Dr. Ralf Irmer is Chief Innovation Architect at Vodafone Germany. He is driving innovation where 5G and new technology can revolutionize business verticals – such as railways, automotive, industry production, robotics, drones etc. Before joining Vodafone Germany for the spectrum auction in 2015 Ralf was 10 years in R&D at the global Vodafone Headquarters in Newbury, UK. Here he had initiated and led the first 5G programme within Vodafone and was for example one co-author of the NGMN white paper on 5G. Ralf holds a PhD from Dresden University of Technology and has co-authored more than 40 papers and holds numerous patents.

The presentation gives a status of the 5G rollout of Vodafone in Germany. The operator started in July 2019 as first operator in Germany. Specific focus is on 5G pilots showing the potential of 5G. Consumer examples are the first 5G augmented reality demonstration in a football stadium and skiing for blind people leveraging low latency networks. Examples of successful 5G pilots for enterprises are 5G teleoperated trains, vulnerable road user detection for cars and 5G factory for electric cars. The presentation will highlight technology elements such as MEC, New Radio, beamforming and flexible core architecture.