KHOA TRAN PHAN; DOB: JUNE, 10, 1982; DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

of my M.Sc. program at the University of Alberta, Canada, I would like to pursue my PhD studies and research career in this interesting and challenging area. Research in wireless communications is changing rapidly and no researcher wants to be left behind. Neither do I. My research interests are in the broad areas of control and optimization of protocols and networks. Specically, I would like to investigate cross-layer design problems in communication networks. In traditional wired networks, ow control is a mechanism for resource allocation, however, in wireless networks, power control and scheduling must be also taken into account. Indeed, since optimal routing solutions depend on interference in a multihop wireless network, all layers interact, thus a cross-layer design with joint congestion control, routing, scheduling and power control is essential. The design process is even more challenging for emerging services which support multi-rate multicast sessions, and real-time applications with possibly different quality of service (QoS) requirements. While solution approaches to the multi-rate multicast problems in the context of wired networks have been well-studied, they cannot be directly applied to wireless networks due to peculiarities of the wireless operation of communication links. Therefore, it is particularly desirable to extend the optimization-based theory for fair resource allocation in wireless networks to handle multi-rate multicast ows. Moreover, conventional deterministic QoS approaches suffer from signicant computation and communication overheads. This is due to the time-varying nature of the wireless medium and the changes in the operation of the network, for example users join or leave frequently. Thus, it is promising to exploit the probabilistic approach with the information on the average demand and capacity of the network. In addition, an insightful study of network architectures that explores alternatives in functionality allocations rather than just resource allocation is interesting but challenging. While fundamental understanding of architectures has been recognized in areas such as communications and control, it has been limited in networking. It is obvious that concrete theoretical frameworks and mathematical languages are required for a thorough foundation of network architectures. Recently, we have submitted new results proposing a network utility maximization (NUM) cross-layer design framework for time division multiple access networks (TDMA) with users admission control and network lifetime concerns. My strong familiarity with statistics, communication networks, and optimization enables me to study the mentioned problems. Furthermore, I am also fascinated in applied mathematics, especially in the development of optimization algorithms in broad areas of electrical engineering. Besides the popular convex optimization methods, global nonconvex programming, for example polynomial and fractional programming, is necessary to provide the benchmark result which helps to evaluate the performances of heuristic methods. It is not surprising that nonconvex formulations arise naturally in many communication and networking applications, for instance the spectrum management problem in digital subscriber lines (DSL) or the minimum cost Internet trafc routing problem to name a few. In addition to the enormous popularity of convex optimization research in modeling, analyzing, and designing communication systems, there have also been recent progresses in nonconvex programming to tackle various networking challenges such as nonconcave utility functions1 . However, the proposed algorithms usually require a central controller which is not applicable for large decentralized networks, for example the Internet. Thus, I am interested in developing efcient and stable solutions which can be implemented distributively, through local coordination, only requiring limited information about the network topology and conditions. Nonconvex optimization of communication systems remains an exciting research area with many open problems. My experience in this area is noticeable with previous results in monotonic optimization, difference of convex functions (d.c.) programming and I am looking forward to exploring other applications of optimization in communication networks at Caltech. Another area I would like to study is the design and analysis of efcient pricing schemes for communication networks with QoS constraints, especially for decentralized systems. For example, at charging mechanism for todays best effort Internet is suitable for elastic data services such as web browsing and e-mail. However, it is far from efcient for applications such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and real-time video which are generally delay sensitive and have strict QoS requirements. This motivated the idea of classifying Internet trafc into priority classes and users are free to choose the priority of their trafc but are
1 Nonconcave

AM fully aware that advanced technologies will continue to have signicant inuences on future development. In particular, emerging wireless technology provides reliable connectivity to anybody, from anywhere, and at any time. Upon completion

utility function is applicable for inelastic applications, such as streaming video in the Internet.

