papers

Publications (43)

cs.NI2013

Distributed coordination of self-organizing mechanisms in communication networks

Abdoulaye Tall, Richard Combes, Zwi Altman +1

The fast development of the Self-Organizing Network (SON) technology in mobile networks renders the problem of coordinating SON functionalities operating simultaneously critical. S…

cs.IT2026

From Bayesian Asymptotics to General Large-Scale MIMO Capacity

Sheng Yang, Richard Combes

We present a unifying framework that bridges Bayesian asymptotics and information theory to analyze the asymptotic Shannon capacity of general large-scale MIMO channels including o…

stat.ML2019

Solving Bernoulli Rank-One Bandits with Unimodal Thompson Sampling

Cindy Trinh, Emilie Kaufmann, Claire Vernade +1

Stochastic Rank-One Bandits (Katarya et al, (2017a,b)) are a simple framework for regret minimization problems over rank-one matrices of arms. The initially proposed algorithms are…

cs.NI2025

Learning-Based Channel Access in Wi-Fi: A Multi-Armed Bandit Approach

Miguel Casasnovas, Francesc Wilhelmi, Richard Combes +6

Due to its static protocol design, IEEE 802.11 (aka Wi-Fi) channel access lacks adaptability to address dynamic network conditions, resulting in inefficient spectrum utilization, u…

cs.NI2025

Performance Evaluation of Multi-Armed Bandit Algorithms for Wi-Fi Channel Access

Miguel Casasnovas, Francesc Wilhelmi, Richard Combes +6

The adoption of dynamic, self-learning solutions for real-time wireless network optimization has recently gained significant attention due to the limited adaptability of existing p…

stat.ML2022

Towards Optimal Algorithms for Multi-Player Bandits without Collision Sensing Information

Wei Huang, Richard Combes, Cindy Trinh

We propose a novel algorithm for multi-player multi-armed bandits without collision sensing information. Our algorithm circumvents two problems shared by all state-of-the-art algor…

cs.LG2014

Lipschitz Bandits: Regret Lower Bounds and Optimal Algorithms

Stefan Magureanu, Richard Combes, Alexandre Proutiere

We consider stochastic multi-armed bandit problems where the expected reward is a Lipschitz function of the arm, and where the set of arms is either discrete or continuous. For dis…

stat.ML2025

Tractable Instances of Bilinear Maximization: Implementing LinUCB on Ellipsoids

Raymond Zhang, Hédi Hadiji, Richard Combes

We consider the maximization of over , with convex and an ellipsoid. This…

cs.IT2018

Utility Optimal Scheduling for Coded Caching in General Topologies

Richard Combes, Asma Ghorbel, Mari Kobayashi +1

We consider coded caching over the fading broadcast channel, where the users, equipped with a memory of finite size, experience asymmetric fading statistics. It is known that a nai…

stat.ML2021

Statistically Efficient, Polynomial Time Algorithms for Combinatorial Semi Bandits

Thibaut Cuvelier, Richard Combes, Eric Gourdin

We consider combinatorial semi-bandits over a set of arms where rewards are uncorrelated across items. For this problem, the algorithm ESCB yields the…

cs.NI2017

Stochastic Online Shortest Path Routing: The Value of Feedback

M. Sadegh Talebi, Zhenhua Zou, Richard Combes +2

This paper studies online shortest path routing over multi-hop networks. Link costs or delays are time-varying and modeled by independent and identically distributed random process…

cs.LG2015

Combinatorial Bandits Revisited

Richard Combes, M. Sadegh Talebi, Alexandre Proutiere +1

This paper investigates stochastic and adversarial combinatorial multi-armed bandit problems. In the stochastic setting under semi-bandit feedback, we derive a problem-specific reg…

stat.ML2025

Multimodal Bandits: Regret Lower Bounds and Optimal Algorithms

William Réveillard, Richard Combes

We consider a stochastic multi-armed bandit problem with i.i.d. rewards where the expected reward function is multimodal with at most m modes. We propose the first known computatio…

cs.LG2024

An extension of McDiarmid's inequality

Richard Combes

We generalize McDiarmid's inequality for functions with bounded differences on a high probability set, using an extension argument. Those functions concentrate around their conditi…

