Dr. Abdelhak Bentaleb

Assistant Professor in Computer Science

Founder & Director: Intelligent Next Generation Networking and Multimedia (IN2GM) Lab
Departement: Computer Science and Software Engineering
University: Concordia University
Address: ER1223, 2155 Guy, Montreal, QC, Canada H3H 2R9
Email:

Recruiting

I am actively seeking self-motivated graduate and undergraduate students to join my research team. If you are enthusiastic about pursuing a PhD or Master's degree and are interested in working with me, I have a number of exciting openings available.

Before reaching out, I encourage you to review my research interests to ensure alignment with your own academic and professional aspirations. If you find a suitable match, kindly send me an email including your resume, transcripts, and motivation letter (only for PhD candadiate). For prospective students, you must read [this].

Research Interests

My current research encompasses three key areas:

Multimedia Systems

+ Video streaming and content delivery Optimization

+ Networked systems for immersive media processing, streaming, display

+ Ultra-low-latency networking for AR/VR/XR applications

+ Wireless and mobile media streaming systems

+ Metaverse and XR applications in 5G & 6G wireless networks

+ Edge cloud systems for emerging multimedia experiences

+ Quality of Experience for emerging multimedia

+ Transport layer optimization for video streaming applications

+ Real-time communication (RTC) protocols

+ Design, analysis, and evaluation of network-assisted multimedia system architectures

+ Networked Game systems and streaming optimization

+ Real-time communication (RTC) protocols and systems

+ Sustainable multimedia systems

Networking Systems

+ 5G/6G and beyond networks

+ Cloud computing/mobile cloud computing

+ Energy efficiency in networks

+ Edge and fog computing/networking

+ Congestion control optimization for delay/badnwdith sensetive application

+ Quality-of-service and resource management

+ Internet of Everthing (IoE) and digital twin

Applied AI/ML for Networking and Multimedia Systems

+ ML/AI and LLMs for Networking and Multimedia Systems

+ Edge AI

+ Deep Reinforcement Learning for Networking and Multimedia Systems

+ Meta/continuous Learning, Transfer Learning, Online Learning for Networking and Multimedia Systems

+ Federated and Distributed Learning for for Networking and Multimedia Systems

Short Bio

Dr. Abdelhak Bentaleb is an Assistant professor at CSSE departement at Concordia University. He is the founder and director of IN2GM Lab. His main research interests are in broadly networking and multimedia systems optimizations with machine learning, networked multimedia and systems, next generation networks (5G/6G), computer systems and networks, video streaming architecture and content delivery, Immersive media technologies, networked game systems, network systems and protocols, edge and distributed computing, wireless communication and mobile networking, applied machine and deep learning systems in networking, IoT systems.

His current research project and goal is to design and build practical end-to-end AI-enabled large-scale networked multimedia systems. Specifically, it focuses on investigating a new paradigm based on practical machine/deep learning techniques for solving challenging QoE optimization and congestion control problems in 2D/3D video delivery systems (e.g., video-on-demand, low latency video delivery, real-time communication (RTC), and volumetric immersive video delivery), including video provisioning (processing and compression), video delivery, and video playback. Rather than design fixed algorithms, the aim is to develop data-driven systems that can dynamically learn to optimize the performance on their own using modern machine and deep learning techniques (e.g., deep reinforcement learning, meta learning, imitation learning, and supervised learning). As a result of well understanding and optimizing the video streaming QoE as well as adjusting congestion control based on various requirements of video streaming applications and services.

He obtained his Ph.D. from National University of Singapore and his dissertation was about enabling optimizations of video delivery in HTTP Adaptive Streaming, received two prestigious awards: SIGMM Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis and DASH Industry Forum Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award. He continued to serve as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow for three years at National University of Singapore. He is the co-inventor of 3 patent filings and many papers (more than 50) resulting from his research have been published in top venues on the above related research topics and he won several prestigious awards.

Awards & Honors

DASH-IF Excellence in DASH Award (2nd place), 2021
dash.js Contributor Award (3rd place), 2020
Twitch’s Grand Challenge on Adaptation Algorithms for Near-Second Latency (2nd place), 2020
SIGMM Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis, 2019
Best Poster at NUS Computing Research Week, 2019
DASH-IF Best PhD Dissertation Award (1st place), 2019
DASH-IF Excellence in DASH Award (1st place), 2019
The 7th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), 2019
The Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS), 2018
NUS Dean’s Graduate Research Excellence Award, 2018
IEEE ICME Grand Challenges on DASH (1st place), 2018
DASH-IF Excellence in DASH Award (1st place), 2018
ACM MMSys Best Student Paper Award, 2017
NUS Dean’s Graduate Research Achievement Awards, 2017

IN2GM Lab (Students)

