New Sino-German Mobile Communications Institute in Berlin

Six weeks ago the "Sino-German Joint Software Institute" in Beijing was opened. Now the second wing of the Sino-German research establishment is in place in Berlin. International research teams at the new Sino-German Mobile Communications Institute will be working on new transmission technologies for tomorrow's mobile communications.

The days in which cell phones were used strictly as a telephone are definitely over. Cell phones these days can already be used to send pictures, videos or short music clips. In order to prevent the transmission of huge amounts of data from clogging up the airwave traffic, researchers at the new Sino-German Mobile Communications Institute intend to develop more powerful network technologies.This research aims at increasing transmission rates at the lowest possible power requirements, thereby minimizing radiation while enlarging spectral efficiency. The latter is a measure of how much information can be sent along each bandwidth. Spectral efficiency values can also be improved through novel antenna systems. Up until now, cell phone antennas transmitted the signals targeting a specific frequency range in all directions. Multiple antenna systems allow signals to be bundled which are in the direction of the subscriber's actual location. In this way, more channels are made available for data transmission. The costs for each transmitted bit are lower and acceptance of broadband multimedia services would certainly rise. A further field of research pursued by the new institute is new network concepts: while mobile transmission takes place via a network of antennas at fixed locations, temporary ad-hoc networks can be set up using appropriate technologies. Such temporary networks can be used, for example, for car-to-car communication in vehicle fleets.
Improved transmission quality and utilization of the frequencies available is essential to the development of new terminal units and services. Possible applications for the next generation of cell phones are being researched at the recently opened affiliate Sino-German Joint Software Institute in Beijing.Contact:,Dr. Wolf von Reden,Phone +49 (0) 30 / 3 10 02-3 30 ,E-mail: [e-mail]
Fraunhofer Institute for,Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut , HHI,Einsteinufer 37,D-10587 Berlin,

Countries

China, Germany