The IHP's Wireless Systems and System Architectures departments research and develop solutions for wireless high-end systems.
By splitting up the System Design department, which has grown rapidly since it was founded, the Wireless Systems and System Architectures departments, each with two research groups, emerged in 2020.
The System Architectures department strategically focuses on two important topics: "Design and Test Methods for Digital Circuits" and "Wireless Broadband Systems". The group of "Design and Test Methods for Digital Systems" examines fault-tolerant computer systems for very demanding applications such as space travel or automated driving. The Radhard design methodology is also important due to the relevance for one of the strategic application fields for the IHP. Finally, this research group actively pursues current research topics such as electro-photonic interfaces, neuromorphic computing and artificial intelligence (AI). The activities of the group "Wireless Broadband Systems" relate to 5G and Beyond 5G communication systems. Important topics of the IHP are primarily ranging and localization, which can be achieved with cooperative time-of-flight methods and non-cooperative radar methods. Another goal is high data throughput, whereby wireless links with 100 Gbit / s and more are aimed for.
The Wireless Systems department consists of the two groups “Wireless Sensor Networks and Middleware Platforms“ and „Total Resilience“. The “Total Resilience” group has a matrix structure i.e. a part of the resilience topics are investigated in other departments. Both groups investigate complex cyber-physical systems of systems (CPSoS). The department is following a holistic approach starting from the development of hardware accelerators for cryptographic operations via concepts for the design of sensor nodes and communication protocols to realizing selected example applications. The investigations are addressing all application fields in which resource constraint devices are used in a network, these are the Internet of Things (IoT), e-health, Industry 4.0, agriculture 4.0 and environmental monitoring. Thus, energy efficiency, security, reliability and resilience are the core research topics. The group Total Resilience researches questions concerning metrics for resilience, how to test the level of resilience achieved, as well as methodologies for developing resilient CPSoS.