Current PhD Students

+ Jashan Sidhu (2024-)

+ Jeremy Ouellette (2024-)

Current MSc Students

+ Aurelien Bondis (2025-)

+ Matin Fazel (2024-)

+ Sepehr Shirani (2024-)

+ Aman Sidhu (2024-)

+ Navin Mohan (2024-)

+ Aman Sidhu (2024-)

+ Chidambar Joshi (2023-)

Current BSc Students

+ Abdullah Amir (2024-)

+ Guillermo Tremols Suarez (2024-)

List of Publications

On this page: Papers · Dissertation · Patents

Papers

2023

A. Bentaleb, M. Lim, MN. Akcay, A. Begen, S. Hammoudi, and R. Zimmermann.
Toward One-Second Latency: Evolution of Live Media Streaming.
Arxiv, 2023 (Under submission IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials).
F. Tashtarian, A. Bentaleb, H. Amirpour, S. Gorinsky, J. Jiang, H. Hellwagner, and C. Timmerer.
ARTEMIS: Adaptive Bitrate Ladder Optimization for Live Video.
USNIX NSDI, Santa Clara, USA, 2024.
A. Bentaleb, M. Lim, MN. Akcay, A. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
Meta reinforcement learning for rate adaptation.
IEEE INFOCOM, New York area, USA, 2023.
A. Bentaleb, M. N. Akcay, M. Lim, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
Bandwidth prediction in low-latency media transport.
ACM MHV, Denver, USA, 2023.
A. Bentaleb, R. Farahani, F. Tashtarian, H. Hellwagner, and R. Zimmermann.
Which cdn to download from? a client and server strategies.
ACM MHV, Denver, USA, 2023.
R. Farahani, A. Bentaleb, S. Mohammed, and H. Hellwagner
CP-Steering: Cdn-and protocol-aware content steering solution for http adaptive video streaming.
ACM MHV, Denver, USA, 2023.
R. Farahani, A. Bentaleb, C. Timmerer, S. Mohammed, and H. Hellwagner.
SARENA: SFC-Enabled Architecture for Adaptive Video Streaming Applications.
IEEE ICC, Rome, Italy, 2023.
Tashtarian, A. Bentaleb, H. Amirpour, B. Taragh, T. Christian, H. Hermann, and R. Zimmermann.
LALISA: Adaptive Bitrate Ladder Optimization in HTTP-based Adaptive Live Streaming.
IEEE/IFIP NOMS, Miami, USA, 2023.
X. Huang, C. Li, A. Bentaleb, R. Zimmermann, and G. Zhai.
XGC-VQA: A unified video quality assessment model for user, professionally, and occupationally-generated content.
IEEE ICME, Brisbane, Australia, 2023.
C. Li, M. Lim, A. Bentaleb, and R. Zimmermann.
A real-time blind quality-of-experience assessment metric for http adaptive streaming.
IEEE ICME, Brisbane, Australia, 2023.

2022

R. Farahani, A. Bentaleb, E. Çetinkaya, C. Timmerer, R. Zimmermann, and H. Hellwagner.
Hybrid p2p-cdn architecture for live video streaming: An online learning approach.
IEEE GLOBECOM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2022.
M. Nguyen, B. Taraghi, A. Bentaleb, R. Zimmermann, and C. Timmerer.
CADLAD: Device-aware bitrate ladder construction for http adaptive streaming.
IEEE CNSM, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2022.
A. Bentaleb, M. N. Akcay, M. Lim, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
BoB: Bandwidth prediction for real-time communications using heuristic and reinforcement learning.
IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, vol. x, 2022.
A. Bentaleb, Z. Zhan, F. Tashtarian, M. Lim, S. Harous, T. Christian, H. Hermann, and R. Zimmermann.
Low Latency Live Streaming Implementation in DASH and HLS.
ACM MM, Lisboa, Portugal, 2022.
F. Tashtarian*, A. Bentaleb*, A. Erfanian, H. Hellwagner, C. Timmerer, and R. Zimmermann.
HxL3: Optimized Delivery Architecture for HTTP Low-Latency Live Streaming.
IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, vol.25, 2022. *: Equal Contribution
B. Taraghi, A. Bentaleb, C. Timmerer, R. Zimmermann, and H. Hellwagner.
Cadvise or how to find the sweet spots of abr systems.
ACM MHV, Denver, USA, 2022.
M. Lim, M. N. Akcay, A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
The benefits of server hinting when dashing or hlsing.
ACM MHV, Denver, USA, 2022.
R. Farahani, H. Amirpour, F. Tashtarian, A. Bentaleb, C. Timmerer, H. Hellwagner, and R. Zimmermann.
Richter: Hybrid p2p-cdn architecture for low latency live video streaming.
ACM MHV, Denver, USA, 2022.
N. Lakshmanan, A. Bentaleb, B. Choi, R. Zimmermann, J. Han, and M. S. Kang.
On privacy risks of watching youtube over cellular networks with carrier aggregation.
ACM MHV, vol. 6, no. 1, 2022.
A. C. Begen, M. N. Akcay, A. Bentaleb, and A. Giladi.
Adaptive streaming of content-aware-encoded videos in dash.js.
ACM MHV, vol. 131, no. 4, 2022.

