Juan A. Fraire

Researcher in Space Networking and Informatics

Inria CONICET Saarland University
  • Juan and Pau cheek to cheek at an open window above a city street

About me

I'm a researcher at Inria, in the Agora team in Lyon, France. I am also a guest researcher and professor at CONICET and the National University of Córdoba (UNC) in Argentina, where I did my PhD, and at Saarland University in Germany, where I belong to Holger Hermanns's Dependable Systems and Software group.

I study networks that reach beyond Earth. How do you route data when links come and go, and a signal to Mars takes minutes? How can a cheap sensor on a farm talk straight to a satellite? How do you run a constellation of thousands of spacecraft joined by lasers? And what does it cost, in mass, energy and carbon, to put computers in orbit? These questions are my four research topics.

It started with a real system. During my PhD I was the network architect of SARE, a satellite constellation of CONAE, the Argentine space agency, and I have stayed close to flight since. My routing code runs in NASA's ION and HDTN, our work was demonstrated on GomSpace's GomX-4 satellites and ESA's OPS-SAT, and I have carried out research stays at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

I chair the SPACE Research Group of the IRTF, where the Internet community works on networking beyond Earth. I co-founded the STINT workshop in 2014 and have chaired all 13 editions. With students and colleagues on four continents, I have published more than 160 papers.

ORCID Google Scholar DBLP GitHub LinkedIn Inria page

Full CV (PDF) Press kit

Where I work

Education and honours

Students

I have supervised 16 doctoral students, most of them jointly with colleagues at other universities, and more than 25 master's and engineering theses.

Doctoral students

  • Alexander Ylnner Choquenaira Florez, Inria
  • Benoit Coeugnet, IRIT and Inria, with André-Luc Beylot; an industrial PhD with Kinéis
  • Oriol Fusté, i2CAT and UPC, with Joan A. Ruiz-de-Azua: transport protocols for challenged space networks
  • Wenxiao Ge, Nanjing University, with Kanglian Zhao: the architecture and design of space clouds
  • Alice Le Bihan, INSA Lyon and Inria, with Pierre François: a digital twin for the Solar System Internet, co-funded by ESA
  • Elena F. Niño, i2CAT and UPC, with Joan A. Ruiz-de-Azua
  • Robin Ohs, Saarland University, with Holger Hermanns: the lifecycle sustainability of computing in orbit
  • Arnau Singla, i2CAT and UPC, with Joan A. Ruiz-de-Azua
  • Gregory F. Stock, Saarland University, with Holger Hermanns

Doctors

  • Jason Gerard, Concordia University, 2026, with Sandra Céspedes; with distinction
  • Santiago Henn, UNC, 2026
  • Gabriel Maiolini Capez, Politecnico di Torino, 2026, with Roberto Garello
  • Diego Maldonado, INSA Lyon and Inria, 2026, with Hervé Rivano
  • Camilo Rojas Milla, University of Genoa, 2026, with Fabio Patrone
  • Fernando Raverta, UNC, 2024, with Jorge M. Finochietto
  • Raydel Ortigueira, Universidad de Chile, 2023, with Sandra Céspedes

Postdoc

  • Hannah B. Pasandi, Inria, 2024–2025, with Hervé Rivano and Sylvia Ratnasamy; now at UC Berkeley

Service to the community

Companies

I co-founded D3TN U.S., which offers space-networking consultancy in the United States and where I am CEO, and Pontos, which builds AI and satellite-terrestrial networking for maritime equipment and where I am chief scientific officer.

Research of ours has also gone to Skyloom (an all-optical geostationary relay), to D3TN in Dresden (the ColdSun project for ESA, Orbitare and DARKSOL) and to Cloud&Heat (Aocloud).

Teaching

Projects

I coordinate or take part in more than 15 funded projects, worth over €7M in all, with ANR, ESA, the European Union and others. They are listed with my tools on the software page.