Vodafone Germany said the Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications Systems at the Technical University of Dresden, led by Professor Gerhard Fettweis, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. The chair was originally endowed by Mannesmann, in 1994. On the occasion of the anniversary, a 5G laboratory will be inaugurated at the university. The lab has already achieved wireless transmission speeds of 5 Gbps, it said. A total of EUR 500 million have been raised by Fettweis over the past 20 years, it said. A few months ago, Vodafone introduced LTE Advanced in Dresden, operating at capacity of up to 225 Mbps. Fettweis has overseen nearly 250 undergraduates and almost 70 PhD students.
Vodafone said the lab offers specific facilities where researchers can test and evaluate a wide range of 5G technologies. These include network hardware and software, computer chips, spectrum, and cloud computing.
Fettweis said today, mobile communications is all about moving content from one place to another but tomorrow it will be about being able to control a vast array of objects in real time with little human intervention. To get there, one needs to rethink wireless communications, particularly with regard to data rates, latency and IP services.
Luke Ibbetson, Vodafone's head of research and development, said 5G is in the very early stages of development but it is important to invest the time and effort to really understand the technology. There are several years of research ahead of us and Vodafone looks forward to working closely with Dresden and its other partners around the world to build a technical foundation for the next generation of mobile communications.
