Qing Yang

Associate Professor (Shenzhen University, Tenure Track)

Principle Researcher (Blockchain Technology Research Center)

yang.qingszu_•edu_•cn

Southern Campus, Shenzhen University, Nanshan District, Shenzhen

About Myself

I received my B.E. degree (advanced class) from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Ph.D. degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. I am currently a tenure-track associate professor in the College of Electronics and Information Engineering and also principal researcher in the Blockchain Technology Research Center in Shenzhen University. My research interests span blockchain technology, intelligent energy, and wireless networking. I prefer system implementation than mathematical modeling. I am looking for both academic and industrial collaborations in the area of blockchain and smart energy.

Research

Practical Massive MIMO [ ACM SIGCOMM '13 ]

We designed and implemented BigStation, a scalable architecture that enables realtime signal processing in large-scale MIMO systems which may have tens or hundreds of antennas. Our strategy to scale is to extensively parallelize the MU-MIMO processing on many simple and low-cost commodity computing devices. Our design can incrementally support more antennas by proportionally adding more computing devices. To reduce the overall processing latency, which is a critical constraint for wireless communication, we parallelize the MU-MIMO processing with a distributed pipeline based on its computation and communication patterns. At each stage of the pipeline, we further use data partitioning and computation partitioning to increase the processing speed. As a proof of concept, we have built a BigStation prototype based on commodity PC servers and standard Ethernet switches. Our prototype employs 15 PC servers and can support real-time processing of 12 software radio antennas. Our results show that the BigStation architecture is able to scale to tens to hundreds of antennas. With 12 antennas, our BigStation prototype can increase wireless capacity by 6.8x with a low mean processing delay of 860μs. While this latency is not yet low enough for the 802.11 MAC, it already satisfies the real-time requirements of many existing wireless standards, e.g., LTE and WCDMA.

Blockchain-Empowered Transactive Energy [ IEEE TII ]

Transactive energy plays a key role in the operation and energy management of future power systems. However, the conventional operational mechanism, which follows a centralized design, is often less secure, vulnerable to malicious behaviors, and suffers from privacy leakage. In this work, we introduce blockchain technology in transactive energy to address these challenges. Specifically, we develop a novel blockchain-based transactive energy framework for prosumers and design a decentralized energy trading algorithm that matches the operation of the underlying blockchain system. We prove that the trading algorithm improves the individual benefit and guarantees the socially optimal performance, and thus incentivizes prosumers to join the transactive energy platform. Moreover, we evaluate the feasibility of the transactive energy platform throughout the implementation of a small-scale network of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and extensive simulations using real-world data. Our results show that this blockchain-based transactive energy platform is feasible in practice, and the decentralized trading algorithm reduces the user's individual cost by up to 77\% and lowers the overall cost by 24\%.

Secure Blockchain Applications [ IEEE IoT Magazine ]

As a disruptive technology that originates from cryptocurrency, blockchain provides a trusted platform to facilitate industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. However, implementing a blockchain platform in IIoT scenarios confronts various security challenges due to the rigorous deployment condition. To this end, we present a novel design of secure blockchain based on trusted computing hardware for IIoT applications. Specifically, we employ the trusted execution environment (TEE) module and a customized security chip to safeguard the blockchain against different attacking vectors. Furthermore, we implement the proposed secure IIoT blockchain on the ARM-based embedded device and build a small-scale IIoT network to evaluate its performance. Our experimental results show that the secure blockchain platform achieves a high throughput (150TPS) with low transaction confirmation delay (below 66ms), demonstrating its feasibility in practical IIoT scenarios. Finally, we outline the open challenges and future research directions.

Physical-Layer Network Coding [ IEEE TWC ]

This paper investigates the decoding process of asynchronous convolutional-coded physical-layer network coding (PNC) systems. Specifically, we put forth a layered decoding framework for convolutional-coded PNC consisting of three layers: symbol realignment layer, codeword realignment layer, and joint channel-decoding network coding (Jt-CNC) decoding layer. Our framework can deal with phase asynchrony (phase offset) and symbol arrival-time asynchrony (symbol misalignment) between the signals simultaneously transmitted by multiple sources. A salient feature of this framework is that it can handle both fractional and integral symbol misalignments. For the decoding layer, instead of Jt-CNC, previously proposed PNC decoding algorithms (e.g., XOR-CD and reduced-state Viterbi algorithms) can also be used with our framework to deal with general symbol misalignments. Our Jt-CNC algorithm, based on belief propagation, is BER-optimal for synchronous PNC and near optimal for asynchronous PNC. Extending beyond convolutional codes, we further generalize the Jt-CNC decoding algorithm for all cyclic codes. Our simulation shows that Jt-CNC outperforms the previously proposed XOR-CD algorithm and reduced-state Viterbi algorithm by 2 dB for synchronous PNC. For both phase-asynchronous and symbol-asynchronous PNC, Jt-CNC performs better than the other two algorithms. Importantly, for real wireless network experimentation, we implemented our decoding algorithm in a PNC prototype built on the USRP software radio platform. Our experiment shows that the proposed Jt-CNC decoder works well in practice.

