FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE FOR OPEN COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

When it comes to activities such as fighting forest fires, monitoring construction sites or providing multimedia services at sports and other mass events, a reliable, secure 5G campus network is often needed locally and temporarily to ensure maximum network coverage on the entire site. Thanks to the 5G+ Nomadic Node from the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS, this kind of non-public, temporary network can be set up at short notice in order, for instance, to connect emergency forces with each other or control firefighting robots remotely. The entire hardware and software fits into a couple of mobile server rack containers. The operation of the adapted 5G mobile network with a satellite connection will be presented at the Hannover Messe 2022 from May 30 to June 2 at the joint Fraunhofer booth in Hall 5, Booth A06.

The ACM Mile-High Video (MHV) presents an annual Best Video Blog Post Award. Among the 23 nominees, the post “Common pitfalls in MPEG-DASH streaming” by Daniel Silhavy, Stefan Pham and Mariana Avelino took third place this year. In their blog, the scientists from Fraunhofer FOKUS regularly report on the latest research results in interactive media applications.

At the beginning of the year the flagship project CampusOS was launched. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) with 18,1 million euros over the next three years. The Fraunhofer Institutes HHI and FOKUS are coordinating the project. The goal of the project is to build a modular ecosystem for open 5G campus networks based on open radio technologies and interoperable network components. This will create vendor independence and enable more competition and innovation to empower the digital sovereignty of companies in Germany. To this end, 22 partners from industry and research are testing different operating models, developing reference architectures, and evaluating the interoperability and performance of integrated solutions in reference test areas. Beyond that, they are testing selected scenarios as prototypes in an industrial environment.

Europe's prosperity and competitiveness are largely based on technologies such as information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, or the use of new or improved materials such as polymers, metals, or alloys. However, Europe is often dependent on non-European countries in these areas. In the recently published study “Key enabling technologies for Europe's technological sovereignty” both key technologies and key elements for Europe's technological sovereignty were defined and analyzed on behalf of the European Parliament. Scientists from Fraunhofer FOKUS collaborated on the study.

Quantum technology promises to fundamentally change areas of information processing and transmission. But what opportunities and risks exist through quantum computing and quantum communication, in short, through quantum ICT? What course must be set now in order to be competitive and confident with regard to quantum ICT? The white paper on the topics of quantum computing and quantum communication from the Competence Center for Public IT (ÖFIT) at the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS addresses these questions and would like to make a contribution to ensuring that the step toward value creation succeeds.

More public safety and security through simulations of urban infrastructure: In January 2022, the newly founded Fraunhofer Center for Security of Socio-Technical Systems SIRIOS in Berlin started operations. In comprehensive research and development projects, it bundles the competencies of four Fraunhofer institutes. The aim is to set up a research, test and training environment for security authorities, rescue services and operators of critical infrastructure over the next four years. There, complex security scenarios can be simulated, experienced virtually and tested in real life. The direct participation of citizens should also be made possible, e.g. by assessing the subjective sense of security.