The Department of Mobile Radio Systems headed by Prof. Thomas Kürner deals with different facets of radio transmission. The research fields of the department include planning and optimization of mobile radio systems and infrastructure networks, multi-gigabit communication at THz frequencies, and vehicle-to-X and intra-vehicle communication. Current research insights show that the application fields are increasingly interconnected.
The core of any wireless transmission system is the deep understanding and knowledge of propagation and channel characteristics. Our core competencies in this area include "Wave Propagation and Radio Channel Characterization", "Realistic Simulation Scenarios", "Link Level Simulation" and "System Level Simulation". Here, we develop realistic simulators for mobile radio systems that take into account radio measurements and channel modeling.
In this area of application, we conduct research on the new mobile communications standard 5G in the 5GLabBraWo project and develop a possible expansion and use cases for the model region. Among other things, a "digital twin" of the Braunschweig-Wolfsburg model region is created. In perspective, optimization and classification algorithms are to be implemented and tested on the basis of these models. The investigation of a coexisting operation between 5G and already existing radio networks is also part of this application area.
Since 2004, the Mobile Communications Systems Working Group has been working on information transmission at THz frequencies.
The advantage of THz frequencies is that they are not yet assigned to specific services and offer large band widths for future applications where large amounts of data have to be transmitted in a short time. The focus at IfN lies on measuring wave propagation and the simulation of the physical layer.
A major focus of the department continues to be vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-x (V2X) communication. In our research, we develop a simulation framework for realistic simulations of arbitrarily complex scenarios. One of the big questions is under which conditions a certain packet error rate can be achieved.
SiMoNe has been developed independently in the Mobile Communications Systems department since 2014. It enables simulations with a large number of individual mobile users with different mobility models, such as for vehicles or users in buildings. For more about SiMoNe, have a look at our Research.
Since 2016, we have been using the world's first MIMO Channel Sounder for THz frequencies to metrologically test our data. For more information, visit our research page.
The group is internationally positioned – involved in international projects inside and outside Europe as well. Since 2010, Prof. Thomas Kürner has chaired the IEEE 802.15 Standing Committee THz (formerly THz Interest Group) and from 2014–2017 he chaired the IEEE 802.15 Task Group 3d, which developed the first wireless standard at 300 GHz. He is the project coordinator of the EU-Japan-Horizon 2020 ThoR in the area of THz Backhaul/Fronthaul Links and of the DFG Research Unit FOR 2863 Metrology for THz Communications. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and since 2016 he has been a member of the EurAAP Board of Directors.