The Department of Communication Systems was founded in 1986. Over the years the number of staff in Professor Kaderali`s department increased from 3 at the beginning to more than 20 and became one of the largest departments at the FernUniversität. 

It offered 23 courses in the field of modern communication technologies and cryptology, 7 for the Diploma in “Electrical Engineering”, 11 for the Master in “Systems Engineering" and another 5 for the “Bachelor in Information and Communication Technologies”. Several seminars as well as laboratories for graduate students participating in the above were also provided.

Research at the Department of Communication Systems is mainly focused on data security, privacy, high speed networks and new media in distance education. The number of dissertations which have been successfully completed speaks for the high standard of know-how in the above mentioned fields.

The following sections describe some of the projects and research carried out by the department:

• CampusSource -  An open source initiative to provide tools for learning with new media
• CampusContent - a Competence Center for Open Content supporterd by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG)
• eleed (e-learning and education) 
• FTK - Research Institute for Telecommunications
• The Learning Content Publishing System FuXML
• Crypto-Calculator

The department was not reoccupied after the retirement of Prof. Kaderali.