NTT Technical Review
May 2012 Vol. 10 No. 5
Feature Article: NTT R&D Forum 2012 Panel Discussion
Noritaka Uji, Representative Director andSenior Executive Vice President, CTO, and CIO, NTT

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Feature Article: NTT R&D Forum 2012 Panel Discussion

How Innovation Drives Japan’s
Development and Growth—ICTs for
New Industry Creation and Global
Competitiveness
Coordinator:– Waichi Sekiguchi, Editorial Writer, Nikkei Inc. [1]Panelists:– Norio Murakami, President, Norio Murakami
Office Co., Ltd. (former President, Google
Japan Inc.) [2]– Asako Hoshino, Corporate Vice President,
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. [3]– Noritaka Uji, Representative Director andSenior Executive Vice President, CTO, and
CIO, NTT
Abstract

During the NTT R&D Forum 2012, a panel discussion entitled “How Innovation Drives Japan’s
Development and Growth” was held on February 17. Noritaka Uji, NTT Senior Executive Vice President, participated as a panelist. This article reports on the discussion between the coordinator and panelists.

1. Introduction

2. Presentations

Sekiguchi: Last year, we experienced a terrible disaster. The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11
gave us the opportunity to think about this country
from different perspectives. In the field of industry, it
made us recognize the strengths and weaknesses ofJapan when the shutdown of component plants innortheastern Japan halted the operation of manyassembly plants in other parts of the world. Today, we
will talk about how we can boost Japan’s technicalstrengths. First, I’ll ask each panelist to make a presentation and then we’ll move on to discussion.

What the 2010s are for the Internet of Things isequivalent to what the 1990s were for the Internet
Murakami: I think that Japan and the USA are at two
opposite poles when it comes to reaction to technicaladvances. Protest by the Luddites against technological progress in the UK in the 19th century, at the timeof the industrial revolution, is well chronicled. The
Japanese also seem to have a mentality of resisting
new things, on principle––a sort of immune rejection.
When a new function is introduced in Japan, it is disabled by default. This is called opt-in in the world ofNTT Technical Review

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Waichi Sekiguchi, Coordinator

Norio Murakami, Panelist

Asako Hoshino, Panelist

Noritaka Uji, Panelist

information technology. If you want to use it, youmust enable it. In contrast, Americans are typicallywilling to try a new function and, if anything goes
wrong, take remedial measures. That is to say, a new
function is enabled by default. If you don’t want to
use it, you must disable it; i.e., you must opt out.
When we consider technical development against
these societal backgrounds, certain dilemmas [sic]emerge (Fig. 1). For example, should we seek perfection in a product at the sacrifice of the opportunity togain a foothold in the market through its early introduction? How can we strike a balance between highperformance & functionality and cost? If we pursue
the development of elemental technologies in earnest,
we may fail to achieve superiority in the overall system or platform. Japan also suffers from what is
known as the not invented here syndrome: a propen-

sity to prefer technologies developed within one’s
own company, and from the so-called monkey trap, atendency to stick with highly successful products.
Another point where Japan differs from the USA
concerns the creation of national strategies. A case inpoint is large national projects. In around the 1980s,
Japan did have such projects, namely the super LSI
project and the fifth-generation computer project(LSI: large-scale integrated circuits). Both of theseyielded some good results and also revealed somemistakes. But is it right to put an end to such national
projects? The USA has DARPA (Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency), an organization that is
strategically important to the nation. Although it isconnected with national defense, DARPA also plays
an enormous role in creating new technologies for thenation. While Japan does not need a similar

Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012Feature Article

Dilemmas in (technical) development.
- Speed vs. perfection
Should we seek perfection at the sacrifice of time to market?
- Cost (price) vs. performance, functionality, and quality
How should we strike a balance between the performance, functionality,and quality that consumers demand and the price they are willing to pay?
- System vs. elemental technologies
We must ensure superiority in the platform (create necessary mechanisms),
leaving elemental technologies to subcontractors.
Fig. 1. Dilemmas in (technical) development.

