The Future of Wireless

Matching the motto of the panel discussion »The Future of Wireless« the 17th Wireless Congress demonstrated the possibilities that modern communication technology already offers today to shape our future.

As a live conference in which all participants communicated with each other via the Internet, the Wireless Congress 2020 connected speakers and participants across continents and time zones. The program, which was extended to three days, made it possible to integrate participation in the Wireless Congress into the working day via computer - whether from the office or the home office. The wireless experts were also able to use the chat function and video conferencing in the networking area to exchange information during the three days of the congress. The digital platform of the Wireless Congress offered speakers, exhibitors – EnOcean, Hy-Line Communication and Sierra Wireless – and participants opportunities to make new contacts and refresh existing contacts. Participants could post questions to the speakers in a separate Q&A chat. They were answered in a special »Session Panel Discussion« at the end of each session.

Wireless Will Continue to Conquer New Fields of Application

The quest for more bandwidth and the utilization of higher frequencies is driving wireless researchers worldwide. Insights into current and future research projects were provided by the three keynote speakers: Joseph Barry, Analog Devices, Dr. Josef Blanz, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, and Prof. Dr. Nils Weimann, University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). They highlighted the potential of new and improved wireless technologies. Wireless communication will penetrate into areas and enable applications for which radio seems unsuitable today, e.g. where fast control, high availability and robustness or sensor technology is required.

5G, Wi-Fi 6, Mioty and More

Among the major topics of the 17th Wireless Congress were 5G and Wi-Fi 6, LPWAN technologies, Bluetooth and the still young Mioty radio protocol. For the first time, the Wireless Congress dedicated an entire session to the topic of Mioty. Other future topics were discussed in the sessions Industrial and Technology, Security and Low Power Communication.

Günter Grundmann, VdS Schadenverhütung, made it clear in his keynote speech that radio communication also has to meet basic conditions, e.g. in order to be used in the security sector. Further framework conditions are provided by the European Commission, among others.

In a Compliance session, the congress participants learned about the implementing measures currently being worked on by the Commission – in the course of the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU - and the consequences SMEs fear.

Wireless – »A Unique Combination of Extremes«

The 17th Wireless Congress: Systems & Applications was opened by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Sikora, Offenburg University of Applied Sciences. In his welcoming address, he listed four things that fascinate him about the world of wireless communication. Four things that he describes as »unique combination of extremes«:

1. It is commercially very successful with many standardized and mature products, but at the same time it is very experimental to new technologies and research directions,

2. it makes use of advanced silicon technologies and at the time it is a major driver for these investments,

3. it is a truly global community working on new protocols like 5G or the next generation 6G, with a clear shift from Europa and US to Asia, but at the same time it preserves a lot of regional specifics,
   and:
4. it is basically a physical layer specification, only, but has a major impact on the architectures and applications.

The 17th Wireless Congress – for the first time over three days and for the first time digitally organized and transmitted on the Internet - ended with the conclusion: Digital communication technology offers mature and reliable possibilities to exchange information in a pandemic – but it cannot replace the personal experience and discussions on the fringes of a traditional congress. The upcoming 18th Wireless Congress will therefore be planned again as a conventional congress with exhibition on November 10 and 11, 2021.