Zhang's research interests lie broadly in networking, edge and cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) support for networked systems and networked systems support for AI/ML. His past research was centered on the analysis, design and development of scalable Internet quality-of-service (QoS), content distribution networks, Internet measurement, resilient routing systems and network security among others. His current research thrusts focus primarily on i) building service-oriented, application-aware, highly scalable, resilient, and secure 5G/next-generation (NextG) networked systems; and ii) developing and incorporating novel AI/ML algorithms to enable intelligent software-defined networking infrastructures, edge/cloud systems and emerging applications such as collaborative autonomous driving, Digital Twins, metaverse and Internet-of-Things (IoT).