New horizon of the Internet- 1.9 billion personal computers (starting with iPads toward mobile Internet)- 5.3 billion mobile phones (from just net access toward smartphones)- Several billion TV sets (starting with AppleTV/GoogleTV toward smartTVs)- Unlimited number of devices on the smart grid:
Smart houses, smart meters, smart appliances, smart cars (plug-in hybrid
vehicles and electric vehicles), smart parking, etc.
In addition to conventional support for communication between people,
the Internet now supports communication between people and thingsand between things.
Smart grid = Internet of Things (IoT)
Fig. 2. New horizon of the Internet.

organization, its strategy for science and technology
should take the absence of an equivalent organization
into consideration.
We are now witnessing a change in the tide, in thatthe entire world is heading in a new direction. Thereis a new horizon appearing in the form of the mobile
Internet (Fig. 2). Japan blazed the trail toward
enabling Internet access via mobile phones, thereby
paving the way for smartphones. SmartTVs are
expected to make their debut this year. Personal computers are becoming even smarter. Houses and meters
are also getting smarter, with smart houses and smart
electric power meters being connected with smart


grids, which are intelligent power grids. They areushering in the Internet of Things (IoT), in which
communication takes place between people andthings, and between things, in addition to conventional communication between people. What kinds ofapplications will run on the IoT is yet to be seen,
although it is clear that the first application will be thevisualization of power consumption, followed bydemand response and demand-side management tocontrol power consumption. While some people suggest that the third application will be remote careservices for elderly people who live alone, what will
follow it is completely unknown. Mind you, we must
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be alert to the possibility that there are some cleverpeople who have already foreseen what will comenext and have begun to write code in American university dormitories. What the 2010s are for the IoT isequivalent to what the 1990s were for the Internet;
namely the decade when the Internet began to growand blossom. We should seriously consider encouraging the creation of new industries through information and communications technology (ICT) andstrengthening our competitiveness.
Engineers’ understanding of customers makes adifference
Hoshino: I’m often asked what I do in the Global
Market Intelligence Department, where I work. My
colleagues think that I’m foreseeing the future bylooking into a crystal ball. Actually, I analyze information about the world at large and provide the technical team, product development team, and marketing
team with intelligence regarding international,
regional, and local trends: how they will develop andwhat actions we should take.
Let me start with two examples of charismatic chief
executives. The first is Steve Jobs, one of the cofounders of Apple. He is famous for having been antimarket-research. For example, on the day he unveiled
the Macintosh, a reporter asked him what type ofmarket research he had done. Jobs replied, “DidAlexander Graham Bell do any market research
before he invented the telephone?” He also said,“Customers don’t know what they want until we’veshown them” and “You can’t just ask customers what
they want and then try to give that to them. By thetime you get it built, they’ll want something new.”
These remarks may seem to be a rejection of market
research but my interpretation is that he meant that heneeded a crystal ball.
The second example is someone very close to me,
Carlos Ghosn. He came to Nissan in 1999 and told usthat the problems that had plunged Nissan into crisisat that time were: lack of profit orientation, lack ofcustomer orientation, lack of cross-functional andcross-border work, lack of a sense of urgency, lack ofa shared vision, and no medium-term plan. The mostimportant message from him was that all processes
must be customer-oriented.
I’m in charge of market intelligence. While developers of elemental technologies look five to ten years
ahead, we provide them with information about what
the global market for mobility will be like ten to
twenty years ahead and about how technologies
should be developed. People in product development
Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

are engaged in projects covering a five- to six-yeartimespan, so we provide them with information about
what the world will be like in five or six years. Marketing people look only one or two years ahead, so weprovide them with information about current hot
trends. For each group, we provide appropriate
insight and foresight that are appropriate.
The strength of Nissan today is that it has created astringent process whereby top management must
approve our insight and foresight and no project canmove onto the next milestone unless our prognoses
are verified to support decision-making. Back in
2002, there was a general mood of apathy in the air.
People tended to say, “It’s no use listening to customers, and it’s a waste of time looking at previous data.”
We, in a position to project future trends, were toldthat market research and analysis were unnecessary.
This mood was the very source of the lack of a customer-oriented approach, which is what brought Nissan to crisis point. What pleases people? What should
be done to please people? How can we excite people?
You need to understand the market to know theanswers. You need to have engineers who think about
how to excite people. To put it in a nutshell, it is only
through good technology and good understanding ofyour customers that you can create hit products. Onceengineers understand their customers, they exhibit
tremendous power. I think that one person who did it
alone was Steve Jobs, and one person who tries to do
it within an organizational framework is Carlos
Ghosn.
Convergence of industries and services throughICT
Uji: The key words that symbolize the business tides
in the ICT world are paradigm shift, service convergence, and globalization. Among these, I want tofocus on service convergence in my presentation.
Let’s get an idea of what that means by taking as an
example something that we use every day: the mobile
phone. It was originally designed to be a tool for conversing and transmitting messages via a network.
However, today’s mobile phones do a lot more. You
can listen to music, watch television, read books, use
it as your commuter pass, and even use it as a pedometer. On top of all that, you can use it as an interpreter
between languages such as Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.
Starting with the INS Concept in 1985, NTT has
announced a series of visions from time to time: multimedia, global information sharing, and, mostrecently, service creation. We are now moving intoFeature Article

Convergence of industries and services through ICTCreate new industries(Smart community, safe and secure living business,
big data analysis business, smart agriculture, etc.)