cs.LG2015

Unimodal Bandits without Smoothness

Richard Combes, Alexandre Proutiere

We consider stochastic bandit problems with a continuous set of arms and where the expected reward is a continuous and unimodal function of the arm. No further assumption is made r…

cs.IT2024

Asymptotic Capacity of 1-Bit MIMO Fading Channels

Sheng Yang, Richard Combes

In this work, we investigate the capacity of multi-antenna fading channels with 1-bit quantized output per receive antenna. Specifically, leveraging Bayesian statistical tools, we…

stat.ML2021

On the Suboptimality of Thompson Sampling in High Dimensions

Raymond Zhang, Richard Combes

In this paper we consider Thompson Sampling (TS) for combinatorial semi-bandits. We demonstrate that, perhaps surprisingly, TS is sub-optimal for this problem in the sense that its…

stat.ML2021

Asymptotically Optimal Strategies For Combinatorial Semi-Bandits in Polynomial Time

Thibaut Cuvelier, Richard Combes, Eric Gourdin

We consider combinatorial semi-bandits with uncorrelated Gaussian rewards. In this article, we propose the first method, to the best of our knowledge, that enables to compute the s…

cs.NI2013

Optimal Rate Sampling in 802.11 Systems

Richard Combes, Alexandre Proutiere, Donggyu Yun +2

In 802.11 systems, Rate Adaptation (RA) is a fundamental mechanism allowing transmitters to adapt the coding and modulation scheme as well as the MIMO transmission mode to the radi…

cs.IT2014

Dynamic Rate and Channel Selection in Cognitive Radio Systems

Richard Combes, Alexandre Proutiere

In this paper, we investigate dynamic channel and rate selection in cognitive radio systems which exploit a large number of channels free from primary users. In such systems, trans…

stat.ML2026

Minimizing Human Intervention in Online Classification

William Réveillard, Vasileios Saketos, Alexandre Proutiere +1

Training or fine-tuning large language model (LLM)-based systems often requires costly human feedback, yet there is limited understanding of how to minimize such intervention while…

cs.LG2021

A High Performance, Low Complexity Algorithm for Multi-Player Bandits Without Collision Sensing Information

Cindy Trinh, Richard Combes

Motivated by applications in cognitive radio networks, we consider the decentralized multi-player multi-armed bandit problem, without collision nor sensing information. We propose…

cs.NI2018

Hierarchical Beamforming: Resource Allocation, Fairness and Flow Level Performance

Julien Floquet, Richard Combes, Zwi Altman

We consider hierarchical beamforming in wireless networks. For a given population of flows, we propose computationally efficient algorithms for fair rate allocation including propo…

cs.NI2016

Multipath streaming: fundamental limits and efficient algorithms

Richard Combes, Habib Sidi, Salah-Eddine Elayoubi

We investigate streaming over multiple links. A file is split into small units called chunks that may be requested on the various links according to some policy, and received after…

stat.ML2025

Linear Bandits on Ellipsoids: Minimax Optimal Algorithms

Raymond Zhang, Hedi Hadiji, Richard Combes

We consider linear stochastic bandits where the set of actions is an ellipsoid. We provide the first known minimax optimal algorithm for this problem. We first derive a novel infor…

cs.IT2018

Device-to-Device Aided Multicasting

Thomas Varela Santana, Richard Combes, Mari Kobayashi

We consider a device-to-device (D2D) aided multicast channel, where a transmitter wishes to convey a common message to many receivers and these receivers cooperate with each other.…

cs.NI2012

Coordination of autonomic functionalities in communications networks

Richard Combes, Zwi Altman, Eitan Altman

Future communication networks are expected to feature autonomic (or self-organizing) mechanisms to ease deployment (self-configuration), tune parameters automatically (self-optimiz…

cs.PF2013

Mixed Polling with Rerouting and Applications

Veeraruna Kavitha, Richard Combes

Queueing systems with a single server in which customers wait to be served at a finite number of distinct locations (buffers/queues) are called discrete polling systems. Polling sy…

