Vol.1 No.2 (May, 2006)

Special Issue: Next Generation Network

HIROSAKI Botaro
Executive Vice President

NAKAGAWA Katsuhiro Senior Vice President
KOGAWA Hideo Associate Senior Vice President

Carriers in both Japan and overseas have shifted their Next Generation Network (NGN) deployment programs into high gear. Through NGN deployment, carriers hope to provide new services that will appeal to users and realize more secure and reliable telecommunications networks. NEC is one of the very few suppliers capable of providing these carriers with solutions that respond to their business challenges from a "total and best-fit" perspective. Fully exploiting our company's comprehensive strength in the domain of network technologies, NEC aims to be the partner that carriers depend on for their NGN deployment and is creating attractive products and services that will meet and exceed the highest expectations.

Next-Generation Transport

YOSHIKAWA Suminori, KUSANO Toshihiko

The means of broadband connections to communication carriers and service providers is shifting from metallic access using telephone lines to optical access using optical fibers that feature a high-speed data communication capability. In addition, the demand is on the increase for a triple play system, in which a single broadband connection provides telephone and broadcasting services at the same time as an Internet service.
This paper aims to provide an overview of the requirements of the optical access system of the next generation network (NGN). It goes on to review the future orientation of the main functions of the NGN and introduces some of the efforts that are being made by NEC in this field.

KONDO Seiji, IWASAKI Motoya, TAKETSUGU Masanori, SATO Toshifumi

The cellular phone system is migrating from 2G to 3G, and from the perspective of the long-term evolution of the 3G system the study of the 3G RAN Long Term Evolution (LTE) is proceeding with the aim of realizing high speed multimedia services at 30 to 100Mbps. This paper introduces the LTE element technologies of the communications methods and network architecture and the associated efforts being made by NEC.

FUJIMOTO Yoshinori, NAGATO Masaki

This paper introduces the evolution of WiFi and WiMAX, which are the 802 series BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) architectures, together with the IEEE802.11 and 802.16e standardizations trends and the solution plans of NEC.

KUKITA Shinya, NAKAMURA Shinya

The transport of the next generation network (NGN) is composed of the optical transport, core packet and aggregation networks. While the access methods and services are diversified, the costs can be reduced by integrating the transport networks. The new transport networks will create a dependable social infrastructure and at the same time play the role of a platform for the new services. NEC is continuing to study the transport issue from various angles.

Next-Generation IMS / Core Network

MISU Toshiyuki, NAKAI Shoichiro, TSUKAMOTO Katsumi
KURIHARA Hiroshi, KAYAHARA Masayuki, OKABE Toshiya

This paper discusses the next-generation IMS platform, security technology and service delivery platform (SDP). These are required components for the service platforms of the next generation network (NGN), which will form the basis for building NGN services such as the fixed mobile convergence (FMC) and communications broadcasting convergence services.

KAWAMURA Atsuo, TAMURA Toshiyuki, TSUKAGOSHI Tsutomu
HASUMI Toshiaki, WATANABE Kazuo

The IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is an IP-based communication system defined by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), which is the organization that approves standards for the W-CDMA technology. It features the capability of access connections from fixed networks as well as continuing its original purpose of enabling cellular phone access connections. This means that the IMS offers an architecture that is capable of implementing the FMC (Fixed-Mobile Convergence). NEC is implementing FMC using the IMS as well as researching the AIPN (All-IP Network) at the same time with the aim of further improving its performance.

Next-Generation Network Services

TEZUKA Hiroshi, KURODA Yuri, NOGUCHI Kiyoko
MATSUSE Makiko, OSHIGIRI Hiroshi

The progress of FMC has diversified market needs and has made it necessary to prepare service platforms to enable the provision of new businesses. This paper introduces the services infrastructures provided by NEC for supporting the newly emerging services and describes as an example, the Network Storage architecture. This product enables users to uniformly handle various kinds of data and can serve as a platform for supporting many kinds of businesses in the all-IP networks to come.

MAENO Kazutoshi

Changes brought about by the convergence of communications and broadcasting are not limited to the improvement of diversity and convenience of the services provided for end users (the general audience). It is also expected to contribute to the advancement of public and infrastructure-related services including disaster measures. On the other hand, the communications/broadcasting convergence will also lead to various paradigm shifts in the business domain by enhancing the socioeconomic foundations, and it is also expected to bring economic benefits by promoting various business models. Under these circumstances, NEC is taking the lead in catching the trends of the times and is deploying next-generation video solutions based on a total convergence of digital broadcasting and next generation networking technologies.

