World record in terrestrial radio transmission

Multi-Gigabit wireless communication over the highest distances

E band transmitters with parabolic antenna. The installed integrated circuits achieve particularly high performance. (Photo: Jörg Eisenbeis, KIT)

Visual bearing from the transmitter at the Uni-Center Cologne to the Radom at Fraunhofer FHR in Wachtberg. (Photo: Jörg Eisenbeis, KIT)

Transmitting the contents of a conventional DVD in under ten seconds by radio transmission is incredibly fast – and a new world record in wireless data transmission. With a data rate of 6 Gigabit per second over a distance of 37 kilometers, a collaborative project with the participation of researchers from the University of Stuttgart and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) exceeded the state of the art by a factor of 10.

The collaborative project ACCESS (Advanced E Band Satellite Link Studies) was carried out by a research group headed by Professor Ingmar Kallfass from the Institute of Robust Power Semiconductor Systems (ILH) from the University of Stuttgart, the Institut für Hochfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE) from KIT, Radiometer Physics GmbH, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF.

The team realised the record data transmission on a stretch between Cologne and the 36.7 km distant town of Wachtberg. The stations were located on the 45-story Uni-Center in Cologne and the site of the Space Observation Radar TIRA at the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR in Wachtberg.

Further information in the Press Release 076/2016.

lg, le, 18.05.2016