Advancing the development of the sixth generation of mobile communications while providing decisive impetus for its transfer into applications such as industrial automation and logistics – that is the goal of the new project “6GEM+: Wertorientierte 6G-Kommunikationssysteme für die vernetzte digitale Industrie.” It will start in January 2026 under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Haris Gačanin from RWTH Aachen University. Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University are also involved. The location spokesperson in Bochum is Prof. Dr. Aydin Sezgin, and in Dortmund, Prof. Dr. Christian Wietfeld. Other project partners include the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML.
Through innovative technologies and close cooperation with industry, “6GEM+” aims not only to improve the efficiency and reliability of communication systems, but also to open up new application possibilities in various sectors. The project will receive €25 million in funding over four years from the “6G-Transfer-Hubs” funding program of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR). The five partners are pursuing the goal of overcoming the limitations of the current mobile communications standard and ushering in a new era of networked communication.
The current 5G mobile communications standard needs to be further developed in order to promote the use of mobile technologies, AI computing, and extended reality in industrial applications. In particular, integrated AI computing and real-time transmission, extremely low latency, and high reliability are important requirements that cannot be fully met by 5G systems. The “6GEM+” transfer hub has set itself the goal of actively addressing these challenges.
Building on previous project
The research team can build on the work of the previous project, “6GEM,” which was also funded by the federal government until June 2025 and has established itself in recent years as a leading international research hub for the key technology 6G. Since 2021, TU Dortmund University and Ruhr University Bochum, which are jointly participating in the Excellence Strategy as the Ruhr Innovation Lab, have been working here on innovative technologies and their transfer in order to contribute to a sustainable and resilient society and industry in the digital age.
Bochum's focus areas
Ruhr University Bochum's focus in the project is on significantly advancing 6G applications such as reliable collaboration between humans and robots, immersive extended reality experiences, and sustainable, energy-efficient communication services. These applications are the focus because they are becoming increasingly important in production and logistics and require reliable, secure, and responsive networks. To enable robots to interact with each other and with humans in a predictive and safe manner, to ensure that extended reality applications function without delays, and to make mobile communication systems more economical despite rapidly growing data volumes, Ruhr University Bochum is developing innovative concepts based on information theory. These include resilient communication and sensing methods that detect and mitigate disruptions at an early stage and enable rapid recovery, as well as AI-native telecommunications architectures with digital twins that optimally combine computing and radio resources. This is complemented by technologies that enable better coverage and lower energy consumption. The concepts developed will then be verified experimentally in specialized laboratories at the faculty and in the ZESS research building.
In Bochum, Prof. Dr. Aydin Sezgin from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology coordinates the research team led by Prof. Dr. Katharina Kohls, Prof. Dr. Setareh Maghsudi, Prof. Dr. Akash Kumar, Prof. Dr. Nils Pohl, and Prof. Dr. Tarik Taleb.
Press contact:
Prof. Dr. Aydin Sezgin
Digitale Kommunikationssysteme
Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Tel.: +49 234 32 29849
E-Mail: aydin.sezgin(at)ruhr-uni-bochum.de
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