NAKAJIMA Teruo, KAWATA Hiroya, ITO Kazuhiro, FUJITA Satoshi

As a result of current research and the construction of the NGN, it is expected that carrier networks will shift significantly to be based in the future on IP/IMS. In order to provide profitable services on an open network, the network management system is required to provide advanced functions that are connect more directly to carrier's business management decisions. These include business management support and customer care services, as well as retaining the conventional requirements for efficient operations management functions.
This paper discusses the requirements for the network management system under the NGN and introduces some of the solutions provided by NEC.

Management Systems

TOMIYAMA Takuji

The services that are projected for the next generation network (NGN) supported ubiquitous society will characteristically develop from the service domain of the individual to include lifestyle and social infrastructure-related services at the community and society levels. The systems for processing the information that is expected to be produced as a result of these changes will need to handle more than ten thousands events per second.
Such gigantic systems processing such a massive volume of events must be provided with a new systems architecture based on innovative processing methods that differ from the conventional methods such as batch and online processing.

Professional Services

UMEMOTO Kenichi, IMAMURA Tomoyasu, TAKAHASHI Gen

The rapid advances in recent years of the broadband implementation of wireless networks, has raised the issue of service quality requirements for wireless systems to a similar level to that of wired systems. As equipment investments have increased, it is now strongly required that the system operation makes maximum use of the equipment performance and improves the user experience quality. NEC has developed the radio access network (RAN) quality improvement technique "RAN-SAITEKIKA", which makes full use of its radio access network design and optimization technology, and provides professional services in support of activities for improving user experience quality. This paper introduces the technology and achievement of RAN-SAITEKIKA together with details of its future perspectives.

SHIMADA Takakazu, NIWA Hiroki

The next generation network (NGN) which is based on linkages with both fixed and mobile communications and broadcasting services is expected to form the foundation for bringing about significant advancements in IT and Internet-related businesses. Nevertheless, the systems and technologies that support the networks are extremely advanced and complicated and the network operation and investment costs have now become a heavy burden for the carriers. This paper introduces network managed services and the outsourcing services by which networking operations are entrusted to the vendors, as potential solutions for this problem.

Standardization Trends

EGAWA Takashi, KANOH Toshiyuki

At ITU-T, international standardization of the NGN (Next Generation Network) is underway by involving various standards organizations.The aim is to build managed IP networks that guarantee QoS (Quality of Service) and security through resource management and strict user authentication, and to replace the telephone networks, the traditional communication infrastructure. This paper introduces standardization trends, describes the concept of dependability that NEC proposes, and summarizes its activities at ITU for the realization of this concept.

Special Issue: RFID

YASUI Junji
Associate Senior Vice President

HATAKEYAMA Shigeru
Manager
RFID Business Solution Center
NEC Corporation

RFID makes it possible to observe the movements of people, locations of goods, and the flow of processes, within the so-called "ubiquitous network society." The introduction of RFID into the supply chain and the standardization of RFID are taking place simultaneously. NEC is a participant in the organization in charge of standardization, and has achieved tangible results by applying the technology to its own business.We are providing solutions based on our own know-how gained through experience in offering various types of products and services.
From now onward, EPCglobal Network will provide a foundation upon which partners in the global supply chain can share their information in real-time, thereby enabling RFID to offer newly added value.

RFID-Based Solutions

SHIBATA Takayuki, TSUDA Tatsuya, ARAKI Seiichi, FUKUDA Katsumi

The keys to success in the implementation of RFID are the utilization of the data collected using the RFID technology and the establishment of an RFID implementation strategy for the future. These two issues necessitate a step-by-step implementation of RFID with a firm future perspective as well as of the technologies that supports it. As a practical means for enabling the above proposals NEC offers an RFID-Based Production Process Monitoring Solution backed by the RFID implementation and pilot expertise of the NEC Group.
This paper introduces the RFID technologies backing the solution and its future deployment perspectives.

OGASAWARA Atsushi, YAMASAKI Kentaro

The recent rise in social needs for the "safety" of various products and services have made precise quality control necessary in various fields such as for: medical care, logistics, trade and equipment management as well as for the food industry.
One of the most important parameters of quality control is the temperature. In the case of products that require temperature management, the storage temperatures have long been managed using specialized thermometers located in the storage facilities. Nevertheless, there have often been cases in which damage to the products was found only after they were delivered to consumers via various distributors and it has been difficult in such cases to precisely identify the cause of the quality degradation.
This paper introduces a solution to the above problem that uses "RFID tags with embedded temperature sensors." It will also introduce the "Temperature-Managed Traceability Starter Kit" that contributes to effective risk management by easily enabling consistent temperature management throughout transportation processes.

