Publications

To Appear

Probe Less, Learn More: Characterizing and Correcting eBPF Instrumentation Overhead
Viraj Thakkar, Timo Sokler, John Byrne, MJ Son, Sekwon Lee, Harumi Kuno, Aditya Dhakal
ProTools Workshop @ SC 2026   ·   To Appear
DiaLSM: Towards Write-Stall-Free Performance via Shard-based LSM-tree
Hongsu Byun, Safdar Jamil, Honghyeon Yoo, Sungyong Park, Myungcheol Lee, Xubin He, Zhichao Cao, Youngjae Kim
IEEE ICDE 2027   ·   To Appear   ·   Preprint (arXiv:2609.14370)
ANCHOR: A Vision for Secure Persistent Key-Value Stores in Disaggregated Data Centers
Viraj Thakkar, Dongha Kim, Hokeun Kim, Zhichao Cao
ACM SeQureDB 2026   ·   To Appear   ·   Preprint (arXiv:2608.27819)
ProGQL: A Provenance Graph Query System for Cyber Attack Investigation
Fei Shao, Jia Zou, Zhichao Cao, Xusheng Xiao
ICDE 2026   ·   To Appear   ·   Preprint (arXiv:2510.22400)

2026

TellyTune: Exploring the Limits of LLM-Assisted Tuning for LSM-Based Key-Value Stores
Viraj Thakkar, Qi Lin, Kenanya Prasetyo, Haryosatyo Wisjnunandono, Jin Wang, Achmad Imam Kistijantoro, Reza Fuad Rachmadi, Zhichao Cao
ACM SYSTOR 2026   ·   02 Sep 2026   ·   doi:10.1145/3793230.3839381
ColdMap: Compaction-Aware Cost-Benefit Zone Cleaning for ZNS-Based Key-Value Stores
Sungjin Byeon, Kyungwook Min, Jaewan Park, Sangyun Lee, Hong-Yeon Kim, Junyoung Han, Joo-Young Hwang, Zhichao Cao, Youngjae Kim
ACM ICS 2026   ·   05 Jul 2026   ·   doi:10.1145/3797905.3807851
O3-LSM: Maximizing Disaggregated LSM Write Performance via Three-Layer Offloading
Qi Lin, Gangqi Huang, Te Guo, Chang Guo, Viraj Thakkar, Zichen Zhu, Jianguo Wang, Zhichao Cao
ACM SIGMOD 2026   ·   18 May 2026   ·   doi:10.1145/3802093

2025

Bit-Flip Error Resilience in LLMs: A Comprehensive Analysis and Defense Framework
Yuhang Chen, Zhen Tan, Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, Huaizhi Qu, Xinyu Zhao, Qi Lin, Yu Cheng, Andrew Kwong, Zhichao Cao, Tianlong Chen
EMNLP 2025   ·   01 Nov 2025   ·   doi:10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.528
LegoIndex: A Scalable and Modular Indexing Framework for Efficient Analysis of Extreme-Scale Particle Data
Chang Guo, Ning Yan, Lipeng Wan, Zhichao Cao
HPDC 2025   ·   20 Jul 2025   ·   doi:10.1145/3731545.3731591
Unlocking the Unusable: A Proactive Caching Framework for Reusing Partial Overlapped Data
Chang Guo, Norbert Podhorszki, Greg Eisenhauer, Zhiwen Xie, Scott Klasky, Zhichao Cao
ACM HotStorage 2025   ·   10 Jul 2025   ·   doi:10.1145/3736548.3737839
SHIELD: Encrypting Persistent Data of LSM-KVS from Monolithic to Disaggregated Storage
Viraj Thakkar, Dongha Kim, Yingchun Lai, Hokeun Kim, Zhichao Cao
ACM SIGMOD 2025   ·   17 Jun 2025   ·   doi:10.1145/3725354

2024

CPI: A Collaborative Partial Indexing Design for Large-Scale Deduplication Systems
Yixun Wei, Zhichao Cao, David H.C. Du
IEEE Transactions on Computers   ·   08 Dec 2024   ·   doi:10.1109/TC.2024.3485238
BIZA: Design of Self-Governing Block-Interface ZNS AFA for Endurance and Performance
Shushu Yi, Shaocong Sun, Li Peng, Yingbo Sun, Ming-Chang Yang, Zhichao Cao, Qiao Li, Myoungsoo Jung, Ke Zhou, Jie Zhang
ACM SOSP 2024   ·   04 Nov 2024   ·   doi:10.1145/3694715.3695953
Can ZNS SSDs be Better Storage Devices for Persistent Cache?
Chongzhuo Yang, Zhang Cao, Chang Guo, Ming Zhao, Zhichao Cao
ACM HotStorage 2024   ·   08 Jul 2024   ·   doi:10.1145/3655038.3665946
Can Modern LLMs Tune and Configure LSM-based Key-Value Stores?
Viraj Thakkar, Madhumitha Sukumar, Jiaxin Dai, Kaushiki Singh, Zhichao Cao
ACM HotStorage 2024   ·   08 Jul 2024   ·   doi:10.1145/3655038.3665954
Prophet: Optimizing LSM-Based Key-Value Store on ZNS SSDs with File Lifetime Prediction and Compaction Compensation
Gaoji Liu, Chongzhuo Yang, Qiaolin Yu, Chang Guo, Wen Xia, Zhichao Cao
MSST 2024   ·   03 Jun 2024   ·   PDF
SAS-Cache: A Semantic-Aware Secondary Cache for LSM-based Key-Value Stores
Zhang Cao, Chang Guo, Ziyan Lv, Anand Ananthabhotla, Zhichao Cao
MSST 2024   ·   03 Jun 2024   ·   PDF
CaaS-LSM: Compaction-as-a-Service for LSM-based Key-Value Stores in Storage Disaggregated Infrastructure
Qiaolin Yu, Chang Guo, Jay Zhuang, Viraj Thakkar, Jianguo Wang, Zhichao Cao
ACM SIGMOD 2024   ·   29 May 2024   ·   doi:10.1145/3654927
HyzoneStore: Hybrid Storage with Flexible Logical Interface and Optimized Cache for Zoned Devices
Chongzhuo Yang, Baolin Feng, Zhang Cao, Zhichao Cao
ACM DSDE 2024   ·   27 Feb 2024   ·   doi:10.1145/3653924.3653935

2023

SMRTS: A Performance and Cost-Effectiveness Optimized SSD-SMR Tiered File System with Data Deduplication
Zhichao Cao, Hao Wen, Fenggang Wu, David H.C. Du
IEEE ICCD 2023   ·   06 Nov 2023   ·   doi:10.1109/ICCD58817.2023.00050
K8sES: Optimizing Kubernetes with Enhanced Storage Service-Level Objectives
Hao Wen, Zhichao Cao, Bingzhe Li, David H.C. Du, Ayman Abouelwafa, Doug Voigt, Shiyong Liu, Jim Diehl, Fenggang Wu
IEEE ICCD 2023   ·   06 Nov 2023   ·   doi:10.1109/ICCD58817.2023.00041