NTT Research and Development 2007 Review of Activities

2006 Symposiums/Forums Schedule (arranged chronologically)

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NTT R&D Forum 2007

NTT laboratory groups have always held their own separate R&D forums in the past, but this year for the first time three laboratory groups joined forces for NTT R&D Forum 2007 dedicated to the theme "Towards a Communication Future Focused on People and the Earth".

Held at the NTT Musashino R&D Center on February 8 and 9, 2007, this year's forum drew 4,255 participants for the biggest turnout ever. In addition to keynote speeches, special lectures, and other presentations, the forum featured more than 100 technology exhibits, including much new R&D supporting the Next Generation Network (NGN) trials and many working demonstrations. In addition, the NTT History Center of Technologies at the NTT Musashino R&D Center was also open for the two days that the forum was in progress. The History Center chronicles NTT's many achievements and contributions going back to earlier days when NTT was a public monopoly (Denden Kosha).

NTT R&D Forum 2007 was an unqualified success. It gave the participants a good firsthand look at NTT's steady progress on technologies implementing the NTT Group's Medium-Term Management Strategy and other core technologies under development, and also provided an excellent opportunity to gather valuable comment and discuss NTT's service vision for the future with the participants.

NTT President Norio Wada
delivering the keynote address

Thematic exhibits at this year's forum

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Ambient Intelligence Symposium 2006

NTT Communication Science Laboratories hosted the Ambient Intelligence Symposium 2006—The Future: A Tapestry Woven from the Treads of Intelligence at Harajuku Quest Hall in Tokyo on September 22, 2006. During the first half of the symposium, Director of the Laboratories Yoshinobu Tonomura gave the opening address introducing the issues, followed by presentations by five well-known authorities dealing with various aspects: Professor Ikuo Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo, philosopher and critic at large Hiroki Azuma, Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University, Professor Shinsuke Shimojo who participated by video hookup from the California Institute of Technology, and Eisaku Maeda, Executive Manager of the Laboratories. This was followed in the second half of the symposium by a panel discussion among five of the speakers—all except Professor Shimojo in California. More than 230 people attended the symposium. The discussions were extremely animated, as were the questions and answers after the talks. As future visions and issues brought about by ICT* are moving from science and engineering into the realm of sociology, all kinds of new concerns that go well beyond initial considerations are coming to the fore. For example, the significance and implications of free will, environmental management of society, anonymity, and other concerns within a framework of ambient intelligence are now beginning to be actively debated and discussed. A video of the proceedings was put up on the Internet after the symposium, and the site was visited by more than 3,000 people. For more detailed information about the symposium, please refer to the December issue of the NTT Technical Review (Vol. 4, No. 12, 2006, pp. 64- 69), or the Ambient Intelligence Symposium website at http://www.kecl.ntt.co.jp/KCS2006/. There are plans to publish a book about ambient intelligence in the near future, and much of the content of this symposium will be included in the book.

• * ICT: Information and Communication Technology

Poster for Ambient Intelligence Symposium 2006

Panel discussion at the symposium
(from left to right: Dr. Tonomura, Prof. Takeuchi, Dr. Azuma, Prof. Ishiguro and Dr. Maeda.
Prof. Shimojo participated by video and can be seen on screen in the upper right).

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4th Core Technology Symposium

The Core Technology Symposium has been organized and hosted by the NTT Cyber Communications Laboratory Group every year since 2004 to enhance the Group's presence in its areas of primary interest—its core competencies—and to activate research.

The 4th Core Technology Symposium met at the Hitotsubashi Memorial Hall, National Center of Sciences Building in Tokyo on October 31, 2006 to address the theme "The Next Generation Cyberspace Capable of Connection between Person and Robot". Two panel discussions on network robot technologies were held that brought together some of the leading authorities in cutting-edge robotics, a cartoon scenario writer known for his visionary insight into future robot societies, and other panelists. A demo session was also performed at the hall that showed off some of the latest actual technology relating to network robots. The symposium was well attended with more than 300 participants, and succeeded well in its goal of introducing people to the current state of technology to generate a society organized by people and network robots.

Panel discussion at the symposium

Technology exhibits at the symposium

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Tsukuba Forum 2006

NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories hosted the two-day Tsukuba Forum 2006 on November 9 and 10, 2006 dedicated this year to the theme "Meeting the Explosive Growth in FTTH—proposed measures to achieve smart and simple optical access networks". This year's forum featured a host of new proposals and exhibits in 64 different categories representing the latest research on optical access networks coming out of NTT's three R&D laboratories. Optical access networks technologies "to improve work efficiency, simplify construction", "to improve efficiency, simply operation", and "to expand FTTH through creation of attractive new service" are indispensable and hold the key to the full-scale rollout of the optical age. Representatives from 118 companies from across the industry and from within the NTT Group took part in the forum, and got an excellent overview of the latest optical access network technologies. While exhibits and displays were set up in the NTT Tsukuba R&D Center, papers and presentations were delivered by high-caliber presenters at the Tsukuba International Congress Center (Epochal Tsukuba), including a keynote address by Tetsuo Koga, Senior Executive Vice President of NTT East and a special invited presentation by Yasuyoshi Katayama, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Networks of NTT West. The two-day event was hugely successful and very well attended with over 11,000 visitors and participants.

Tetsuo Koga delivering keynote address

Exhibits at the Tsukuba Forum

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Start of NGN Field Trials

NTT is now constructing an all-optical, IP-based Next Generation Network, the first of its kind in the world, and began extensive NGN^*1 field trials on December 20, 2006. The trials will verify key aspects and capabilities of the NGN including end-to-end quality control, IP multicasting, ability to prevent unauthorized access and other security capacities, application interaction, open connectivity, and other functions.

Scheduled to run for about one year, the field trials are being conducted in the greater Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas and will be carried out in three phases. In the first phase, NOTE^*2 showrooms were set up in four locations—Otemachi, Umeda, Musashino, and Yokosuka—to explain and demonstrate NGN technology to visitors. In the second phase, NTT Group employees will actually test the NGN in Tokyo and Osaka, and finally in the third phase, ordinary customers will try out the NGN in the same test areas. Before the field trials began, interface conditions between the NGN and other companies' networks, user terminals, and application servers were publicly disclosed. In addition, numerous partners were recruited from among consumer equipment manufacturers, service providers, carriers, and other kinds of companies in order to have a wide range of interests participate in the trials.

• *1 NGN: Next Generation Network
• *2 NOTE: NGN Open Trial Exhibition

NOTE Otemachi showroom

Field trial in progress

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