Within the UMIC cluster (“Ultra High-Speed Mobile In­formation and Communication”), the topics range from networks to links, including, protocols, cogni­tive radios, multi-hop networks and physical layer concepts. Research does not only focus on design and implementation of key components, but also on the information theoretical bounds. We combine fundamental theoretical work with implementation aspects and experiments.

New concepts and solutions are derived at the fore­front of basic research and international standardi­zation. Prototype implementations of key compo­nents support the technology transfer to industry. Numerous contributions have been made in the past to recent wireless standards such as e.g. GSM, wireless LAN and UMTS. Present activities are ori­ented towards the future Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN). The projects are funded to a large extent by industry, the German research coun­cil DFG and the European community.

Main research targets are smart, mobile, broad­-band and low-cost systems, which provide adaptive configuration and seamless connectivity, balanc­ing between conflicting targets like data rate, radio range and power consumption by continu­ous joint optimization. A specific strength of the group is that it covers all aspects from the design of integrated circuits, signal processing algorithms and protocols up to network architectures and opti­mized resource allocation strategies.

Mathematical tools and models have been devel­oped for the optimization of wireless transmission systems at all stages of design, implementation and operation. This includes e.g., advanced tools for the development of multi-processor chips as well as sophisticated tools for the real-time optimiza­tion of the network capacity by adaptive resource allocation. Furthermore, high-end radio frequency equipment is used for experimental studies and demonstrators.