What is the tactile internet?

The communication networks have in the last decades developed from a pure telephone network and the internet to mobile devices. The future applications, such as driverless cars, interactions in virtual worlds or energy-saving energy networks require even better networks. Until now, communication networks have only transmitted speech, audio, videos or general communications data. In the future, the business and private lives shall be controlled and alleviated by the Internet of Things (IoT) – and all this in real-time.

To this purpose, research is conducted on the fifth generation of mobile networks 5G. The 5G Lab Germany team at the Technische Universität Dresden, an interdisciplinary group of more than 500 researchers from 20 different research areas work on technologies that will enable 5G. The communication network must deliver higher data throughput, enhanced security and better network reliability. The biggest change will be the massive reduction in latency i.e. the time lag.

In order to guarantee tactile internet, meaning data transfer in real-time, latency has to be reduced from currently 50 milliseconds to 1 millisecond. The infrastructure of the communication network will also change, since the amount of mobile devices will increase and will be controlled by the Cloud. While today, there are few Cloud providers at certain locations, in the future Cloud solutions will be offered together with the communications network.