2021

A. C. Begen, A. Bentaleb, D. Silhavy, S. Pham, R. Zimmermann, and W. Law.
Road to salvation: Streaming clients and content delivery networks working together.
IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 59, no. 11, 2021.
F. Tashtarian, R. Falanji, A. Bentaleb, A. Erfanian, P. Mashhadi, C. Timmerer, H. Hellwagner, and R. Zimmermann.
Quality optimization of live streaming services over http with reinforcement learning.
IEEE GLOBECOM, Madrid, Spain, 2021.
F. Tashtarian, B. Abdelhak, R. Farahani, M. Nguyen, C. Timmerer, H. Hellwagner, and R. Zimmermann.
A distributed delivery architecture for user generated content live streaming over http.
IEEE LCN, Edmonton, Canada, 2021.
A. Bentaleb, M. Lim, M. N. Akcay, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
Common media client data (cmcd) initial findings.
ACM NOSSDAV, Istanbul, Turkey, 2021.
T. Babak, A. Bentaleb, T. Christian, H. Hermann, and R. Zimmermann.
Understanding Quality-of-Experience of Heuristic-based HTTP Adaptive Bitrate Algorithms.
ACM NOSSDAV, Istanbul, Turkey, 2021.
P. K. Yadav, A. Bentaleb, M. Lim, J. Huang, W. T. Ooi, and R. Zimmermann.
Playing chunk-transferred dash segments at low latency with qlive.
ACM MMSys, Istanbul, Turkey, 2021.
DASH-IF Excellence in DASH Award (2nd place)
M. J. Khan, A. Bentaleb, and S. Harous.
Can an accurate future bandwidth prediction improve volumetric video streaming experience?.
IEEE IWCMC, Harbin, China, 2021.
S. Tisa, A. Bentaleb, and S. Harous.
Video qoe inference with machine learning.
IEEE IWCMC, Harbin, China, 2021.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
Catching the Moment with LoL+ in Twitch-Like Low-Latency Live Streaming Platforms.
IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, vol. 24, 2021.

2020

S. Hammoudi, A. Bentaleb, S. Harous, and Z. Aliouat.
Scheduling in IEEE 802.15.4e Time Slotted Channel Hopping: A Survey.
IEEE UEMCON, New York, USA, 2020.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, S. Harous, and R. Zimmermann.
Data-Driven Bandwidth Prediction Models and Automated Model Selection for Low Latency.
IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, vol. 23, 2020.
M. J. Khan, S. Harous, and A. Bentaleb.
Client-driven Adaptive Bitrate Techniques for Media Streaming over HTTP: Initial Findings.
IEEE EIT, Chicago, USA, 2020.
A. Bentaleb, C. Timmerer, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
Performance Analysis of ACTE: A Bandwidth Prediction Method for Low-Latency Chunked Streaming.
ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications, vol. 16, no. 2s, 2020.
S. Tisa, A. Bentaleb, and S. Harous.
Inferring Quality of Experience for Adaptive Video Streaming over HTTPS and QUIC.
IEEE IWCMC, Limassol, Cyprus, 2020.
M. Lim, M. N. Akcay, A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
When They Go High, We Go Low: Low-Latency Live Streaming in dash. js With LoL.
ACM MMSys, Istanbul, Turkey, 2020.
Runner-up in the Grand Challenge on Adaptation Algorithms for Near-Second Latency
dash.js Contributor Award
A. Bentaleb, P. K. Yadav, W. T. Ooi, and R. Zimmermann.
DQ-DASH: A Queuing Theory Approach to Distributed Adaptive Video Streaming.
ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications, vol. 16, no. 1, 2020.

2019

Y. Harbi, Z. Aliouat, A. Refoufi, S. Harous, and A. Bentaleb.
Enhanced Authentication and Key Management Scheme for Securing Data Transmission in the Internet of Things.
Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 94, no. 101, 2019.
A. E. Al-Issa, A. Bentaleb, A. A. Barakabitze, T. Zinner, and B. Ghita.
Bandwidth Prediction Schemes for Defining Bitrate Levels in SDN-enabled Adaptive Streaming.
IEEE CNSM, Halifax, Canada, 2019.
Y. Harbi, Z. Aliouat, S. Harous, A. Bentaleb, and A. Refoufi.
A Review of Security in Internet of Things.
Springer Wireless Personal Communications, vol. 108, no. 1, 2019.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, S. Harous, and R. Zimmermann.
Game of Streaming Players: Is Consensus Viable or an Illusion?.
ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications, vol. 15, no. 2s, 2019.
A. Bentaleb, C. Timmerer, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
Bandwidth prediction in low-latency chunked streaming.
ACM NOSSDAV, Amherst Massachusetts, USA, 2019.
DASH-IF Excellence in DASH Award (1st place)
A. E. Al-Issa, A. Bentaleb, T. Zinner, I.-H. Mkwawa, and B. Ghita.
BBGDASH: A Max-Min Bounded Bitrate Guidance for SDN Enabled Adaptive Video Streaming.
IEEE ICIN, Paris, France, 2019.

2018 and earlier

Y. Harbi, Z. Aliouat, S. Harous, and A. Bentaleb.
Secure Data Transmission Scheme based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Internet Of Things.
Springer MISC, Constantine, Algeria, 2018.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, S. Harous, and R. Zimmermann.
A Distributed Approach for Bitrate Selection in HTTP Adaptive Streaming.
ACM MM, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2018.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
ORL-SDN: Online Reinforcement Learning for SDN-enabled HTTP Adaptive Streaming.
ACM MM, vol. 14, no. 3, 2018.
A. Bentaleb, B. Taani, A. C. Begen, C. Timmerer, and R. Zimmermann.
A Survey on Bitrate Adaptation Schemes for Streaming Media over HTTP.
IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 14, no. 3, 2018.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
Game Theory based Bitrate Adaptation for dash.js Reference Player.
IEEE ICME, San Diego, USA, 2018.
Grand Challenge on DASH (1st place)
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, S. Harous, and R. Zimmermann.
Want to Play DASH? A Game Theoretic Approach for Adaptive Streaming over HTTP.
ACM MMSys, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2018.
Best Student-paper Award
Grand Challenge on DASH (1st place)
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
QoE-aware Bandwidth Broker for HTTP Adaptive Streaming Flows in an SDN-enabled HFC Network.
IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, vol. 64, no. 2, 2018.
A. Bentaleb, S. Harous, and A. Boubetra.
A k-hop Scalable Management Scheme for Large Scale Mobile ad-hoc Networks.
Springer Wireless Personal Communications, vol. 96, no. 10, 2017.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, R. Zimmermann, and S. Harous.
SDNHAS: An SDN-enabled Architecture to Optimize QoE in HTTP Adaptive Streaming.
IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, vol. 19, no. 10, 2017.
A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann.
SDNDASH: Improving QoE of HTTP Adaptive Streaming Using Software Defined Networking.
ACM MM, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2016.
A. Bentaleb, S. Harous, and A. Boubetra.
A New Topology Management Scheme for Large Scale Mobile ad-hoc Networks.
IEEE EIT, Dekalb, USA, 2015.
A. Bentaleb, S. Harous, and A. Boubetra.
A Scalable Clustering Scheme and its Performance Evaluation.
Emerald International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, ol. 10, no. 1, 2014.
A. Bentaleb, S. Harous, and A. Boubetra.
A Topology Management Scheme with Scalability and QoS Guarantee for Large Scale Mobile Ad Hoc Networks in Urban Environment.
IEEE NTIC, Chlef, Algeria, 2014.
A. Bentaleb, S. Harous, and A. Boubetra.
A Weight based Clustering Scheme for Mobile ad-hoc Networks.
ACM MoMM, Vienna, Austria, 2013.
H. Lakhlef, A. Bentaleb, J.-F. Myoupo, A. Boubetra, and S. Harous.
Cliques and Clusters based Hierarchical Scheme for Sensor Networks Partitioning.
IEEE GCC, Doha, Qatar, 2013.
A. Bentaleb, A. Boubetra, and S. Harous.
Survey of clustering Schemes in Mobile ad-hoc Networks.
Scirp Communications and Network, vol. 5, no. 02,, 2013.

Dissertation

A. Bentaleb.
Enabling Optimizations of Video Delivery in HTTP Adaptive Streaming.
Ph.D. Thesis, National University of Singapore.
DASH-IF best PhD dissertation (1st Place)
SIGMM Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis

Patents

A. Bentaleb, M. Fillafer, and D. Weinberger.
Chunk-based prediction adaptation logic.
US Patent, no. 11621985, 2023.
A. Bentaleb, P.K. Yadav, R. Zimmerman, W.T Ooi.
Method and device for streaming content.
US Patent, no. 17296948, 2022.

Teaching

Winter 2024

+ COMP 6461: Computer Networks and Protocols

Fall 2023

+ COMP 445: Data Communication and Computer Networks

+ COMP 691: AI for Networked Multimedia Systems

Winter 2023