Mobile communication plays a significant role in our daily life. Over the last three decades, mobile applications have been tremendously enhanced from voice-only over mobile broadband to applications for the mobile internet. Currently, the next generation of cellular systems, the so-called '5th Generation (5G)' is developed and the first commercial 5G networks are deployed since 2019. 5G will play an outstanding role for the Internet of Things and will redefine a wide range of industries by enabling new use cases. Meanwhile, the research for further enhancements of 5G, called 5G-Advanced, and even 6G systems has started.
This lecture will provide the technical foundation of 5G and 6G mobile communication systems. In the first part of the lecture, the fundamental concepts of the network architecture, the radio access network, and the PHY & MAC layer technologies are covered. The second part of the lecture focuses on selected topics like machine-type communication, device-to-device communication, and artificial intelligence & machine learning. Also, an outlook to future research for 6G systems will be provided. First deployments of 5G-Advanced and 6G are expected in 2026 and 2030, respectively.
The lecture will be continuously updated shifting the focus from 5G-Advanced to 6G systems over the next years.
