8-th International Mobile Business Forum “Evolution of Mobile and Fixed Wireless Networks” took place at Moscow Marriot Novy Arbat on May 26-27, 2016.

Representatives of the 5G PPP, GSA, the National RadioAssociation, vendors and manufactures of mobile communication equipment such as Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, ZTE, SIGFOX, Samsung, NEC, national operators VimpelCom, MTS, MegaFon, Tele2, Rostelecom, TTK, Motiv, system integrators and research organizations as Geyser-Telecom, FSUE NIIR, ITT RANS, IcomInvest and others were visited on 8-th Mobile Business Forum. In total, the Mobile Business  Forum brought together more than 10 major countries representatives from Europe and Asia. А distinctive feature of this Forum was its collaboration with the annual seminar of the Association of the National Radio Frequency Resource Users (National Radio Association) which is called "The Efficiency of Using the National Radio Frequency Resource”.

The Plenary Session of the Mobile Business Forum was devoted to the global initiatives in the field of development and prospects of 5G mobile technology standards. Following issues were discussed during the meeting: «The Analysis of Global Initiatives in 5G Development» (Werner Mohr, Chair of the Board of the 5G Infrastructure PPP Association), «Global Updates of LTE/LTE-Advanced/LTE-Advanced Pro on the Way to 5G» (Alan Hadden, Vice-President of Research, Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA)), «4G and VoLTE Services for Everyone» (Bjorn Amundsen, Vice-President and Head of Coverage, Telenor Norway), «5G -  from Vision to Reality» (Dmitry Konarev, Chief Mobile Broadband Scientist, Huawei Russia), «Recent Advances in the Development of Wireless Technology of ZTE Corporation (Tigran Pogosyan, Senior Vice President in Russia, ZTE Communication Technologies).

New horizons for wireless broadband networks development were considered on Session 1. Following thematic presentations were held during the session: «Digital Economy of Russia» (Steven Hartley, Practice Leader of Ovum's Service Provider & Markets Practice), «Evolution of Mobile Broadband Radio Access Networks and 5G Development» (Georgi Muratov, Senior Solutions Architect, Ericsson), «4.5G Generation Connects Gigabit World» (Konstantin Kolovskiy, Senior Manager of Marketing Department, Huawei Russia), «QCell Solution: the Extended Functionality of Small Cells» (Artem Loshakov, Technical Marketing Director, ZTE Corporation Russia), «5G - the Basis of Digital Transformation» (Andrey Ivanov, Consultant, Detecon).

Wireless broadband innovations were considered on Session 2. Following innovative implementation solutions were discussed during the session: «Evolution of the Core Network towards 5G&IoT» (Artem Kuznetsov, Head of Technology, Customer Unit MTS, Ericsson), «Wi-Fi Networks at the Above-Ground Transport in Moscow» (Evgeny Krekoten, Department Director of Business Development on Moscow, NETBYNET Holding), «The Use of Unlicensed Spectrum for Mobile Broadband» (Lidia Varukina, Head of technology, East Europe, Nokia).

The special session of the forum was devoted to the prospects of development of the Internet of Things growing to 20 billion of connected devices. Following technological issues and solutions were discussed: «Solutions for the Internet of Things on the Basis of LoRa Technology and ThingPark Wireless Platform. Offers for Service Providers and Enterprise Customers» (Boris Dezier, Vice President Sales & Co-founder, Actility), «LPWAN - Future Telemetry without Wires» (Andrey Sinitsyn, President, STRIZH Telematika), «Big Data in the Internet of Things Networks - Features and Сalls of Smart Cities» (Shinya Kukita, Chief Engineer, Global Business Unit, NEC Corporation), «Industrial Internet: Сommunication Networks Convergence» (Pavel Krasovsky, Expert of the Center of Strategic Innovations, Rostelecom), «Prospects for the Introduction and Standardization of NB-IoT Technologies» (Valery Tikhvinskiy. Deputy General Director, Innovative Technologies, IComInvest), «Ultra Narrow Band Technology - Innovation and Opportunity for IoT» (Thomas Schmidt, Spectrum Manager, SIGFOX).

V. Tikhvinskiy, Chairman of "Information and communication technologies” branch of RANS, Doctor of Economics, Academician of RANS, talking about "Prospects for the Introduction and Standardization of NB-IoT Technologies" focused on the following innovative features of mobile technology:

1. The emergence of demand for massive use of M2M and IoT devices in networks with low traffic generated by different applications and "All connected" business models led developers of mobile technology standards to the need of a new technology that is capable to use current LTE equipment.

2. Innovation of NB-IoT new technology is the ability to use firstly, the basic principles of OFDMA radio access technology and a radio unit of 180 kHz underlying the construction of a radio access network technology LTE, and secondly, simultaneous use of already established LTE network infrastructure, both in terms of radio access network, a part of the core network and radio resources and LTE channel networks.

3. The appearance of NB-IoT customer equipment is expected to appear on the market in 2017. It will achieve improved coverage characteristics, low production cost and low power consumption, allowing its use to 10 years off-line and service of more than 50 thousand IoT-devices per cell in one area.

Session 3 was devoted to LTE-TDD technology, which is a mobile broadband market leader.  The following topical issues were discussed: «The Technology Value of TDD which Strengthens its Market Leadership in Mobile Broadband» (Zhang Ping'an, Product Line President, Huawei), «LTE TDD Industry Worldwide News» (Ted Matsumoto, Senior Advisor, SoftBank), «LTE TDD Development Strategy in Russia» (Maxim Savvatin, Consult, iKS), «WTTx Opens a New Era of Broadband Access» (Goran Berntson. Director of TDD Industry Development, Huawei).

The special plenary session of the Forum was held by National Radio Association and it was dedicated to the peculiarities of the wireless market state regulation, and more efficient use of radio frequency resources. Following issues were discussed during the meeting: «The Current Stage and Prospects of Refarming and Conversion of Frequency Resource in Russia» (Dmitry Tur, Chief of Staff, State Commission on Radio Frequencies), «Spectrum Conversion. Status and Prospects» (Andrey Karnaukhov, Deputy Chief of Radio-Frequency Service, Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation), «Results of WRC-2015: Overview of the Most Important Decisions for Russian Wireless Market» (Igor Gurianov, Deputy Head of Scientific and Technical Center of E-signal, FSUE NII Radio (NIIR), «The Problem of Legal and Regulatory Framework of Operators’ Access to Accommodation Units» (Natalia Velikorodnyaya, Line Manager, MTC), «Radio Frequency Support of Wireless Technology for the Development of IoT and M2M» (Vadim Poskakukhin, Head of Laboratory, FSUE NII Radio (NIIR).

The session continued with two round tables:

• «How to Ensure the Voice Mobile Services and Mobile Internet to 100% of Russians?»

• «Electromagnetic Compatibility, Radio Planning and Spectrum Monitoring, and other Technical Aspects of Wireless Network Management and Operation.»

Members of the Regional Branch «Information and Telecommunication Technologies» of RAEN Valery Tihvinskiy and Vasiliy Skrynnikov participated in the 8th International Business Forum “Evolution of Mobile and Fixed Wireless Networks”.

Doctor of Economics, Academy of Natural Sciences Valery Tikhvinskiy met Werner Mohr, Chair of the Board of 5G Infrastructure Association. The results of research of Academy of Natural Sciences for 5Grus project were discussed.

Text of the report by ITT RANS «Prospects for the Introduction and Standardization of NB-IoT Technologies» (by V. Tikhvinskiy) is available upon request and on the website of ComNews.