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Principal Research Scientist
Andres Garcia-Saavedra is a Principal Research Scientist at NEC Laboratories Europe. His research applies fundamental mathematics to real-life computer communications systems, both wired and (especially) wireless, with a long-standing focus on resource allocation, energy efficiency, low-delay communications and virtualized radio access networks. His current work extends these questions to non-terrestrial networks, where satellites must host communication infrastructure under severe bandwidth, energy, thermal and radiation constraints: goal-oriented semantic communication with generative AI for efficient data delivery over satellite links, soft-hardening of commodity payloads against radiation-induced faults, and orbit-resolved dimensioning of regenerative payloads. Across all of it, he particularly enjoys building real prototypes and carrying out experimental performance evaluations of protocols and communication systems.
Group Involvement, NEC Laboratories Europe
Space and Terrestrial Systems
Publications
- Marco Palena, Jose A. Ayala-Romero, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Carla Fabiana Chiasserini. SPIFF: Selective Preservation of Image Fidelity for Bandwidth-constrained Heterogeneous Networks. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2026
- S. Pavan Deram, M. Rossanese, A. Garcia-Saavedra, S. Waqas, V. Sciancalepore, J. Widmer, X. Costa-Perez. RISENSE: Long-Range In-Band Wireless Control of Passive Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces. In ACM MobiSys, 2025
- N. Apostolakis, M. Sierra-Obea, M. Gramaglia, J. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Fiore, A. Banchs, X. Costa-Perez. Quantum Computing in the RAN with Qu4Fec: Closing Gaps Towards Quantum-based FEC processors. In ACM SIGMETRICS, 2025
- E. Sanchez Hidalgo, Jose A. Ayala-Romero, J. X. Salvat Lozano, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. AegisRAN: A Fair and Energy-Efficient Computing Resource Allocation Framework for vRANs. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2025
- J. X. Salvat, J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. Kairos: Energy-Efficient Radio Unit Control for O-RAN via Advanced Sleep Modes . In IEEE INFOCOM, 2025
- F. Aslan, J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, G. Iosifidis. FairRIC: Real-time Fair Allocation in O-RAN with Shared Computing. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2025
- Girma M. Yilma, Jose A. Ayala-Romero, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Xavier Costa-Perez. TelecomRAG: Taming Telecom Standards with Retrieval Augmented Generation and LLMs. In ACM CCR, 2025
- F. Mungari, C. Puligheddu, A. Garcia-Saavedra, C. F. Chiasserini. O-RAN Intelligence Orchestration Framework for Quality-Driven Xapp Deployment and Sharing. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2025
- L. F. Abanto-Leon, A. Krishnamoorthy, A. Garcia-Saavedra, G. H. Sim, R. Schober, M. Hollick. Radio Resource Management Design for RSMA: Optimization of Beamforming, User Admission, and Discrete/Continuous Rates With Imperfect SIC. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2024
- L. Lo Schiavo, G. Garcia-Aviles, A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Gramaglia, M. Fiore, A. Banchs, X. Costa-Perez. CloudRIC: Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) Virtualization with Shared Heterogeneous Computing. In ACM MobiCom, 2024
- F. Aslan, G. Iosifidis, J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. Fair Resource Allocation in Virtualized O-RAN Platforms. In ACM SIGMETRICS, 2024
- L. Lo Schiavo, J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Fiore, X. Costa-Perez. YinYangRAN: Resource Multiplexing in GPU-Accelerated Virtualized RANs. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2024
- F. Mungari, C. Puligheddu, A. Garcia-Saavedra, C. F. Chiasserini. OREO: O-RAN intElligence Orchestration of xApp-based network services. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2024
- O. Adamuz-Hinojosa, L. Zanzi, V. Sciancalepore, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. ORANUS: Latency-tailored Orchestration via Stochastic Network Calculus in 6G O-RAN. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2024
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, L. Lo Schiavo, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. Mean-Field Multi-Agent Contextual Bandit for Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation in vRANs. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2024
