Sustainable
Communication
Networks
Our Vision
Our vision is a sustainable, science and technology supported future for all of us: humans, animals and nature. Our goal is to improve life conditions for all, step by step, together.
We believe Internet of Things technology paired with efficient and light-weight intelligence can address numerous hard problems in climate change adaptation and environmental protection. We are dedicated to improve the performance of IoT in general and to extend its applications to under-represented use cases.
Our Core
To achieve our goals, we follow three principles:
Research
Excellent research based on open science and highest scientific conduct to create new knowledge and to go new ways.
Teaching
Research oriented teaching based on modern methods to support our students to excel.
Community
Team work and community service to achieve more than the sum of our contributions.
Research Areas
Sustainable Internet of Things
For the Development Goals: Agriculture, Environmental Monitoring, Public Health and many more applications can profit tremendously from the IoT technology; become more resource efficient and precise.
Resilient Internet of Things
Resilient Internet of Things maintain their operations and their quality of service under harsh real world conditions and adapt to those. The individual components self organize to best serve their applications.
User-friendly Internet of Things
Applications are the key to broaden IoT acceptance independently from the cultural, linguistic, or educational background of their users.
Publications
ComNets is driven by a strong tradition of rigorous and impactful research in communication networks, embedded systems, Internet of Things, wireless sensor systems, and sustainable technologies that address real‑world challenges. To get a comprehensive impression of the research, please explore Prof. Anna Förster’s Google Scholar profile.
Featured Projects
CRUST meets RESPECT
CRUSTmeetResPECT, funded by the DFG, enhances resilience in IoT networks of energy-constrained devices by combining CRUST’s application management with ResPECT’s transactional model. Tasks are split into weighted transactions, guiding devices in decision-making while optimizing energy use. Holistic anomaly detection adjusts these weights, improving system reliability and efficiency, supported by efficient storage and communication for practical deployment.
Agri-Connect
Agri-Connect is a multidiscliplinary, international research and teaching project financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It has started in 2026 and it organises annual events in the cutting edge between ICT and agriculture. We target to connect researchers and practitioners from various disciplines and to foster collaboration and joint projects to address the Sustainable Development Goals.
MoleNet
MoleNet focuses on Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSNs), enabling sensor deployment in areas where above-ground installation is difficult, such as agriculture, environmental monitoring, or smart cities. The project addresses challenges like harsh underground conditions, variable signal propagation, and the need for long battery life. It covers hardware design using low-energy microcontrollers, software and algorithms for communication and data collection, and field deployment to evaluate performance and optimize power management. MoleNet also offers opportunities for students to contribute through projects, theses, or student jobs in hardware development and programming.