Convergence

Medical/healthcare

EnergyVehiclesHome
appliances

Broadcasting

Administration

ICT(cloud/big data, network virtualization (software defined network),
M2M, FTTH/LTE & 4G, smart devices)

M2M: machine-to-machine
FTTH: fiber to the home
LTE: long term evolution
4G: fourth-generation mobile communications

Fig. 3. Convergence of industries and services through ICT.

the age of convergence. A variety of industries andservices will converge (Fig. 3). For example, up tonow, a vending machine has merely been a device forselling and dispensing merchandise but, combinedwith ICT, it can manage inventory in real time andenable communication between the machine and the
shopper. If a camera and a display are attached to it,
the vending machine can recognize what type of person is standing in front of it and make appropriate
recommendations. ICT can completely change whata vending machine is. When an automobile becomes
an electric vehicle, it is no longer just a means oftransport. It is also a mobile battery. When combinedwith ICT, a car can take on a bigger role. For example, it can become a sensor and can provide the driverwith information appropriate for the particular situation. Interworking and convergence of broadcasting andcommunication are accelerating. Last year’s businessplan for NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation)clearly referred to the convergence of broadcasting
and communication. NOTTV, a mobile multimedia
broadcasting service for smartphone and tablet users,
will start in April. Now let us turn our attention toenergy issues. Since the earthquake in March last

year, power supply shortages have emerged. Today,energy policy should involve not only energy suppliers but also energy users. By combining energy use
with ICT, it is possible to visualize energy consumption and, by incorporating demand response, it ispossible to optimize energy supply and demand.
These innovations will lead to the development ofsmart communities.
The NTT Group is undertaking a wide range of
research activities, including ICT, that will achieve
the convergences that I have just mentioned. To bringresearch results to the market quickly, we are organizing teams tasked with bringing a comprehensive
commercialization orientation to research and development (R&D). What we call producers, who are in
charge of this initiative, build the service concept andbusiness model, conduct market research, analyze thelatest technologies available around the world, andset up collaborative arrangements with various industries. Where necessary, they seek collaboration withventure capital providers and foreign companies.
They definitely play vital roles in creating innovation.
Our laboratories are also pursuing leading-edge
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research that can bring breakthroughs to the world.
We have many excellent personnel involved in basic
research, which includes communication science andmaterials science. Their papers are published in
Nature, Science, and other leading scientific journals.
Thomson Reuters in the USA published its list of
2011 Top 100 Global Innovators. NTT was one of thecompanies on the list. Japan, with 27 Japanese companies, followed the USA in the number of companies listed [4]. This is a sign that Japan has morepotential to lead the world than it currently exhibits.
ICT accelerates the convergence of industries andservices, providing opportunities for existing companies to expand their businesses. It provides horizontal
integration among different communities, industries,
and organizations. The convergence of industries andservices will give rise to new industries. Since R&D
is the prime engine for boosting international competitiveness, the NTT Group, as a leading ICT company, will continue to pursue R&D.
Question: How should the Japanese companies
compete?
Sekiguchi: The three companies that have led thehome appliance industry in Japan expect to record ahuge combined deficit of 1.29 trillion yen in the business year ending March 2012. In contrast, in our nextdoor neighbor, Korea, Samsung is steadily sharpening
its competitive edge. Made-in-Japan home appliances
once dominated the global market. Surprisingly,
thirty years on, these companies are still competing
the way they did decades ago, engaged in a futile
battle of beating each other domestically and sticking
with home-grown technologies, resulting in everlower prices, and shorter product lifecycles.
I am also concerned about the recent malfunctions
in mobile communication services. They are said tobe due to the network’s failure to keep abreast of the
sharp rise in the use of smartphones. The question iswhether or not the communication industry canswiftly and technically cope with the emergence ofsmartphones.
Some companies have achieved success by incorporating new technologies. Apple is one example.
Steve Jobs briefly left the company, but when hereturned, he threw out the whole existing productlineup, focused on the iMac, and began meeting thedemands of the market by providing color variants ofthe product. Apple successively introduced the iPod,
iPhone, and iPad: new information appliances thatgive the user access to the Internet. Within a shorttime span, Apple’s business performance recovered.
Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

