Communication networks: a test of strength

rabiakhatun

Western manufacturers have left the Russian market and equipment supplies have ceased, Rostelecom President Mikhail Oseevsky stated on April 26 at the Telecom: Transformation of Business Models and Search for New Solutions forum. However, there is no shortage of base stations, and therefore no problems with network overload, thanks to the reserves that have been formed.

Every fifth base station operating today was purchased in 2020–2021, when operators were actively investing in infrastructure, said Maksut Shadayev, head of the Ministry of Digital content writing service Development. Last year, slightly fewer were purchased due to rising prices.

Vitaly Shub, a leading researcher at the Skoltech Project Center for Applied Photonics and Quantum Technologies, assessed the needs:

The Russian telecom market needs from 4G base stations per year




According to the minister, mass production of domestic base stations for telecom will be created within two to three years. The first samples with Russian software will appear in 2024, and their trial operation on an industrial scale will begin in 2025, Mikhail Oseevsky reported.

Today, LTE base stations are being developed at Skoltech, and the creation of the first sample of a fifth-generation base station (5G) was completed in April.

Vitaly Shub, Skoltech:

– Skoltech's 5G BS has been transferred to an industrial partner for pre-serial production. The first installation batch is scheduled for release this year.

The stations will be manufactured by the Eltex company from Novosibirsk. Production plans are not disclosed, but according to preliminary estimates, up to 100 units of equipment may be manufactured in 2023. This will be followed by a large-scale launch of pilots in operator networks in the largest cities of Russia.

When the first working prototype of a domestic LTE base station appears in one or two years, it is unlikely that operators will be able to use it in large networks deployed in megacities, says Alexander Grigoriev, Vice President for Network Management and Regional Technical Development at VimpelCom. According to him,

Russian developers have a long way to go before they reach a level comparable to that provided by the already deployed foreign equipment

The head of Rostelecom spoke about other domestic developments for communications infrastructure. The operator signed a contract with the Russian manufacturer T8 for the supply of telecommunications equipment for spectral channel multiplexing for the backbone network and has a number of other agreements.

Mikhail Oseevsky, Rostelecom:

- We have signed forward contracts for the creation of hardware and software systems (HSS) with two major players - Yadro and the Bulat company. The latter should have software at the end of next year. The second area is the refinement of the mobile communications network core, and the Protei company has been chosen as a partner here.