Research Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS)

Company profile
"The Research Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) in the GMD is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. In honour of this jubilee, Prof. Dr. Karl Zander, the founding father of FOKUS, takes the opportunity to look back at developments and events which led to the founding of FOKUS. Ten years of FOKUS history required fifteen years of preparation. This 25-year period encompasses the breath-taking pace of development in electronic data processing and the history of the creation and evolution of new philosophies in regard to information technology together with network science and technology. The most important development was the evolution from "closed" systems, created by a single manufacturer, to "open" communication architectures based on the multi-vendor principle using standardised interfaces.
