The Chair

The objective of the Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications Systems at the TU Dresden is to carry out leading-edge research to advance wireless communications technology and solve industry relevant problems related to next generation wireless systems. Thorough fundamental research as well as close industry co-operations are key to the success of our projects. Wireless/mobile communications are driven by three industry branches, namely

• Network operators,
• Equipment manufacturers and
• Semiconductor manufactures.

with each branch having a different view on problems and solutions. Each of these viewpoints are addressed in our research ensuring that the results have practical relevance and significance. The Vodafone Chair thus welcomes industry contacts and partnerships to help meet this objective.

The chair's current focus lies on physical layer research, with a special emphasis on wireless radio network problems (wireless networks capacity), wireless modems (baseband algorithms), RF imperfections and IC implementation architectures. Of particular interest are problems and solutions, which are found in a tradeoff between these focus areas. The large variety of projects and work performed at the chair also aims at encouraging graduates to start their own companies.

The chair actively aspires to increase the share of women at the Technical University Dresden. We are proud that women represent 20% of our staff including PhD students, lab engineers, Postdocs, Project Managers as well as two female group leaders. There is a high diversity among our female staff, who come from all over the world and from very different backgrounds.

The chair was founded in September 1994 by an endowment of Mannesmann Mobilfunk GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany. After the acquisition of Mannesmann Mobilfunk by Vodafone Group Ltd. in 2000, the chair changed its name to Vodafone Chair. We would like to thank Vodafone not only for its continuing commitment, but also for providing valuable technical and business insights during our repeated interactions.

The goal of research is to provide solutions for challenges in the design of next generation mobile communications systems. By carrying out high-end research on physical layer systems as well as hardware architectures, the chair closes the gap between baseband algorithms and hardware (RF and IC) implementation issues. Advanced software engineering tools together with highly developed methodologies are enabling capabilities to realize integrated solutions for our partners.

The topics addressed by the system level group range from network deployment, sectorization and power control, to strategies for efficient coordinated multi-point (CoMP) communication and scheduling. New concepts and algorithms developed in this group will improve spectrum and energy efficiency as well as network capacities for radio transmission.

The algorithms and coding group specializes in study of the impairments of RF-hardware and the corresponding baseband compensation algorithms, as well as novel error correcting coding techniques.

The hardware and tools group focuses on architectures for modem signal processing. Ongoing research comprises heterogeneous multi-processor SoCs, including programming paradigms, load distribution strategies, system interconnect and programmable system components. In addition to this, the design methodology and tool framework dedicated to design, implementation and exploration of low-power, flexible, high-performance SoCs is developed.