Researchers at the IKS are working in two research areas, "Wireless Communications and Sensing" and "Satellite Communications and Space Technology". The former is known for its contributions to the field of indoor positioning, where it hosts the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Location-aware Electronic Systems. The latter designed, lauched, and operated three successful satellite missions within the past few years.  

The Christian Doppler Laboratory for Location-Aware Electronic Systems investigates fundamental limitations of location-aware electronic systems - in particular radio-based, short-range indoor positioning systems - and creates and validates key algorithms and hardware designs for it. Within three industry collaborations, we investigate robust localization systems for retail scenarios, automotive use cases, and pharmaceutical production. 

PRETTY is the third satellite designed, built, and operated by the IKS. It was successfully launched in Sept. 2023. PRETTY stands for Passive REflectometry and DosimetrY and represents a 3U CubeSat hosting two scientific payloads. The main payload is a passive reflectometer, which uses already available GPS/GALILEO signals to perform Earth observing tasks. The secondary payload is a dosimeter and detects radiation levels on board the spacecraft to allow insights and gain information on the sun activity and space weather.

The Horizon 2020 Project REINDEER investigates a wireless network technology called "RadioWeaves", which combines large, distributed antena arrays with edge computing and local storage capabilities. This leads to a capacity that is scalable to quasi-infinite, offers perceived zero latency, unprecedented reliability for communication and localization, and even wireless power transfer to battery-less devices. RadioWeaves brings a large number of antennas and intelligence close to devices, offering consistently excellent service at minimal transmit power, making very efficient usage of network bandwidth and energy.