Publications

Journal Papers

Secure Blockchain Platform for Industrial IoT with Trusted Computing Hardware [ arXiv ]
Qing Yang, H. Wang^*, X. Wu, T. Wang, S. Zhang, N. Liu, IEEE Internet of Things Magazine, Accepted for publication

Blockchain-Empowered Socially Optimal Transactive Energy System: Framework and Implementation [ IEEE TII ]
Q. Yang, H. Wang^*, IEEE Transaction on Industrial Informatics , 2021

Ethna: Analyzing the Underlying Peer-to-Peer Network of Ethereum Blockchain [ IEEE TNSE ]
T. Wang, C. Zhao, Qing Yang, S. Zhang^*, S. C. Liew, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, 2021

Privacy-Preserving Transactive Energy Management for IoT-aided Smart Homes via Blockchain [ IEEE IoTJ ]
Q. Yang, H. Wang^*, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2021

Blockchain-Based Decentralized Energy Management Platform for Residential Distributed Energy Resources in a Virtual Power Plant [ AE ]
Q. Yang, H. Wang^*, T. Wang, S. Zhang, X. Wu, H. Wang, Applied Energy , 2021

Distributed Energy Trading Management for Renewable Prosumers with HVAC and Energy Storage [ ER ]
Q. Yang, H. Wang^*, Energy Reports, 2021

Asynchronous Convolutional-Coded Physical-Layer Network Coding [ IEEE TWC ]
Q. Yang^*, S. C. Liew, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications , 2015

Symbol Misalignment Estimation in Asynchronous Physical-Layer Network Coding [ IEEE TVT ]
Q. Yang, S. C. Liew, L. Lu^*, Y. Shao, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology , 2017

DCAP: Improving the Capacity of WiFi Networks with Distributed Cooperative Access Points [ IEEE TMC ]
T. Wang, Q. Yang^*, K. Tan, J. Zhang, S. C. Liew, S. Zhang, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2018

User Association and Scheduling Based on Auction in Multi-Cell MU-MIMO Systems [ IEEE TWC ]
M. Xie, Q. Yang^*, T. M. Lok, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications , 2018

Non-orthogonal Multiple Access with Phase Predistortion in Visible Light Communication [ OSA OE ]
X. Guan, Q. Yang^*, Y. Hong, C. K. Chan, Optics Express, 2016

Joint Detection of Visible Light Communication Signals Under Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access [ IEEE PTL ]
X. Guan, Q. Yang^*, C. K. Chan, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters , 2017

Phase-Aligned Physical Layer Network Coding in Visible Light Communications [ IEEE PJ ]
X. Guan, Q. Yang^*, T. Wang, C. K. Chan, IEEE Photonics Journal , 2019

Conference Papers

Reputation-Based Streamlet: An Enhanced BFT Consensus Algorithm for Improved Performance and Scalability [ IEEE ICPADS '23]
Bo Fang, D. Zhao, T. Wang, H. Wang, S. Zhang, Qing Yang, IEEE International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS), 2023

Blockchain for Transactive Energy Management of Distributed Energy Resources in Smart Grid [ ACM e-Energy '21 ] [ Slides ]
Qing Yang, H. Wang, X. Wu, T. Wang, S. Zhang, ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems, 2021

Cooperative Energy Management of HVAC via Transactive Energy [ IEEE ICCA '20] [ Slides ]
Q. Yang, H. Wang, IEEE International Conference on Control & Automation, 2020

Exploring Blockchain for The Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources [ IEEE CISS '21]
Q. Yang, H. Wang, IEEE Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS) , 2021

BigStation: Enabling Scalable Real-Time Signal Processing in Large MU-MIMO Systems [ ACM SIGCOMM '13 ]
Q. Yang, X. Li, H. Yao, J. Fang, K. Tan, W. Hu, J. Zhang, Y. Zhang, ACM SIGCOMM 2013 Conference, 2013

Powerline-PNC: Boosting Throughput of Powerline Networks with Physical-Layer Network Coding [ IEEE SmartGridComm '15 ] [ Slides ]
Q. Yang, H. Wang, T. Wang, L. You, L. Lu and S. C. Liew, IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm), 2015

Optimal Decoding of Convolutional-Coded Physical-Layer Network Coding [ IEEE WCNC '14 ]
Q. Yang and S. C. Liew, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), 2014

Phase Pre-Distortion for Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access in Visible Light Communications [ IEEE OFC '16 ]
X. Guan, Y. Hong, Q. Yang, C. K. Chan, IEEE Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), 2016

Real-Time Implementation of Physical-Layer Network Coding [ ACM SRIF '13 ]
L. Lu, L. You, Q. Yang, T. Wang, M. Zhang, S. Zhang, S. C. Liew, ACM Workshop on Software Radio Implementation Forum, 2013

Teaching

[ 2801000072 ] Computer Architecture (2nd Semester)
For sophomore students in the Wenhua Elite Class. Tutored in English.

[ ECON5004S ] Blockchain and Crypto-Currency (2nd Semester)
For graduate students from WeBank Institute of FinTech

[ COMM5032R ] Blockchain and Communication (1st Semester)
For inter-disciplinary graduate students from College of Communication

[ 1301260001 ] Lecture on World Frontier Science and Technolog: Blockchain Technology (2nd Semester)
For junior students from College of Electronic and Information Engineering

[ 2801000052 ] General Introduction to Electronic and Information Engineering (1st Semester)
For freshmen from College of Electronic and Information Engineering

[ 2801000003 ] An introduction to Electronics and Information Engineering (1st Semester)
For sophomore students from College of Electronic and Information Engineering

[ 1302080001 ] Modern Communication Technology (2nd Semester 2019)
For junior students from College of Electronic and Information Engineering

Services

Reviewed papers for the following journals/conferences

IEEE Transaction on Industrial Informatics
IEEE Internet of Things Journal
IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
IEEE Internet of Things Magazine
Applied Energy
Energy Reports
OSA Optics Express

IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC)
IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom)
IEEE SmartGridComm
IEEE Infocom
Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC)

Miscellaneous

I love playing soccer (MF/B2B/CB/WB) and I am a big fan of Andrea Pirlo
I enjoy delicious food and I can cook Italian/Spanish/Chinese cuisine
I am an amateur graphic designer and I designed the [institution logo] for the Department of Information Engineering of CUHK
I am interested in all kinds of fermented drinks. Dream to have my own distillery