Prof. Dr. Tobias Hoßfeld

Research

The research methodology of the Chair of Communication Networks is based on theoretical approaches and models as well as practical implementations and evaluations using real systems. The research topics can be summarized in the measurement, modeling, evaluation and improvement of Internet applications and technology in order to solve real-world problems. Typical web, cloud and smartphone applications for end users but also for enterprises are considered. On one hand, the focus is on the Internet and communication technology; on the other hand, the research focuses on the people who use these applications and for whom this technology is made available. Our research includes the evaluation and modelling of the Quality of Experience (QoE) subjectively experienced by the user. The QoE concept considers both the application and the network to ultimately improve the user experience and includes QoE modeling, QoE monitoring and QoE management, e.g., by mapping objectively measurable technical parameters to QoE. A further resarch topic lies on Smart City and IoT applications, which are designed for the improved life of people in cities by collecting and intelligently evaluating sensor information, for example from road traffic or defects in transformer stations. Among other things, 5G technology and complementary energy-efficient technologies such as LoRA are being researched to support these applications for 100 million sensors. A further goal is the investigation of communication with real-time requirements (time-sensitive networking, TSN), for example in industrial applications in manufacturing or in networked vehicles. For this purpose, the programmability of networks and network elements (software defined networking, SDN) is used and researched in addition to network virtualization or the outsourcing of services to the (edge-) cloud. The goal is to implement flexible, adaptive and programmable networks that allow intelligent autonomous network management, for example by using machine learning methods and big data approaches to handle the gigantic amounts of data in networks. 

Research questions: 

• How can Internet applications and technology be designed, improved and evaluated in a human-centric way?
• How can the availability of devices, resources and services be ensured at all times?
• How can transmission times and quality of service in networks for mission critical applications be guaranteed?
• How can flexible, adaptive and programmable networks be implemented?
• How can such complex systems be evaluated and analyzed from the perspective of all actors?

The current fields of research include

• Multimedia applications and Quality of Experience (QoE) 
• Smart City and IoT applications 
• Real-time communication in Industry 4.0, in smart factories, in networked vehicles
• Software defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualizaiton (NFV)
• 5G technology and energy-efficient communications like LoRA

Further details on the "Research" page.