The telephone hangs on the twin-wire line, television on the coaxial cable, and the Internet is received via WLAN - many building networks are no longer up to date in view of growing mobility and ever larger data volumes. How can Germany make its networks faster and more secure?

This is the question addressed by the project "F2NET - Structured Fiber Radio Networks in Buildings," which is coordinated by the Center for Semiconductor Technology and Optoelectronics (ZHO) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). Thirteen partners from industry and science are involved. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is funding the project proportionally with around 125,000 euros from the Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM).

One network for all

By integrating the transmission media "fiber" and "radio", the advantages of optical communication networks (high bandwidth, interference and eavesdropping resistance) are combined with those of radio-based networks (mobility, no interference with existing building fabric). Data rates of at least one gigabit per second should be possible.

Other topics the project team is working on include security in home networks and in industry, fiber-optic networks for digital schools, and smart homes. The field of autonomous driving is another future market for fiber-optic wireless systems. Important building blocks for this are the planned fiber-optic expansion in conjunction with private data and communications networks in buildings and homes.

Contact: Irina Jäger, Andreas Stöhr