- E. S. Hidalgo, J. X. Salvat, J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Li, X. Costa-Perez. MemorAI: Energy-Efficient Last-Level Cache Memory Optimization for Virtualized RANs. In IEEE ICMLCN, 2024
- A. Shastri, A. Garcia-Saavedra, P. Casari. Indoor Millimeter Wave Localization using Multiple Self-Supervised Tiny Neural Networks. In IEEE Communications Letters, 2024
- Marco Rossanese, Placido Mursia, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Vincenzo Sciancalepore, Arash Asadi, Xavier Costa-Perez. Design and validation of scalable reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. In Computer Networks, 2024
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. Risk-Aware Continuous Control with Neural Contextual Bandits. In AAAI, 2024
- Pau Baguer, Girma M. Yilma, Esteban Municio, Gines Garcia-Aviles, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Marco Liebsch, Xavier Costa-Pérez. Attacking O-RAN Interfaces: Threat Modeling, Analysis and Practical Experimentation. In IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, 2024
- M. Rossanese, A. Garcia-Saavedra, A. Lutu, X. Costa-Perez. Data-driven Analysis of the Cost-Performance Trade-off of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in a Production Network. In ACM CoNEXT, 2023
- N. Gholian, M. Rossanese, P. Mursia, A. Garcia-Saavedra, A. Asadi, V. Sciancalepore, X. Costa-Perez. A Leakage-based Method for Mitigation of Faulty Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces. In IEEE Globecom, 2023 .
- J. X. Salvat, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Li, X. Costa-Perez. AIRIC: Orchestration of Virtualized Radio Access Networks with Noisy Neighbours. In IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2023
- Esteban Municio, Gines Garcia-Aviles, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Xavier Costa-Pérez. O-RAN: Analysis of Latency-Critical Interfaces and Overview of Time Sensitive Networking Solutions. In IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, 2023 .
- J. Xavier-Salvat, J. A. Ayala-Romero, L. Zanzi, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN) Experimentation Platform: Design and Datasets. In IEEE Communications Magazine, 2023
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, G. Iosifidis. EdgeBOL: A Bayesian Learning Approach for the Joint Orchestration of vRANs and Mobile Edge AI. In IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 2023
- S. Tripathi, C. Puligheddu, S. Pramanik, A. Garcia-Saavedra, C. F. Chiasserini. Fair and Scalable Orchestration of Network and Compute Resources for Virtual Edge Services. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2023
- M. Rossanese, P. Mursia, A. Garcia-Saavedra, V. Sciancalepore, A. Asadi, X. Costa-Perez. Designing, building, and characterizing RF switch-based reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. In ACM WiNTECH, 2022
- L. F. Abanto-Leon, A. Asadi, G. H. Sim, A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Hollick. RadiOrchestra: Proactive Management of Millimeter-wave Self-backhauled Small Cells via Joint Optimization of Beamforming, User Association, Rate Selection, and Admission Control. In IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2022
- S. Tripathi, C. Puligheddu, S. Pramanik, A. Garcia-Saavedra, C. F. Chiasserini. VERA: Resource Orchestration for Virtualized Services at the Edge. In IEEE ICC, 2022
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, G. Iosifidis. EdgeBOL: Automating Energy-savings for Mobile Edge AI. In ACM CoNEXT, 2021
- G. Garcia-Aviles, A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Gramaglia, X. Costa-Perez, P. Serrano, A. Banchs. Nuberu: Reliable RAN Virtualization in Shared Platforms. In ACM MobiCom, 2021.
- J. Martin-Perez, K. Antevski, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Li, C. J. Bernardos. DQN Dynamic Pricing and Revenue driven Service Federation Strategy. In IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 2021.
- A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez. O-RAN: Disrupting the Virtualized RAN Ecosystem. In IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, 2021.
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, G. Iosifidis. Bayesian Online Learning for Energy-Aware Resource Orchestration in Virtualized RAN. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2021.