KHOA TRAN PHAN; DOB: JUNE, 10, 1982; DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

charged accordingly. Previously proposed static pricing methodologies are simple to implement but may not be capable when the trafc load changes. Building the (simple) models to understand the Internet economics is an inspiring research area. Using ideas from economic and game theory, it could be possible to devise better pricing schemes for network resources usage which might enhance the efciency the network operation. It is noted that any realistic (dynamic) pricing mechanism should require low complexity to execute, be able to stabilize the network operation and maximize the revenue etc. My passion to learn concepts from related elds such as game theory, mechanism design and operations research, is the key to success in this challenging research area. Having the aforementioned research ideas in mind, I consider the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as my rst choice. The school reputation, the people and research environment all are particularly distinguished at Caltech. With many prominent Professors working on wireless communications and optimization, together with a stimulating, collaborative as well as interdisciplinary research atmosphere, no other place suits me better. In particular, I am amazed by the works of Professor Steven H. Low and it would be my great honor to work under his supervision. Professor Lows theoretical results on Internet ow control, reverse engineering, and cross-layer design through mathematical decomposition have been instrumental in building my interest in the area of optimization of communication systems. His discovery on the FAST Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) architecture is just remarkable. Moreover, it is incredible that Professor Lows important research outcomes have turned into cutting-edge real-world technology through the invention of the FastSoft Aria which signicantly increases the speed and quality of data transmission over the Internet. Personally, a combination of theoretical research and its real-life applications is the utmost objective of any researcher. I believe that my academic background and research interests perfectly match those of Professor Lows NetLab group. In addition, the fact that California is also home to many of the biggest wireless companies gives me excellent chances for research internships and/or industry experiences. Upon completing my graduate study, my priority is to pursue careers in academia. A research-intensive training at Caltech will help me to achieve my career goals. My long way to wireless communications and a strong belief of being successful at Caltech. In 2001, a turning point in my life happened when I was offered the Australian Development Scholarship by the Federal government of Australia. This fellowship, reputedly the most prestigious student award in Vietnam and given to only the 50 brightest among hundreds of thousands of high school graduates, has fullled my dream of studying overseas. I decided to pursue electrical engineering degree at the University of New South Wales (UNSW)2 , residing in the cosmopolitan of the beautiful Sydney. At UNSW, I had experienced the vitality of competing with brilliant classmates, and at the same time, the joy of learning from them. My undergraduate years were important and successful, characterized by undeniable superiority. For instance, my GPA constantly ranked me one of the three best students among almost 200 students in my program. I therefore was the holder of the prestigious Faculty of Engineering Deans Awards3 , the Faculty of Engineering Deans List Honors, and was also the nominee for the University Medal (the highest honor that UNSW awards to an undergraduate). In my perspective, UNSW offered me far more than just academic awards. Thanks to the thorough program offered by UNSW, I was able to obtain a very strong fundamental knowledge. This was accomplished by taking a vast number of both basic and advanced courses in mathematics, digital communications, signal processing, and control. Moreover, I enrolled in a postgraduate course Adaptive signal processing for telecommunications and achieved the class highest mark of 96/100. My honor thesis work was published at ICASSP 2006, an exceptional achievement by an undergraduate. As a result, I obtained mark 93/100, the highest ever given to an undergraduate thesis at UNSW. The intensive training at UNSW placed me in an advantageous position for future research. During my undergraduate studies, I also conducted research under Professor Tuan Hoangs supervision. His dedication for research has inspired me to become a good researcher. Being involved in the project Convex optimization for control, signal processing and communication systems, I studied different convex and nonconvex programming techniques, learning classical and recent results on the optimization of communication systems. As well, I had chances to attend workshops4 where I was able to meet and interact with leading researchers in the eld. This indeed was an invaluable experience and further inspired
2 UNSW 4 One

was ranked 36th and its Faculty of Engineering was ranked 16th worldwide in 2006 according to THES and reputedly the best in Australia.

3 http://www.eng.unsw.edu.au/current/dawards/index.htm

of them was the ISIT 2005 ACORN Satellite Workshop, Melbourne.

