Dealing with the Digital Divide with 6G Technology
Professor Harald Haas, Director of Strathclyde’s LiFi Research and Development Centre, has received a Humboldt Research Award for his research achievements, enabling him to collaborate on a topic of choice with Professor Robert Schober at FAU. They will investigate the use of point-to-point free space optical (FSO) communications to provide an effective solution to the ‘digital divide’ through 6G communications.
The project will also explore THz communications on frequencies between 300 GHz and 10 THz and optical wireless communications between 10 THz and 1 PHz. They will also examine the use of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) for all potential 6G frequency bands.
According to Professor Haas, people in data-deprived areas can fall behind in the modern world. The move from radio spectrum to optical spectrum is transformational. The optical communications spectrum in the infrared region beams wireless data signals over hundreds of meters to tens of kilometers, using solar panels as both data receivers and energy harvesters.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation presents Humboldt research awards to senior researchers who have lived and worked outside Germany for at least five years; are recognized internationally as outstanding researchers in their field.
