Digitale Transformation und Souveränität künftiger Kommunikationsnetze
Digital transformation and sovereignty of future communication networks
Motivation
Communication systems are the central system of a digital economy and society. To be able to shape the digital future, it is important for Germany as a business location to be technologically sovereign. An important contribution to digital and technological sovereignty is to define and appropriately implement the complex security requirements in future communication networks for core components and critical systems. The discussions on the deployment of the 5G network have highlighted the high relevance of key technologies in the field of mobile communications. In order to act in a sovereign manner, it is important that Germany and Europe play a key role in shaping technology development and do not merely deploy technology. In shaping the technological foundations of 6G, it is crucial that Germany takes a strong role to act at the forefront of the international research that is already underway. In doing so, it is important to strengthen the cooperation of all relevant players.
Goals and Methodology
The project Digital Transformation and Sovereignty of Future Communication Networks (6G-life) aims to conduct cutting-edge research for future 6G communication networks. To this end, fundamental questions about data transmission and distributed computing resources in the network are to be answered. This represents an alternative approach to centralized data centers. In addition, to meet the challenges posed by increasing data volumes on the Internet and the resulting rapid rise in energy consumption, new theoretical communication principles are being investigated with which energy consumption does not increase at the same rate as data volumes. This contributes to the sustainability of the network. The expected human-machine collaboration applications will require highly flexible communication platforms. The flexibility is often created by an increasing share of software. To prevent the resulting opportunities for attack, the 6G-life project is developing concepts for network security that can also withstand attacks from quantum computers. Another focus is on accelerating the response speed of the network through new software and hardware approaches, but also through faster sensors and actuators. It is also investigating how wireless technologies can be used for sensing the environment. The developed technologies are not only demonstrated in test platforms, but are also available to companies for early 6G experiments.
Innovations and perspectives
The results of the 6G-life project will stimulate industry and the start-up landscape in Germany through positive showcase projects. This applies in particular to the areas of robotics in Industry 4.0 and assistance systems in medicine and healthcare. The technologies developed provide important building blocks for the future 6G standard. Cooperation with companies also strengthens the transfer of knowledge to industry. In addition, the project is training future specialists for 6G ecosystems. Digital and technological sovereignty in Germany will be strengthened in the long term.