In 2001, personal computers accounted for 80% of
the company’s sales. They now account for less than
20%. This transition is the secret of Apple’s latest
success. By contrast, Japanese companies haveneglected to explore unbeaten paths.
It is forecast that, by 2015, the number of smartphones in use worldwide will top 1 billion. In Japan,
smartphones are expected to account for more than
70% of all mobile phones in use by 2015. A source ofconcern is mobile devices from Japanese vendors.
Although the domestic market is growing, the shareof mobile devices held by Japanese manufacturers isfalling. We are concerned that Japanese ones do notsell in overseas markets, and we refer to the isolated
domestic evolution of these devices as Galapagosization. Our concern is exacerbated by evidence thateven the domestic market is being taken over by foreign companies.
The penetration of mobile devices is generating
explosive growth in information volume. The volumeof data exchanged by mobile devices today is around
0.6 exabytes (1018 bytes) per month. This is expected
to grow to 10 exabytes over the next five to six years.
The generators of this huge volume of data are smartphones, tablets, and home gateways together with IoT
and machine-to-machine (M2M) traffic. There is agreat business opportunity to be grasped in providing
solutions that can handle this huge volume of data. If
you look at the geographical distribution, data volume is growing fastest in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japanese companies should do all that they can toexpand business in this region.
The reason Japanese companies cannot currently
win in world markets despite having adequate technology, funds, and human resources is that theirapproach to business is flawed. For one thing, they
rely too heavily on the assets that they built up during
the era of analog devices, neglecting to adapt to theworld of the Internet. For another, they have beenlulled into complacency by past successes and havefailed to discard earlier business models, with theresult that they have fallen behind in technical innovation. Both technology and the business management to control it are hard pressed to make the transition from the past to the present.
3. Discussion
Change in the sense of value driven by a sense ofurgency and diversity
Sekiguchi: First, I’d like to address the business management issues. Why was Nissan unable to solve itsFeature Article

problems, and why, when Ghosn came to Nissan, washe able to do so?
Hoshino: Among the five problems he identified, themost deeply rooted was the lack of a sense of urgency.
By nature, people tend to resist change. At that time,
Nissan was on the verge of bankruptcy. Ghosn
launched a campaign called SHIFT_. It was a topdown program to educate employees that it wasworthwhile to change things. “You never do the samething.” “Anyone who has thought of an idea that isdifferent from past practice is to be lauded.” It was
critical that they accept this change in the sense ofvalue. Another top-down action was to instill a senseof urgency. “This company will go under. Yes, it will,
unless we change!” I think people, at heart, didn’t likethe idea of achieving synergy with Renault. “Without
doubt, the cars we make are better.” However, it was
this attitude that brought Nissan to the brink of bankruptcy. It was essential that they sincerely felt thesense of urgency and believed in the idea of trying
something new.
The move to change the sense of value was aided by
the introduction of diversity. Diversity was brought to
Nissan when a foreigner came to take the helm. Whenthe only people in meetings were Japanese men, they
just nodded in agreement with many issues, but when
foreigners and women, people with completely different perspectives, faced such issues, they asked
why. These men, comfortable with a shared sense ofvalue, suddenly found themselves having to explain
what they had thought to be obvious. Through being
required to explain, they had the chance to discoverthat they had been wrong or to strengthen theirideas.
Japan’s problems: Weaknesses in developing superior systems and attaining de facto standards
Sekiguchi: I would like to try and identify the weak
points of Japanese companies. What caused them tofall behind?
Murakami: I think their weakness lies in their obsession with perfection, performance, and elemental
technology. It slows the introduction of products tothe market, raises the cost above what the market can
accept, and erodes the supremacy of the total platform, even though individual elemental technologies
may be excellent. Why has this happened? Japanesecompanies have been caught in the monkey trap ofexperience that earnest pursuit of perfection, performance, and elemental technologies brought about thegreat recovery from the devastation of the second
world war and impressive development thereafter.


