MIEM HSE Creates Telecommunications Research Institute
The institute will conduct fundamental and applied research in the development, analysis, and application of communication technologies with their subsequent commercialisation, as well as train development engineers for the telecom industry. Professor Evgeny Koucheryavy, Director of the MIEM Telecommunications Research Institute, has spoken to the HSE News Service about the goals, objectives, strategy and structure of the new organisation.
Evgeny Koucheryavy
Current Challenges in the Telecom Industry
The telecommunications field has changed radically in recent decades. Today, specialists face complex tasks in ensuring communication not only among people, but also between devices and systems that are not directly controlled by humans. This includes complex technologies such as autonomous robotic systems and platforms for land, air, underwater and space application. Communication today is a much broader concept than it was before, and it brings together various fields of knowledge and practice, including, for example, artificial intelligence (AI) and its trusted models.
The importance of the telecommunications industry as a whole has increased significantly, both for business and for the state. Today, scientific organisations have an opportunity to offer their developments to the industry so that they can be implemented into products that will function directly to ensure the operation of communication networks in Russia.
Planned Research Activity and the Commercial Component
In our case, these commercial products will comprise technologies developed in the form of a license or a set of patents, know-how, layouts, and prototypes that the customer can develop for mass production.
Even now, the institute's staff has laid considerable groundwork, because telecom technologies are one of the main, basic educational disciplines at MIEM. We have highly qualified specialists, scientists in this field, as well laboratories that deal with telecommunications tasks. We work on consolidating research work in the telecom field, building proper interaction between laboratories and research groups.
Ultimately, this will help us strengthen commercial offers for various sectors, the communications industry, and the state. The formation of a proprietary and relevant commercial offer is a strategic goal of the new division. Another research area concerns requests from the real sector of the economy. It is quite difficult and expensive for many companies engaged in the development of mobile communications to solve knowledge-intensive tasks on their own. It is often economically and organisationally expedient to delegate this task to a university. Today, our partners include leading telecom companies (YADRO, T2), as well as a number of companies working in such areas as the Internet of Things and the industrial Internet of Things.
Next-Generation Communication as a Strategic Area of Research
The media is now starting to hype up sixth-generation networks, 6G, since there are no standards yet—only a general understanding of the main characteristics and target scenarios for using networks of this generation. At the 3GPP meeting in March 2024 in Maastricht (the Netherlands), a 6G standardisation schedule was set. The first release of the 6G set of standards is expected by the end of 2028 or early 2029. The approved schedule provides for the start of commercial deployment of 6G networks in 2030. Therefore, 6G components developed in accordance with 3GPP standards will not be tested until 2027 at the earliest.
For 6G networks, the development of new electronic components is the most important task, especially when implementing high-frequency radio interfaces that were not used in previous generations of mobile communications. When the components are developed to a certain level, the developers proceed to solving problems related to ensuring the interaction of components with each other and building a communication system. Our institute has already been actively involved in the development of electronic components and layouts in the field of 6G.
Training of Development Engineers and a New Master's Programme
Software engineers trained under existing educational patterns solve tasks in a relatively narrow framework from the point of view of companies developing communication systems. Basically, this involves the software implementation of previously developed protocols and algorithms, but we lack developers who can create these protocols and algorithms, understand what a communication system is, and issue tasks to programmers. Their training is the most important area of our activity. In the next academic year we plan to launch a master's programme that will train developers specifically for the telecom industry in the interests of domestic manufacturers of the relevant equipment.
We have created a research institute inside an educational institution. Therefore, the staff of the institute includes not only scientists and researchers, but also students, whom we involve in project work and practical and research tasks, while laboratories and workshops will become part of the educational process. Doctoral students will be engaged in scientific and practical developments, teaching students, and solving research problems.
Academic Supervisor of the Institute
‘The world of modern technologies—the world of cyberphysical systems—is entirely based on the availability of stable communication. Therefore, the unification of a wide range of areas at MIEM, representing the telecommunications field in one way or another, is an inevitable and necessary stage in the development of the institute as an advanced centre of digital technologies. The existing research potential of MIEM, its scientists, laboratories, and students is the foundation that allows us to contribute to solving the most important scientific tasks facing the telecom industry in Russia today.’