KHOA TRAN PHAN; DOB: JUNE, 10, 1982; DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

my passion for research. In two years, my research skills were considerably improved. I have learned not only the tools but also the mentality of optimization. I realized that optimizing network performance requires a multidisciplinary approach with joint design across different protocol layers. Moreover, I had obtained a solid background in communications theory. During the period, I had chances to collaborate with Professor Tuy Hoang from Institute of Mathematics, Vietnam, whose pioneering achievements signicantly affected the eld of global optimization. He suggested the idea of applying his recently developed monotonic programming for the decoding problem and the results turned out to be brilliant. Here is one comment from one of the reviewers for our paper titled Monotonic optimization based decoding for linear codes: The development of efcient methods for ML decoding of arbitrary codes has recently gained attention. The authors propose a new technique that has less complexity than existing ones and achieves similar performance. This paper develops a specially tailored algorithm for maximum likelihood decoding of linear block codes transmitted over the AWGN channel. I believe that there is a signicant number of potential ICASSP attendees who will be interested in this topic. This exciting work brought me encouragement to further explore other applications of monotonic optimization in wireless communications5 . Through our collaboration work, I have learned so much from Professor Tuy Hoang, not only from his insightful research ideas and suggestions but also from his demonstrated research integrity and enthusiasm. In 2005, when I was about to nish my undergraduate study, I contacted Professor Tellambura for possible graduate position. Surprisingly, only 20 minutes after my rst email, he replied and offered me a research assistantship in his group! He must have been very much impressed by my great research potential. As a result, I joined the iCORE Wireless Communications Lab headed by Professor N. C. Beaulieu in May 2006. I tried my every effort, spending long hours studying and conducting research at one of the best universities in Canada6 . Under the guidance of Professors Tellambura and Vorobyov, my research skills and background knowledge have been ourishing. I had spent my rst several months to review hundreds of research papers in different areas of wireless communications. By the end of 2006, I had published and submitted several new results. Those works helped me to further enhance my knowledge on optimization theory, computational complexity, statistics and communications theory. I have also learned how to use the softwares for solving optimization problems such as SeDuMi and TOMLAB. Besides conducting my own research, I have successfully completed six graduate courses which are enormously useful for me to recap fundamental knowledge. Moreover, my academic achievements through honors and awards are not less impressive. The most notable award is the Alberta Ingenuity Fund Student Fellowship, unarguably the most competitive fellowship in Canada. In addition, I also hold the esteemed Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE) Graduate Student Fellowship. The University of Alberta awarded me the J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award to support my research activities. As well, I received the Student Travel Grant at 2007 IEEE Workshop Statistical Signal Processing (SSP). These honors show my commitment and ability for high quality research. From August to October 2007, I had been a visiting researcher at McGill University, Montreal working with Professor Tho Le-Ngoc, a well-known researcher in wireless communications. We have been investigating the efcient power control scheme(s) for wireless networks. Our novel approach is based on global nonconvex optimization and the preliminary results were published at the 2007 SSP. I also collaborated with Professor Hoai An Le-Thi at University Paul Verlaine, Metz in France who has been conducting pioneering work in the related mathematical method. We are currently investigating the application of difference of convex functions (d.c.) programming to solve the large-scale mixed integer linear programming problem which arises in TDMA networks. The opportunities to meet, discuss and collaborate with leading researchers with similar research interests have given me excellent motivation and ideas in my work. In light of my solid academic background, relevant experiences, strong research aspiration, and great condence, I hope that you would give my application serious consideration. I believe that these attributes together with my willingness to learn exciting aspects of wireless networking and network information theory, will contribute to my success at Caltech. I have been in love with this area, ready and eager to become part of the growth of the wireless technology. Thank you for your time and consideration.
invited work On the applications of monotonic optimization in wireless communications is presented at the Inter. Conf. on Nonconvex Programming: Local and Global Approaches (NCP), Rouen, France 2007 to honor Professor Tuy Hoangs 80th birthday. 6 Leading Canadian news magazine MacLeans ranks University of Alberta the best overall by National Reputational Ranking in its 2006 survey.
5 Our