Ph.D. [October 2019, May 2023]

• Department of Information Technology (ITEC)- Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria.

• Supervisor: Prof. Hermann Hellwagner, Prof. Christian Timmerer 

Master of Science [2014-2017]

• Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Iran.

• Major: Computer Engineering

• Thesis: S^2VC: An SDN-based Approach for Maximizing Fairness and QoE of SVC-Based HTTP Adaptive Streaming.

Bachelor of Science [2004-2007]

• Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Iran.

• Major: Computer Engineering

• Research engineer at nic.at, June 2023-present.

     In my current role, I am dedicated to developing services aimed at identifying malicious/suspicious domains in Austria, as well as detecting possible attacks or malicious traffic.  To this, we utilize advanced ML techniques to stay vigilant and detect potential cyber threats and malicious traffic. Engaged in data analysis and engineering, I play a role in developing data flow services for automated data processing. Moreover, collaborating with the team to propose modest enhancements for the DNS server infrastructure, ensuring its stability and performance.

• Researcher assistance at the ATHENA and 5G PlayGround projects,   October 2019- June 203.

My primary responsibilities in the ATHENA project were studying multimedia streaming and proposing new approaches to improve video streaming, especially live streaming, in terms of running streaming cost, perceiving QoE by clients, End-to-End latency, and scalability. We do it by employing edge computing and in-network intelligence paradigms like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV).

In the 5G playground project, we develop, test, and evaluate selected VR applications over 5G networks, e.g., streaming of 360° videos and new forms of immersive media, such as volumetric data (point clouds).

• •  Senior Network Administrator, 2012- September 2019

In a statewide network with more than 4000 nodes spread on 60 buildings, I was responsible for following tasks:

• • • • Design, deploy, and support networks (network segments, Internet, and intranet systems).

      • Install and maintain network hardware and software.

      • Analyze and isolate issues.

      • Monitor networks to ensure security and availability to specific users.

      • Evaluate and modify the system's performance.

      • Determine network and system requirements.

      • Maintain the integrity of the network, server deployment, and security.

      • Assign routing protocols and routing table configuration.

      • Assign configuration of authentication and authorization of directory services.

      • Maintain network servers such as file servers, VPN, gateways, intrusion detection system 

  • Senior Software Development Engineer, 2006- 2009 

IT departmant of a public organisation, Iran, develop/lead various software projects

• • Senior Software Development Engineer, 2006-2019

Develope /lead various software projects as a freelancer software engineer

• • Software and Web Developer, 2007-2009

IT department of Sepad Tourism Zone, develop and maintain web/desktop applications and websites by C#, ASP.NET, PHP, MSSQL, and Mysql

• • Programmer and web developer, 2004-2006

IT organization of Mashhad/Iran Municipality, develop and maintain applications and websites

• Scientific and Industrial Research

Formulate video streaming's and network's problems, propose appropriate models, and develop them by applying Mathematical modeling, Reinforcement learning, and heuristic algorithms to improve video streaming and network's services.

• Interpreting and Presenting Results

Writing research papers, reviewing papers, mentoring interns, preparing testbeds and demos.

• Leadership and Teamwork.

• • Analyzing Data and Making it Visible.

  • Project and Resource Management Skills.

  • Performance and cost optimization. Performance testing.

  • Technical documentation.

  • Integrating and Maintaining IT Systems.

  • Network administration.

• Video streaming: Adaptive streaming, Video 360°, Video players, Video analytics, QoE models

• Programming: Python, Linux/Shell scripts, JavaScript, HTML, SQL/Mysql, C#, PHP, ASP.Net, Silverlight/WPF

• Cloud computing: AWS (EC2, S3, Console), ES2 Spot Instances, Scheduling

• Optimization and Mathematical modeling: Gurobi, CPLEX, PULP 

• Machine learning: Clustering, Classification, RL algorithms

• Data analysis: Python, Statistical methods, Data visualization

• Virtualization technologies: Virtual machines, Docker containers, VMWare virtualization (vSphere)

• Networking: Routing, Switching, QoS, Network emulation, SDN, Multicasting and IGMP, Cisco/hp routers/switches, Network services (Windows/Linux)

• Video Streaming, ▪  End-to-End latency and QoE in Live Video Streaming ▪  Immersive Video Streaming 

• Software-Defined Networking (SDN) ▪  Network Function Virtualization (NFV) ▪  5G networks

• Optimization ▪  Mathematical Modeling ▪  Reinforcement Learning 

• Ranked 3 among more than 2400 participants in the annual Iranian universities Ph.D. entrance exam (Computer engineering field, 2019-2020).

