DLR - Institute of Communications and Navigation

Research:

Satellite Communications

Satellite communications takes a pioneering role in the introduction and enabling of many communication services. It became the initial enabler of transcontinental telephony. It is widely used for television broadcasting, and has significantly contributed to the introduction of digital television. Today, Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) are widely used to network company premises and to backup terrestrial connections. In all of these applications, the terminals are essentially fixed. However, an increasing number of mobile applications is emerging as well, from broadcasting, through telephony to messaging.

Optical Free-Space Communications

The topic of optical free-space communications evolved as early as the development of the laser in the 1960s. After the invention of optical fiber its application was mainly expected in space, where it shows its main advantages such as low weigh and small size terminal, large bandwidth and low power consumption.

Aeronautical Communications

The aeronautical communications systems in use today have become somewhat old-fashioned. They still use 25 kHz analog, open channel, speech transmissions, with spoken handover commands, and a manual tuning of the synthesizer! Recently the channel spacing has been reduced to 8.33 kHz in order to maintain operability until 2013.

Multisensor Navigation

Satellite navigation works pretty well in the open field. In other outdoor environments the performance of satellite navigation may suffer from degradation due to multipath and shadowing. This holds especially in urban canyons. In indoor environments satellite navigation may even fail due to large attenuation and blockage of signals. In order to enable navigation also in these environments other sensors are being considered.

Satellite Navigation

In the global deal, concluded on December 6th, 2005, the concessionaire consortium agreed that Oberpfaffenhofen will host a Galileo Control Center (GCC) and a Performance Evaluation Center (PEC). This - together with the strong Galileo activities in Bavaria and Germany in general - is the context for the Institute’s activities.

Communications Systems

Transportable Optische Bodenstation (TOGS)