MATSUDA Reiko, TSUJI Toshiyuki

There is a lot of interest by customers and numerous past performances with asset management utilizing the RFID due to the ease of implementation during the start up period of the RFID market. Of the various business operations relating to asset management, the mechanisms and effects of "Inventory Taking," "Lending Management," "Location Management" and "Removal Management," which have been converted into menu items, will be introduced.

HASHIMOTO Naohisa, ISSHIKI Naoki, IGUCHI Masao
MORISAKI Mitsunori, ISHII Ken'ichi

This paper introduces the "SmartLocator," a highly accurate indoor location management system using IR-signals, and an assets location management solution based on combination of the SmartLocator and RFID. The solution is expected to improve warehouse input/output operation efficiency and it enables the effective utilization of storage spaces when it is applied to the logistics, physical distribution and manufacturing industries. In the future, at the same time as expanding marketing of the solution more widely, commercialization of an lighting tag that makes electrical works unnecessary will be advanced in order to help to further reduce the costs of these industries.

Platform Products

NOMA Katsunori, MURAKAMI Takahiro

Two years have now passed since the shipment of RFID Manager began and the RFID market has just begun. Interpreting the present market status as the phase of establishing a foothold in advance of the coming breakthrough, NEC is now beginning to see results in this field. Therefore, it is now promoting the de facto standardization of its RFID middleware. This paper introduces the efforts made by NEC for the development of this market. These include: a description of the merits of introducing the RFID Manager, details of the original function of NEC, progress in winning advantages over competitors by instant tracking of EPCglobal specifications and support for the expansion of solutions development departments and activities adopted to seek markets. An appraisal of future development perspectives is also provided.

OIKAWA Yoshinori, KAMEI Koji

Since the announcement of the "u-Japan Policy" by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, RFID has been attracting attention as one of the key technologies for pioneering the new trends toward the Ubiquitous age. The NEC TOKIN Corporation joined the RFID business as a device manufacturer from a very early stage and has since been offering products including non-contact IC cards, IC tags and RFID readers. The present issue for the industry is to develop a UHF/microwave IC tag that is suitable for application in the distribution and logistics industries. This paper describes the key technologies supporting RFID by taking as examples UHF/microwave antenna design methods and the electromagnetic wave-absorbing material Flex-Suppressor, which is used for preserving the communication range when an IC tag is attached to a metal. Some of NEC TOKIN's RFID-related products are also introduced.

Standardization Trends

TAGATO Hiroki

At EPCglobal, end user enterprises and IT enterprises are cooperating to develop technical standards on RFID technologies. The aim is to optimize an entire supply chain using the EPCglobal network, which enables enterprises to share RFID data and provides them with shared view of whereabouts and status of their merchandise flowing through the supply chain.
Since its participation in EPCglobal as the first Japanese IT vendor to take part, NEC has been developing products while contributing to developments of specifications, and has released the RFID platform middleware "RFID Manager" as a product complying with the EPCglobal standards. NEC continues to participate in technical studies and develop products that serve the construction of EPCglobal network systems.

Case Studies

FUKUDA Kenji
Assistant Manager
International Solutions Promotion Division,
NEC Corporation
(Cooperation by: Ms. Joanna Siu, NEC Hong Kong Ltd.)

RFID tags incorporating very small IC chips are being introduced in a range of settings both inside and outside of Japan, such as for SCM (Supply Chain Management) or stock control and inventory management. NEC Hong Kong is one of NEC's overseas local subsidiaries that has actively been developing RFID-based solutions from a very early stage, including an RFID based, library book borrowing management system.
This article introduces a life jacket rental management solution using RFID tags in the UHF band, which NEC Hong Kong delivered to the client in the fall of 2005.

General Papers

Juergen QUITTEK, Saverio NICCOLINI, Sandra TARTARELLI, Roman SCHLEGEL

Spam over IP Telephony (SPIT) is expected to become a serious problem in the near future. It has the potential to become an even bigger problem than email spam, because the callee will be disturbed by each received SPIT call. This paper describes a new SPIT prevention method that is effective and acceptable for the call participants because it does not affect the callee at all and limits the interaction with the caller to an acceptable minimum. As foundation for building general SPIT prevention systems with this and other innovative methods, this paper proposes a reference architecture for SPIT prevention systems.