King’s College London will collaborate with the Universities of Dresden and Surrey to develop the technology for a superfast 5G internet connection which could allow the UK to become a world leader in digital technology, by using the internet to improve every day devices.
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, today announced an extra £45 million of research funding to develop the ‘internet of things’ as he arrived in Germany for the CeBIT 2014 trade fair. The revolutionary new technology will see the UK and Germany working together to create the next generation of mobile access. It could allow feature films to be downloaded in less than a second and every day household objects, such as kitchen appliances, mobile phones and even heart monitors to ‘talk to each other’ over the internet.
Professor Mischa Dohler, Professor Hamid Aghvami and Dr Vasilis Frederikos, from the Centre for Telecommunications Research in the Department of Informatics at King’s, will work closely with colleagues at Surrey and in Germany to develop the 5G technology, sharing their expertise in different areas.
Speaking at the CeBIT world trade fair, David Cameron said: ‘I see the internet of things as a huge transformative development - a way of boosting productivity, of keeping us healthier, making transport more efficient, reducing energy needs, tackling climate change. These are developments that could allow literally billions of everyday objects to talk to each other over the internet using low-cost, low-power chips.’
The Centre for Telecommunications Research has an excellent track record in the development of networks and was previously involved with developing the 3G and 4G systems. They will extend their expertise to the architecture of the new 5G system by making sure that all devices can be easily and securely connected. They are in the process of developing a laboratory prototype which will then be used for further research and testing.
Colleagues at the University of Dresden will collaborate with them on how the new technology will be accessed by a wide variety of devices. The Government’s chief scientific advisor is also to carry out a review into how the new technologies can best be exploited.
Professor Mischa Dohler, Professor of Wireless Communications, said: ‘The vision is to create a software defined network which can install 5G with a simple mouse click, eliminating the need for engineers to install complex systems of hardware and making the UK one of the world leaders in digital technology.’
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