Research Profile

The name Jörg Eberspächer is closely associated with research in the field of telecommunications networks and systems. The main focus of his work is on architectures for future optical and mobile networks, technologies for the Internet, applications of communication technology, and the societal aspects of information technology.

In 1990, after 13 years in leading positions in industry with research on broadband networks, local area networks and intelligent networks, he was appointed to the newly established Chair of Communication Networks at the Technical University of Munich. The boom in communication technology (mobile communications, the Internet, etc.) also shaped his broadly based research and teaching. His work focused in particular on the development and analysis of novel switching methods and systems for optical and wireless networks, self-organising networks, and methods for planning highly reliable networks, as well as on the application of network technologies, for example in vehicles.

Jörg Eberspächer served for three years as Chair of the Information Technology Society (ITG) within the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE), which awarded him honorary membership in 2006 and named him an ITG Fellow in 2018. From 2002 to 2005, he was Dean of his faculty. From 1999 to 2010, he held a visiting lectureship at the Sino-German College for Graduate Study (CDHK) at Tongji University, Shanghai.

He places particular emphasis on interdisciplinary dialogue on new information technologies, to which he has been committed through his work in Münchner Kreis e.V., the VDE, and the two national academies Leopoldina and acatech. For many years, Jörg Eberspächer has been actively involved in the support and mentoring of students and early-career researchers, among others through the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM), which he co-founded, as Chair of the support association EIKON e.V. of the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology, and as a member of the Foundation Council of the Lothar and Sigrid Rohde Foundation. From 2015 to 2024, he served as Deputy Speaker of the TUM Senior Excellence Faculty.

 

Academic Career

1965–1970	Studies in Electrical Engineering, University of Stuttgart
1971–1977	Research Associate at the Chair of Communications Engineering, University of Stuttgart
1976	Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, University of Stuttgart
1977–1990	Senior position in research and development, Siemens AG
1990–2012	Full Professor (Chair) of Communication Networks, Technical University of Munich
2015–2024	Deputy Speaker of the TUM Senior Excellence Faculty

 

Memberships

• Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA (since 1990)
• Member of Münchner Kreis e.V., a non-profit association for communications research (since 1991); Chair of the Research Committee (1993–2014)
• Co-founder and Member of the Board of the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM), Munich (since 1998)
• Member of the Board (1997–2002) and Chair (2000–2002) of the Information Technology Society (ITG) within the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE)
• Visiting Professor, Tongji University, Shanghai, China (2000–2012)
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste (WIK), Bad Godesberg (2000–2019)
• Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), Berlin (2003–2015)
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS), Berlin (2002–2014)
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the Deutsches Museum, Munich (2005–2016)
• Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 2005)
• Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Lakeside Labs, Klagenfurt, Austria (2008–2017)
• Chair of the Alumni and Supporters Association EIKON e.V. of the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (since 2008)
• Member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) (since 2009)
• Member of the Foundation Council of the Lothar and Sigrid Rohde Foundation (2017–2024)

 

Research Projects

• Coordinator of the DFG Priority Programme 1102: Adaptivity in Heterogeneous Networks with Wireless Access (2000–2006)
• Contributor to the DFG Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio TR-28: Cognitive Cars – Kognimobil (2005–2010)
• Participation in various research projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (2003–2012)

 

Awards and Honours

• Oskar von Miller Prize of the Deutsches Museum, Munich (2004)
• Honorary Member of the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE) (2006)
• Society Award of the Information Technology Society (ITG) within the VDE (2012)
• Fraunhofer Medal of the Fraunhofer Society (2015)
• Appointment as Fellow of the Information Technology Society (ITG)

Explanatory notes on awards and honours can be found here  (PDF-file, 251 KB).

 

Key publications

Eberspächer, J., Kiese, M., Wessäly, R.: “Optimization of Communication Networks.” In: Production Factor Mathematics, eds. Grötschel, M. and Mehrmann, V., 2010, pp. 139–156.

Hanka, O., Spleiß, C., Kunzmann, G., Eberspächer, J.: “A Novel DHT-Based Network Architecture for the Next Generation Internet.” In: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Networks, ed. Dini, P., 2009, pp. 332–341.

Eberspächer, J., Vögel, H.-J., Bettstetter, C., Hartmann, C.: GSM – Switching, Services and Protocols. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Nagel, R., Eichler, S., Eberspächer, J.: “Intelligent Wireless Communication for Future Autonomous and Cognitive Automobiles.” In: Proceedings of the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), ed. IEEE, 2007, pp. 716–721.

Eberspächer, J., Schollmeier, R.: “First and Second Generation of Peer-to-Peer Systems.” In: Peer-to-Peer Systems and Applications, eds. Steinmetz, R. and Wehrle, K., 2005, pp. 35–56.