Prospects of satellite technologies in IoT market were discussed by Panel participants within RWHT 2020

A Panel on the Place of Satellite Technologies in IoT Market was held online within Russian Week of High Technologies. The event was organised by the Russian Satellite Communications Company on the initiative of the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz).

"2020 has shown how important communications are for us, how important they are where there is only satellite communication. Therefore, its development and maintenance requires special attention”, - said in his greeting to the Panel participants Head of Rossvyaz Oleg Dukhovnitsky. “Satellite communication is now the main type of international and national communications for long and medium distances. The active development of the Internet of Things segment implies the introduction of embedded technologies in modern communication networks".

In Russia, the implementation of this direction is envisaged in the framework of the creation of a multi-satellite system "Marafon IoT/M2M", which is part of the subprogramme "Sfera" developed by Roscosmos. Evgeny Buidinov, Deputy General Director of the Russian Satellite Communications Company, told about the prospects of satellite technologies on the IoT market in Russia and worldwide. According to the Russian Satellite Communications Company estimates, from 100 thousand to 1 million devices will be served through satellite systems in Russia by 2030.

The territory of our country is huge, and only a third of it is currently covered by cellular networks, so Russia is promising for connection via satellites, Evgeny Buidinov said. He presented projects of architecture of satellite Internet of Things. Among the factors constraining the development of the IoT satellite component, Evgeny Buidinov named the uncoordinated frequency resource of IoT satellite operators, unavailability of Russian-made satellite devices and a number of others.

Scientific Consultant of Radio Research and Development Institute Viktor Strelets focused on the issues of standardization of IoT technologies. In Russia the sphere of IoT standardization is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology of Rosstandart. National standards for IoT as well as industrial IoT and sensor networks have been approved. According to Viktor Strelets, the inclusion of satellite communication technologies in the roadmap of through digital technology is important.

Deputy General Director of Visat-Tel Valentin Anpilogov presented a multi-satellite low-orbit data transmission system "Marafon IoT", which currently includes 264 satellites with direct access and data collection from specific IoT devices. The most promising areas of application of the Marafon IoT system are logistics, social services, ecology and nature protection, pipeline control, technical control of power grids, agriculture, meteorology, etc.

Personal satellite communications and data transmission systems have no future on the IoT market, says Valentin Anpilogov. New IoT satellite systems that are competitive in cost and parameters should be developed.

Alexander Kuzovnikov, Deputy General Designer for the development of space systems, general design and control of spacecraft of M.F. Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems, continued to speak about the Marafon IoT system. He announced the project on the Marafon spacecraft creation and touched upon the issues of its serial production organisation.

The discussion was also attended by Vladimir Valkovich, Director for Strategy and Long-Term Planning for Development of VympelCom Network, Alexander Salman, General Director of ES-PAS OOO (Kineis representative in Russia), Sergey Pekhterev, shareholder of Ka-Internet AO, Oleg Mentus, Deputy Director of Research and Development Center for Space Systems, Maksim Diordiyev, Head of the Application of Satellite Systems Directorate of SS Gonets, Alexey Dyachenko, Leading Expert in Satellite Network Development of MegaFon, and Ivan Kosenkov, Senior Project Manager of the Cluster of Advanced Production Technologies, Nuclear and Space Technologies of Skolkovo Foundation.

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO