The researchers at MAKI have shown that even impressive scaling can work. “Communication systems can be thought of differently and even much more adaptively than they currently are,” emphasises MAKI spokesperson Professor Ralf Steinmetz. The already existing, multi-layered infrastructure of the Internet can be used very intelligently and flexibly thanks to the possibility of transition.

For example, over the course of twelve years, sub-projects of the Collaborative Research Centre covered research topics such as live streaming, software-defined networking (SDN) and efficient hardware solutions. Today, topics such as artificial intelligence, edge computing and the Internet of Things are central components. “We have shown that transitions and system-wide adaptations are often of great benefit,” says Steinmetz, summarising the success of MAKI.

Many, sometimes very different factors make the research highly complex: What kind of transition is possible – and does it even make sense? When is a transition carried out? How should which data be transferred? “There are distributed systems with very different bandwidths and given delays, and the system has to adapt to this. In addition, you can't transfer all content at once,” explains Steinmetz.

One MAKI sub-project, for example, focussed on time-sensitive networking (TSN): For time-critical applications in Industry 4.0, it is necessary for certain data to reach its destination within a certain time. Otherwise, there is a risk that the entire production process will come to a standstill. The MAKI researchers have shown that transitions can be used to maintain or expand factory networks in order to prevent machines that are not affected from having to be switched off.