The wireless communication technology 4G LTE was introduced in Germany in 2010 for the purpose of meeting the increasing requirements of our smartphones' Internet-based applications. Even though the potential of this new technology has not yet been entirely exhausted, the 5G standard is already under development and is expected to be available as early as 2020.

Besides improving data rates by up to 10 GBit/s, the G5 standard is aimed towards completely new applications, which are supposed to open up additional markets for wireless communication. Its main advantage over a landline remains to be the widespread availability and the resulting mobility.

Concepts related to this topic include but are not limited to:

• Sophisticated Internet of Things and M2M Communications, connecting mobile sensors, actuators and cameras to the Internet via IPv6
• Tactile Internet in order to control actuators or drones in real-time directly via mobile networks
• Ultra Reliable Communications for the control of vehicles, traffic control systems, as well as applications in the medical sector

These types of applications place completely new and, in part, very different requirements on data rate, latency, traffic density and availability of wireless networks. The major challenge of standardizing the 5G consists in meeting all of the different requirements via one unifying standard. Related technical developments in the sector mobile communications thus remain innovative and exciting fields — including research and study.

As a result of this, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology has made mobile communications into one of the focus subjects in the specialization field "Information and Communications Technologies" (IKT) of the Bachelor's program "Electrical Engineering and Information Technology" as well as for our Master's program "Control, Computer and Communications Engineering". Furthermore, developments in the mobile communications sector are integral parts of the following laboratory courses:

• Wireless Systems and Mobile Communication Technologies (Funksysteme und Mobilkommunikation)
• Communication Systems 1 & Communication Systems 2 (Kommunikationssysteme 1&2)
• Digital Communication Technology (Digitale Kommunikationstechnik)
• Information transmission (Informationsübertragung)
• Signal processing (Signalverarbeitung)

The Nanoelectronics research group is developing more energy-efficient circuitry for mobile communications.