cs.IT2013

Flow-level performance of random wireless networks

Richard Combes, Eitan Altman

We study the flow-level performance of random wireless networks. The locations of base stations (BSs) follow a Poisson point process. The number and positions of active users are d…

stat.ML2017

Minimal Exploration in Structured Stochastic Bandits

Richard Combes, Stefan Magureanu, Alexandre Proutiere

This paper introduces and addresses a wide class of stochastic bandit problems where the function mapping the arm to the corresponding reward exhibits some known structural propert…

cs.NI2025

Towards Specialized Wireless Networks Using an ML-Driven Radio Interface

Kamil Szczech, Maksymilian Wojnar, Katarzyna Kosek-Szott +8

Future wireless networks will need to support diverse applications (such as extended reality), scenarios (such as fully automated industries), and technological advances (such as t…

stat.ML2024

Thompson Sampling For Combinatorial Bandits: Polynomial Regret and Mismatched Sampling Paradox

Raymond Zhang, Richard Combes

We consider Thompson Sampling (TS) for linear combinatorial semi-bandits and subgaussian rewards. We propose the first known TS whose finite-time regret does not scale exponentiall…

stat.ML2019

Computationally Efficient Estimation of the Spectral Gap of a Markov Chain

Richard Combes, Mikael Touati

We consider the problem of estimating from sample paths the absolute spectral gap of a reversible, irreducible and aperiodic Markov chain over a f…

stat.ML2016

A Streaming Algorithm for Crowdsourced Data Classification

Thomas Bonald, Richard Combes

We propose a streaming algorithm for the binary classification of data based on crowdsourcing. The algorithm learns the competence of each labeller by comparing her labels to those…

cs.LG2014

Unimodal Bandits: Regret Lower Bounds and Optimal Algorithms

Richard Combes, Alexandre Proutiere

We consider stochastic multi-armed bandits where the expected reward is a unimodal function over partially ordered arms. This important class of problems has been recently investig…

cs.LO2020

Solving Random Parity Games in Polynomial Time

Richard Combes, Mikael Touati

We consider the problem of solving random parity games. We prove that parity games exibit a phase transition threshold above , so that when the degree of the graph that define…

cs.AI2024

Contextual Linear Bandits under Noisy Features: Towards Bayesian Oracles

Jung-hun Kim, Se-Young Yun, Minchan Jeong +3

We study contextual linear bandit problems under feature uncertainty, where the features are noisy and have missing entries. To address the challenges posed by this noise, we analy…

stat.ML2017

A Minimax Optimal Algorithm for Crowdsourcing

Thomas Bonald, Richard Combes

We consider the problem of accurately estimating the reliability of workers based on noisy labels they provide, which is a fundamental question in crowdsourcing. We propose a novel…

cs.IT2017

Opportunistic Content Delivery in Fading Broadcast Channels

Asma Ghorbel, Khac-Hoang Ngo, Richard Combes +2

We consider content delivery over fading broadcast channels. A server wants to transmit K files to K users, each equipped with a cache of finite size. Using the coded caching schem…

cs.IT2017

An Approximate ML Detector for MIMO Channels Corrupted by Phase Noise

Richard Combes, Sheng Yang

We consider the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication channel impaired by phase noises at both the transmitter and receiver. We focus on the maximum likelihood (ML) d…

cs.IT2026

Mismatched Exponents for Deterministic and Randomised Noise-Guessing Decoding

Henrique K. Miyamoto, Richard Combes, Sheng Yang

We study both the deterministic and randomised variants of noise-guessing decoding in additive memoryless channels. The error and complexity exponents of such decoding schemes are…

cs.NI2013

The association problem in wireless networks: a Policy Gradient Reinforcement Learning approach

Richard Combes, Ilham El Bouloumi, Stephane Senecal +1

The purpose of this paper is to develop a self-optimized association algorithm based on PGRL (Policy Gradient Reinforcement Learning), which is both scalable, stable and robust. Th…

cs.LG2025

Online Learning for Function Placement in Serverless Computing

Wei Huang, Richard Combes, Andrea Araldo +2

We study the placement of virtual functions aimed at minimizing the cost. We propose a novel algorithm, using ideas based on multi-armed bandits. We prove that these algorithms lea…