• Farsi (Persian) Native

• English

• Deutsch (B1)

Patents

• LwTE: Light-weight Transcoding at the Edge (File the patent)

Alireza Erfanian, Hadi Amirpour, Christian Timmerer, and Hermann Hellwagner. 

Journals

1. CD-LwTE: Cost- and Delay-aware Light-weight Transcoding at the Edge (Under review)

Alireza Erfanian, Hadi Amirpour, Farzad Tashtarian, Christian Timmerer, and Hermann Hellwagner. submit to  IEEE Transactions on Multimedia. [Impact factor 6.5]

2. LwTE: Light-weight Transcoding at the Edge [PDF]  

Alireza Erfanian, Hadi Amirpour, Farzad Tashtarian, Christian Timmerer, and Hermann Hellwagner. IEEE Access. [Impact factor 3.36]

3. HxL3: Optimized Delivery Architecturefor HTTP Low-Latency Live Streaming [PDF]

Farzad Tashtarian, Abdelhak Bentaleb, Alireza Erfanian, Christian Timmerer, Hermann Hellwagner, and Roger Zimmermann. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia. [Impact factor 6.5]

4. OSCAR: On Optimizing Resource Utilization in Live Video Streaming [PDF]

A Erfanian, F Tashtarian, A Zabrovskiy, C Timmerer, H Hellwagner. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM) [Impact factor 4.2]

5. QoCoVi: QoE- and Cost-Aware Adaptive Video Streaming for the Internet of Vehicles [PDF]

  Alireza Erfanian, Farzad Tashtarian, Christian Timmerer, and Hermann Hellwagner. Elsevier Computer Communications journal. [Impact factor 3.1]

6. S2VC: An SDN-based framework for maximizing QoE in SVC-based HTTP adaptive streaming [PDF]

      Farzad Tashtarian, Alireza Erfanian, Amir Varasteh. Elsevier Computer Networks journal.  [Impact factor 4.47] 

Conferences

6. 1. 1. LwTE-Live: Light-weight Transcoding at the Edge for Live Streaming [PDF][Slides][Video]

Alireza Erfanian, Hadi Amirpour, Farzad Tashtarian, Christian Timmerer, and Hermann Hellwagner. The 1st ACM CoNEXT Workshop on Design, Deployment, and Evaluation of Network-assisted  video Streaming (ViSNext 2021).

6. 1. 2. Video streaming using Light Transcoding and In-Network Intelligence

Alireza Erfanian, Hadi Amirpour, Farzad Tashtarian, Christian Timmerer, and Hermann Hellwagner. ACM Mile-High Video 2022 (MHV 2022).

6. 1. 3. Quality Optimization of Live Streaming Services over HTTP with Reinforcement Learning [Video] 

Farzad Tashtarian, R. Falanji, Abdelhak Bentaleb, Alireza Erfanian, P. S. Mashhadi, Christian Timmerer, Hermann Hellwagner, Roger Zimmermann. IEEE Global Communications Conference 2021 (GlobeCom 2021).

6. 1. 4. ES-HAS: An Edge- and SDN-Assisted Framework for HTTP Adaptive Video Streaming  [PDF][Slides][Video]

Reza Farahani, Farzad Tashtarian, Alireza Erfanian, Christian Timmerer, Mohammad Ghanbari, and Hermann Hellwagner. NOSSDAV’21: The 31st edition of the   Workshop on Network and Operating System Support for Digital Audio and Video.

6. 1. 5. On Optimizing Resource Utilization in AVC-based Real-time Video Streaming [Paper][Slides][Video] 

Alireza Erfanian, Farzad Tashtarian, Reza Farahani, Christian Timmerer, and Hermann Hellwagner. 6th IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft 2020).

6. 1. 6. Optimizing QoE and Latency of Live Video Streaming Using Edge Computing and In-Network Intelligence [PDF][Video]   

Alireza Erfanian. ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys) 2021 | Doctoral Symposium.

6. 1. 7. Maximizing QoE Fairness: An SDN-based Approach [Paper]

Alireza Erfanian, Farzad Tashtarian, MH Yaghmaee. IEEE/ACM 26th International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS 2018).