Abstract

The article generalizes the global experience of research on communication geography with the goal to identify future directions of study of the spatial and temporal deployment and functioning of telecommunications networks. An original algorithm of semantic search for publications in bibliographic databases has returned about 400 articles on communication geography published in 1981–2020 in scientific journals worldwide. An analysis of these publications shows that six types of communications: fiber-optic, mobile, telephone, postal, telegraph, and satellite—have been studied within infrastructural, statistical, impact, streaming, and optimization directions of communication geography. Trends are identified using the methods of the moving average and bi-proportional indices. Linear extrapolation of trends in the number of publications by type of communications and by research directions suggests that in the future preference will be given to geographical study of fiber-optic and mobile networks within infrastructural and statistical approaches with the objective to optimize the line-nodal structure. Based on a comparative analysis of unsolved problems, it is established that the priority in future research should be given to the following meta-tasks: transferring the experience of geographical study of a given type of communications to other types; using big data of telecom operators for geographical analysis of the functioning of networks; transitioning from descriptive to constructive communication geography; identifying geographical patterns for deployment of telecommunication networks, and developing the concept of a territory telecommunications complex. The following research objects are identified as promising: machine-to-machine information exchange networks, 6G mobile communication networks, and multifunctional networks.

中文翻译：

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传播地理学的发展展望：趋势、元任务、新网络

摘要

本文总结了通信地理学研究的全球经验，旨在确定电信网络时空部署和功能的未来研究方向。对书目数据库中的出版物进行语义搜索的原始算法已返回 1981 年至 2020 年在全球科学期刊上发表的约 400 篇有关传播地理学的文章。对这些出版物的分析表明，已经在通信地理学的基础设施、统计、影响、流媒体和优化方向内研究了六种类型的通信：光纤、移动、电话、邮政、电报和卫星。使用移动平均线和双比例指数的方法来识别趋势。按通信类型和研究方向对出版物数量趋势进行线性推断表明，未来将优先考虑在基础设施和统计方法内对光纤和移动网络进行地理研究，以优化线路节点结构。基于对未解决问题的比较分析，确定未来研究的重点应放在以下元任务上：将给定类型通信的地理研究经验转移到其他类型；利用电信运营商的大数据对网络运行情况进行地理分析；从描述性传播地理学过渡到建设性传播地理学；确定电信网络部署的地理模式，并制定领土电信综合体的概念。以下研究对象被认为是有前途的：机器对机器信息交换网络、6G移动通信网络和多功能网络。