Bernhard H. Walke (born 28 July 1940 in

Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (; ; ; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.

, Upper Silesia) is a pioneer of

mobile Internet The mobile web comprises mobile browser-based World Wide Web services accessed from handheld mobile devices, such as smartphones or feature phones, through a mobile or other wireless network. History and development Traditionally, the World ...

access and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

in Germany. He is a driver of wireless and mobile 2G to 5G cellular radio networks technologies. In 1985, he proposed a local cellular

radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass media, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (teleco ...

comprising technologies in use today in 2G, 4G and discussed for 5G systems. For example, self-organization of a radio mesh network, integration of circuit- and

packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into short messages in fixed format, i.e. ''network packet, packets,'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications network, network. Packets consi ...

, de-centralized radio resource control, TDMA/

spread spectrum In telecommunications, especially radio communication, spread spectrum are techniques by which a signal (electrical engineering), signal (e.g., an electrical, electromagnetic, or acoustic) generated with a particular Bandwidth (signal processi ...

data transmission Data communication, including data transmission and data reception, is the transfer of data, signal transmission, transmitted and received over a Point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication chann ...

, antenna

beam steering Beam steering is a technique for changing the direction of the main lobe of a radiation pattern. In radio and radar systems, beam steering may be accomplished by switching the antenna elements or by changing the relative phases of the RF si ...

, spatial beam multiplexing, interference coordination, S-Aloha based multiple access and demand assigned traffic channels, mobile broadband transmission using mm-waves, and multi-hop communication. In 1991, he proposed CELLPAC for packet switching in

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

which triggered development of

ETSI The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization operating in the field of Information and communications technology, information and communications. ETSI supports the de ...

standard

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

. GPRS air-interface protocols follow a 1993 version of CELLPAC. In 1999, he proposed fixed two-hop decode-and-forward relays for cellular radio, now mandatory in standards 3GPP LTE Rel.10 and

IEEE 802.16 IEEE 802.16 is a series of wireless broadband standards written by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE Standards Board established a working group in 1999 to develop standards for broadband for wireless metropo ...

.1 (mobile broadband

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMA ...

). The relay concept triggered evolution of cellular radio architecture towards 3GPP LTE

Small Cell Small means of insignificant size. Small may also refer to: Science and technology * SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language * ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication * <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text Arts and ...

networks, e.g.

femto A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple (mathematics), multiple or submultiple of the unit. All metric prefixes used today are decimal, decadic. Each prefix has a unique symbol that is prepen ...

and pico cells operating like

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

s on radio resources provided by a donor base station. The Communications Networks (ComNets) research team in large parts designed the ETSI/BRAN HiperLAN2

medium access control In IEEE 802 LAN/MAN standards, the medium access control (MAC), also called media access control, is the layer that controls the hardware responsible for interaction with the wired (electrical or optical) or wireless transmission medium. The ...

protocol adopted by standard

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

802.16 (

WiMax Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMA ...

) and used as a baseline in

3GPP The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is an umbrella term for a number of standards organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications. Its best known work is the development and maintenance of: * GSM and related 2G and ...

LTE-Advanced LTE Advanced, also named or recognized as LTE+, LTE-A or 4G+, is a 4G mobile cellular communication standard developed by 3GPP as a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. Three technologies from the LTE-Advanced tool-kit ...

Radio spectrum The radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 3 Hz to 3,000 GHz (3 THz). Electromagnetic waves in this frequency range, called radio waves, are widely used in modern technology, particula ...

requirements for

packet-switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into short messages in fixed format, i.e. '' packets,'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets consist of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used b ...

mobile radio systems were calculated by World Radio Conference 2007 using a

queuing model Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because th ...

developed by Walke and his team. Work by Walke and his team on wireless

quality of service Quality of service (QoS) is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network, or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network. To quantitat ...

supporting multi-hop radio networks materialized in standard IEEE

802.11s IEEE 802.11s is a wireless local area network (WLAN) standard and an IEEE 802.11 amendment for mesh networking, defining how wireless devices can interconnect to create a wireless LAN mesh network, which may be used for relatively fixed (not mobile ...

. Walke earned his Dipl. Ing. (M.Sc.) degree in Electrical Engineering and Data Processing (1965) from

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

, Germany. He worked two years as a trainee with

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the ''AEG (German company), Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company"). Prior to ...

and joined Telefunken Research (1967) where he received his doctorate (1975) from University of Stuttgart. As a department head in 1983 at

AEG Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the '' Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company"). Prior to World War I, the comp ...

(later taken-over in part by

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

), he moved to

FernUniversität Hagen The University of Hagen (, informally often referred to as FU Hagen) is a public research university that is primarily focused on distance teaching. While its main campus is located in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the university ma ...

, Germany, as a professor for data processing techniques. During 1990–2007, he was professor and director of the School of Communications Networks ( ComNets) at RWTH Aachen's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology until 2017 where he was head of the ComNets Research Group.

P3 Solutions and P3 communications

In 2001, Walke, together with his ComNets colleagues Marc Peter Althoff and Peter Seidenberg and the Aachen-based

P3 - Ingenieurgesellschaft für Management und Organisation mbH The P3 Group GmbH is a management consultancy with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Based on the company's data, more than 1450 employees work for the company, generating a revenue of about 115 million euros. The P3 Group draws its clients p ...

as investor and manager represented through Michael Tobias, was one of the founders of the P3 Solutions GmbH to offer consulting services to mobile network providers and vendors and the public sector, although he didn't play an active role in the day-to-day business of the company. On 31 July 2009, the company absorbed its sister P3 networks GmbH to become P3 communications GmbH. In the 2010s, Walke sold his shares in the company. On 10 January 2019, when the holding company P3 group GmbH (the successor of the

P3 Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH The P3 Group GmbH is a management consultancy with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Based on the company's data, more than 1450 employees work for the company, generating a revenue of about 115 million euros. The P3 Group draws its clients p ...

) split into the Aachen-headquartered (which was renamed into on 25 October 2019 and firms as umlaut SE since 22 October 2020) and the newly founded P3 global GmbH based in Stuttgart (which was renamed (back) into on 20 January 2020), the core of the company stayed with umlaut and was renamed into umlaut communications GmbH. On 14 June 2021, it was announced that umlaut SE would become part of

Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...

's Industry X endeavour.

Awards

* IEEE Fellow 2016 "for contributions to packet switching and relaying in cellular mobile systems" * ITG Award 1975 (Best annual paper award of Information Technology Society in VDE (Society of Electrical Engineers) in Germany)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walke, Bernhard H. 1940 births Living people German electrical engineers Academic staff of RWTH Aachen University