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, I. Khalid, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, G. Iosifidis. Experimental Evaluation of Power Consumption in Virtualized Base Stations. In IEEE ICC, 2021.
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Gramaglia, X. Costa-Perez, A. Banchs, J. J. Alcaraz. vrAIn: Deep Learning based Orchestration for Computing and Radio Resources in vRAN. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2021.
- F. W. Murti, J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, G. Iosifidis. Optimal Deployment Framework for Multi-Cloud Virtualized Radio Access Networks. In IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2020.
- L. Zanzi, V. Sciancalepore, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, G. Agapiou, H. D. Schotten. ARENA: A Data-driven Radio Access Networks Analysis of Football Events. In IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 2020.
- L. Zanzi, V. Sciancalepore, A. Garcia-Saavedra, H. D. Schotten, X. Costa-Perez. LACO: A Latency-Driven Network Slicing Orchestration in Beyond-5G Networks. In IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2020.
- P. Mursia, V. Sciancalepore, A. Garcia-Saavedra, L. Cottatellucci, X. Costa-Perez, D. Gesbert. RISMA: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces Enabling Beamforming for IoT Massive Access. In IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2020.
- Sergio Gonzalez-Diaz, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Antonio de la Oliva, Xavier Costa-Perez, Robert Gazda, Alain Mourad, Thomas Deiss, Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Paola Iovanna, Stefano Stracca, Phillip Leithead. Integrating Fronthaul and Backhaul Networks: Transport Challenges and Feasibility Results. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2019.
- J. A. Ayala-Romero, A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Gramaglia, X. Costa-Perez, A. Banchs, J. J. Alcaraz. vrAIn: A Deep Learning Approach Tailoring Computing and Radio Resources in Virtualized RANs. In ACM MobiCom, 2019.
- David M. Gutierrez-Estevez, Marco Gramaglia, Antonio De Domenico, Ghina Dandachi, Sina Khatibi, Dimitris Tsolkas, Irina Balan, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Uri Elzur, Yue Wang. Artificial Intelligence for Elastic Management and Orchestration of 5G Networks. In IEEE Wireless Communications, 2019.
- J. Mendes, X. Jiao, A. Garcia-Saavedra, F. Huici, I. Moerman. Cellular access multi-tenancy through small-cell virtualization and common RF front-end sharing. In Elsevier COMCOM, 2018.
- J. X. Salvat, L. Zanzi, A. Garcia-Saavedra, V. Sciancalepore, X. Costa-Perez. Overbooking Network Slices through Yield-driven End-to-End Orchestration. In ACM CoNEXT, 2018.
- A. Garcia-Saavedra, P. Patras, V. Valls, X. Costa-Perez, D. J. Leith. ORLA/OLAA: Orthogonal Coexistence of LAA and WiFi in Unlicensed Spectrum. In IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 2018.
- L. Diez, A. Garcia-Saavedra, V. Valls, X. Li, X. Costa-Perez, R. Aguero. LaSR: A Supple Multi-Connectivity Scheduler for Multi-RAT OFDMA Systems. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2018.
- A. Garcia-Saavedra, G. Iosifidis, X. Costa-Perez, D. J. Leith. Joint Optimization of Edge Computing Architectures and Radio Access Networks. In IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2018.
- A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Costa-Perez, D. J. Leith, G. Iosifidis. FluidRAN: Optimized vRAN/MEC Orchestration. In IEEE INFOCOM, 2018.
- A. Garcia-Saavedra, J. X. Salvat, X. Li, X. Costa-Perez. WizHaul: On the Centralization Degree of Cloud RAN Next Generation Fronthaul. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2018.
- C. Cano, D. J. Leith, A. Garcia-Saavedra, P. Serrano. Fair Coexistence of Scheduled and Random Access Wireless Networks: Unlicensed LTE/WiFi. In IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 2017.
- A. Garcia-Saavedra, M. Karzand, D. J. Leith. Low Delay Random Linear Coding and Scheduling Over Multiple Interfaces. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2017.