
  pages = {4115-4127},
  doi = {10.1109/TSC.2023.3304312},
}

IEEE JSAC (CCF A)

Personalized Saliency in Task-Oriented Semantic Communications: Image Transmission and Performance Analysis

Jiawen Kang, Hongyang Du, Zonghang Li, and 4 more authors

IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. Best Paper Award , 2023

Bib HTML PDF

@article{9959884,
  author = {Kang, Jiawen and Du, Hongyang and Li, Zonghang and Xiong, Zehui and Ma, Shiyao and Niyato, Dusit and Li, Yuan},
  journal = {IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications},
  title = {Personalized Saliency in Task-Oriented Semantic Communications: Image Transmission and Performance Analysis},
  year = {2023},
  volume = {41},
  number = {1},
  pages = {186-201},
  doi = {10.1109/JSAC.2022.3221990},
  dimensions = {true}
}

IEEE Wire. Comm. (Q1)

Enabling AI-Generated Content Services in Wireless Edge Networks

Hongyang Du, Zonghang Li, Dusit Niyato, and 4 more authors

IEEE Wireless Communications. Co-first author , 2024

Bib HTML

@article{10445209,
  author = {Du, Hongyang and Li, Zonghang and Niyato, Dusit and Kang, Jiawen and Xiong, Zehui and Shen, Xuemin Sherman and Kim, Dong In},
  journal = {IEEE Wireless Communications},
  title = {Enabling AI-Generated Content Services in Wireless Edge Networks},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1109/MWC.004.2300015},
}

IEEE JSAC (CCF A)

Energy-Efficient Hierarchical Collaborative Learning over LEO Satellite Constellations

Long Luo, Chi Zhang, Hongfang Yu, and 3 more authors

IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2024

Bib HTML

@article{10699366,
  author = {Luo, Long and Zhang, Chi and Yu, Hongfang and Li, Zonghang and Sun, Gang and Luo, Shouxi},
  journal = {IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications},
  title = {Energy-Efficient Hierarchical Collaborative Learning over LEO Satellite Constellations},
  year = {2024},
  volume = {},
  number = {},
  pages = {1-1},
  doi = {10.1109/JSAC.2024.3459021},
}

IEEE COMST (Q1)

Enhancing Deep Reinforcement Learning: A Tutorial on Generative Diffusion Models in Network Optimization

Hongyang Du, Ruichen Zhang, Yinqiu Liu, and 8 more authors

IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. Co-first author , 2023

Bib HTML PDF

@article{du2023beyond,
  title = {Enhancing Deep Reinforcement Learning: A Tutorial on Generative Diffusion Models in Network Optimization},
  author = {Du, Hongyang and Zhang, Ruichen and Liu, Yinqiu and Wang, Jiacheng and Lin, Yijing and Li, Zonghang and Niyato, Dusit and Kang, Jiawen and Xiong, Zehui and Cui, Shuguang and others},
  journal = {IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials},
  year = {2023},
}

IEEE TCC (Q1)

HFedMS: Heterogeneous Federated Learning With Memorable Data Semantics in Industrial Metaverse

Shenglai Zeng, Zonghang Li, Hongfang Yu, and 4 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing. Co-first author, Best Paper Award , 2023

Bib HTML PDF

@article{10065509,
  author = {Zeng, Shenglai and Li, Zonghang and Yu, Hongfang and Zhang, Zhihao and Luo, Long and Li, Bo and Niyato, Dusit},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing},
  title = {HFedMS: Heterogeneous Federated Learning With Memorable Data Semantics in Industrial Metaverse},
  year = {2023},
  volume = {11},
  number = {3},
  pages = {3055-3069},
  doi = {10.1109/TCC.2023.3254587},
  dimensions = {true}
}

DASFAA

Heterogeneous Federated Learning via Grouped Sequential-to-parallel Training

Shenglai Zeng, Zonghang Li, Hongfang Yu, and 4 more authors

In DASFAA . Co-first author , 2022

Bib HTML PDF

@inproceedings{zeng2022heterogeneous,
  title = {Heterogeneous Federated Learning via Grouped Sequential-to-parallel Training},
  author = {Zeng, Shenglai and Li, Zonghang and Yu, Hongfang and He, Yihong and Xu, Zenglin and Niyato, Dusit and Yu, Han},
  booktitle = {DASFAA},
  pages = {455--471},
  year = {2022},
  organization = {Springer},
}

IEEE TNSM (Q1)

TSEngine: Enable Efficient Communication Overlay in Distributed Machine Learning in WANs

Huaman Zhou, Weibo Cai, Zonghang Li, and 4 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 2021

Bib HTML PDF

@article{9519644,
  author = {Zhou, Huaman and Cai, Weibo and Li, Zonghang and Yu, Hongfang and Liu, Ling and Luo, Long and Sun, Gang},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management},
  title = {TSEngine: Enable Efficient Communication Overlay in Distributed Machine Learning in WANs},
  year = {2021},
  volume = {18},
  number = {4},
  pages = {4846-4859},
  doi = {10.1109/TNSM.2021.3106315},
}

FGCS (Q1)

DGT: A Contribution-aware Differential Gradient Transmission Mechanism for Distributed Machine Learning

Huaman Zhou, Zonghang Li, Qingqing Cai, and 4 more authors

Future Generation Computer Systems, 2021

Bib HTML PDF

@article{ZHOU202135,
  title = {DGT: A Contribution-aware Differential Gradient Transmission Mechanism for Distributed Machine Learning},
  journal = {Future Generation Computer Systems},
  volume = {121},
  pages = {35-47},
  year = {2021},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2021.03.006},
  url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167739X21000868},
  author = {Zhou, Huaman and Li, Zonghang and Cai, Qingqing and Yu, Hongfang and Luo, Shouxi and Luo, Long and Sun, Gang},
}