Nokia adds German uni to 5G research ecosystem

With World+Dog working to define their technologies into standards, build their 5G patent books ahead of the anticipated rush, and try and work out what 5G's use-case will be, Nokia has tapped Germany's University of Kaiserslautern to help its 5G research efforts along.

The company says the university will be working on network architectures for the 5G world.

In its canned announcement, Nokia says the ideal for the future is for the many layers of 5G networks to be managed as one.

That's something akin to ordering the molecules in an Eton Mess: the 5G world wants to absorb the WiFi of the future, new air interfaces of its own, high bandwidth for mobile video users, zero latency connections for control networks, and support for billions of “Internet of Things” sensors (that last one meaning a good business case for servicing devices that generate very small amounts of billable traffic).

Hence, Nokia says, “5G networks will have to be programmable, software driven, and managed holistically”.

The university says its aim will be developing a “novel* and highly efficient network architecture” (*”novel” being an almost-obligatory code word meaning “patentable”).

In particular, Kaiserslautern will set its boffins and boffins-to-be on developing architectural components to serve the Internet of Things. ®