Development Trends within the Telecommunications Industry: a Study Based on Scientometric Data

Introduction. Modern telecommunications have made significant strides in the development of research relating to wired and wireless networks, at the intersection of artificial intelligence technology (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and the creation of smart cities. An analysis of the literature reveals that researchers either focus on a single type of communication or study several technologies within the telecommunications industry and limit themselves in the number of reviewed countries. These limitations result in a lack of broader studies of communication types and technologies, thus making this work increasingly relevant. This research aims to study and analyze publications from the global scientific community in the field of telecommunications and determine the prospects for the development of the telecommunications market. Methods. The analysis uses universal databases such as Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and the Russian Science Citation Index. The search was conducted using publication titles as well as abstracts and keywords. The analysis was conducted as of November 20, 2019. The field of research within telecommunications has been divided by the type of communications and by cross-cutting technologies. The study utilizes methods of observation, analysis, review, and generalization. Results and Discussion. The study includes an analysis of the publications related to telecommunications that can be found on Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and the Russian Science Citation Index. It also features a ranking of countries based on the number of publications. A more detailed analysis has been conducted for the areas and topics of telecommunications that featured the most publications. The leading countries have been identified for various topics and areas. The analysis has revealed that Scopus contains a much higher number of telecommunications publications than the other two databases. Conclusion. The authors have conducted an analysis of scientometric parameters for a range of technologies and subtechnologies. They have discovered that mobile networks received the highest number of dedicated publications. Within the sphere of mobile networks, the most attention was given to 5G technologies. IoT is a new area of research that is quickly expanding. Within the study of IoT, smart cities have garnered the most interest for publications. China and the USA are the leading countries in the number of publications on the analyzed topics. Russia is among the top three leaders in publications related to information security.