Research Themes

Society, users and applications
In Freeband Communication the user plays a key role. It is the applications that enrich our lives, keep us in close contact with our friends and relatives, enhance the quality and efficiency of our work and make our living environment a safer place. In short, applications provide control in complex situations. Freeband develops specific applications for healthcare, the police and the media/entertainment sectors, and these demonstrate the capabilities of new communication technology and the opportunities they present. These applications increase our knowledge of user requirements and wishes.

Middleware for communication, applications and user interaction
Freeband Communication focuses on service platforms and software components that enable new generations of intelligent, wireless and broadband multimedia services. This does not only mean the mere improvement of network software, but also the development of new software components that provide new network capabilities, making sensor and context information available to domain applications. Freeband also researches how to specify applications in a technologyindependent way. This creates possibilities for using applications and information across any network, any application and on any type of device, depending on the users’ needs or preferences.

New enabling technologies
Freeband Communication develops radio and optical network technologies that will significantly increase network and transmission capacity. Besides developing standards for safe network protocols, data encryption and authentication methods, Freeband also develops optical switches, micro-electronics and cognitive radio technologies. Future radio-frequency devices must meet strict performance specifications in a small, low-cost solution with low power dissipation. Cognitive radio is a new paradigm, scanning for underutilised radio spectrum and adapting its transmission without inconveniencing other users. In the near future, ‘intelligence’ can be added to the system, so that it understands the nature of the transported information, such as video, speech or data, and chooses the best procedure and network protocol to react to the user’s intentions and requests.