Innovative Saxony
Into the future! A magazine of remarkable ideas and valuable networks
Into the future! A magazine of remarkable ideas and valuable networks
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What does the future of communication look like?<br />
Prof. Frank Fitzek wants to know just how fast data can go.<br />
His research is right on track<br />
Nearing the Speed of Light<br />
Interview Serge Debrebant<br />
Photo: Stephan Floss<br />
Prof. Fitzek, at TU Dresden's 5G Lab,<br />
you're working on the next generation<br />
of mobile communications. Can you<br />
tell us more about what that means?<br />
5G will make entirely new things possible,<br />
namely the Internet of Things. It won't just<br />
be ten billion people who are connected,<br />
but 500 billion machines as well. Moving<br />
from 1G to 2G to 3G to 4G (that's LTE) was a<br />
process of evolution. 5G, on the other hand,<br />
represents a revolution.<br />
You're looking at remote-controlled<br />
surgical robots and self-driving<br />
cars. When will these things become<br />
part of our everyday lives?<br />
The technology is already working very well<br />
in tests. But the special thing about medical<br />
robots is not that they can be controlled<br />
remotely – that technology is already<br />
available today. Many doctors are wary about<br />
using robots, as they don't allow for the<br />
haptic feedback that is such an integral part<br />
of conventional surgery. That's precisely<br />
what 5G will make possible, because the new<br />
network will transfer data in real time. So<br />
alongside the senses of sight and hearing<br />
will be the sense of touch. That's why we<br />
speak of the "Tactile Internet."<br />
CALLING CARD<br />
You said that the 5G network can<br />
transfer data in real time. How is that possible?<br />
You need an extremely quick reaction time – the technical term<br />
for it is "latency." These days, when data is transferred by LTE, it<br />
takes at least 30 milliseconds. With 5G, we want to get that delay<br />
down to just one millisecond. That will take us remarkably close<br />
to the speed of light.<br />
What are some other characteristics of 5G?<br />
It can transport a thousand times more data; it can link hundreds<br />
more devices; it's a thousand times more stable. But the extremely<br />
quick reaction time is the decisive aspect. That's what will allow<br />
us to control machines and systems in an entirely new way.<br />
Prof. Frank Fitzek holds a teaching<br />
professorship at the TU Dresden's<br />
Institute for Communication<br />
Technology. He is the coordinator of<br />
5G Lab Germany, where 500 scientists<br />
are researching and developing<br />
key technologies for fifth generation<br />
mobile networks (5G). Fitzek is also<br />
the academic spokesperson for the<br />
Smart Systems Hub, an innovation<br />
center that works on enabling<br />
the Internet of Things (see p. 5 for<br />
more). www.5glab.de<br />
Someone could cause a lot of damage<br />
by gaining control over a self-driving<br />
car. How secure would such a<br />
network be?<br />
Extremely secure. That has to do with<br />
how the 5G network is set up. These days,<br />
data – which is encrypted so it can't be read<br />
by criminals – is sent in packages and<br />
transmitted via central nodes. In the future,<br />
there will be thousands of even smaller<br />
nodes, making it much more difficult to<br />
predict what the precise transmission route<br />
will be. And data will no longer be sent in<br />
packages, but as mathematical formulae to<br />
be put together at the destination. Data<br />
thieves would have to get their hands on all<br />
those formulae in order to decode the data.<br />
That's basically impossible.<br />
What role is the 5G Lab playing in<br />
defining the new mobile standard?<br />
We have a head start of several years over<br />
other facilities and are constantly expanding.<br />
The particular advantage of our approach<br />
is that we have researchers, companies, and<br />
organizations sit down together right from<br />
the start. We regularly exchange information<br />
and ideas with companies such as BMW,<br />
Vodafone, and Deutsche Telekom. That<br />
enables us to quickly recognize the problems<br />
that arise in everyday use – and our<br />
innovations are already improving networks today.<br />
Automatic seed drills, industrial robots, self-driving<br />
cars – are technological advances making us<br />
humans superfluous?<br />
Skilled workers will remain important in the future. But the<br />
nature of labor is changing. Humans and machines will work<br />
closer and closer together. Imagine that you had to sort a box of<br />
screws. You'd show the robot how it was done, and then it would<br />
finish the job for you. Robots are good for performing routine<br />
tasks, but human beings will remain the source of innovation<br />
and ideas. •<br />
QUICK CONNECTIONS<br />
INTO THE FUTURE<br />
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