Such a strategy may have worked once, but thesecompanies appear unable to identify the next strategy.
To make matters worse, Japanese enterprises are notready to accept charismatic leadership. Their decision-making process consists of prolonged meetings.
This has remained the same for ten or twenty years.
The time to revise this attitude is long overdue.
Uji: With respect to Japan’s weakness, I’d like tostress the importance of international standardization.
Remember that de facto standards are just as important as de jure standards. Japan is not good at attaining global de facto standards. Japan may have excellent elemental technologies but it cannot assemble
them into superior systems. NTT is no exception.
While the individual elemental technologies we haveare fine, we frequently have to discuss the need for asystematic approach.
Sekiguchi: Why is Japan not good at developing
superior platforms or systems?
Murakami: The first reason is that Japan has a population of 120 million people. This large market grabs
the attention of Japanese companies, which close
their eyes to the global market. The domestic market
is sufficient to yield a reasonable return on investment. You can maintain a respectable market as longas your elemental technologies are good enough. If
the domestic market had been too small for your business to flourish, you would have looked at the Asianmarket, at least, and would have optimized your marketing strategy on that basis.
The second reason relates to Galapagos cell
phones––ones finely adapted to the Japanese market
alone. Interestingly, when Google put Android on themarket, it learned a lot from Galapagos cell phones.
However, by mocking Japanese cell phones as Galapagos cell phones, we are assessing the products too
early and too lightly. We tend to label products tooquickly when we really need to evaluate them more
carefully. Just looking at what’s bad and disregardingwhat’s good is like throwing the baby out with thebath water.
How to sell products and services abroad
Sekiguchi: I heard from an Apple staff member thatthey learned from Galapagos cell phones. If Japanesetechnologies can penetrate the global marketplace,
why can’t Japanese products and services?
Uji: Back in around 2000, we tried, in vain, to diffuse
our i-mode service overseas. We learned that simply
investing money isn’t enough. It’s important to follow
up. With that lesson still fresh in our minds, NTT has,over the last few years, been working on reinforcing
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existing initiatives and launching new ones for globalization. Watch this space.
In order to introduce products and services to overseas markets, it’s necessary to adjust them to suit
local market conditions. Just because something waswell accepted in Japan, there is no guarantee that it
will also magically work overseas. For example, East
Japan Railway Company’s prepaid card, Suica, canbe used with ticket machines made for the private
railways’ system PASMO and can also be used aselectronic money. It’s very convenient. However,while Suica’s high quality and convenient service
may meet the expectations of Japanese commuters,
their counterparts in other countries do not necessarily demand such high quality. The story is the samefor mobile phones. For example, it is said that, inIndia, what they want are simple, low-cost cell
phones that can make only phone calls. Needs differ
from country to country. Japanese products and services may have some features that do not suit theneeds of local markets abroad. That said, there arecases where our products do meet local needs as theyare. For example, we have digital cinema, which,with its 4K resolution, boasts higher definition thanthe conventional high-definition TV. When we introduced it to Hollywood, it perfectly matched theirneeds. Products tempered in Japan’s demanding market can have high potential in focused markets aroundthe world.
Hoshino: Nissan and other Japanese automakers
focus on the global marketplace rather than the Japanese domestic one. So, we have no tradition of undertaking technical development from the perspective of
the Japanese market in isolation. Today, China is thelargest available market. So we are looking at China,
and also India. Because the Asian region has the fastest growing economies, we watch Asia very closely.
We also, to a slightly lesser degree, keep an eye on
Africa and the Middle East, whose growth rates are
tagging along behind that of Asia. The requirementsin these regions are quite different from those inJapan.
We do not think in terms of simply taking something attractive that we have manufactured in Japan tooverseas markets. We need to adapt our products toindividual markets. For us, it’s important to involve
ourselves in a particular market (observe it, talk withlocal people, and understand the future prospects ofthe market and the sense of value of the local people).
People who can successfully do this we define asglobally oriented businesspersons. It’s not simply amatter of having people who speak fluent English.
Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

It’s timely to ask what attributes are needed to be a
globally oriented Japanese businessperson.
Murakami: Speaking of Google having learned
from Galapagos cell phones, let me mention one
globally oriented person: John Lagerling. He came to
Japan, joined NTT DOCOMO, and was entrustedwith the task of diffusing the i-mode service globally.
He traveled around the world in this capacity, andthen moved to Google Japan. He was well acquainted
with the Japanese mobile phones that evolved in isolation from the world. Drawing on his deep knowledge about the pros and cons of Japanese devices, aswell as his experience of the difficulty of trying to
spread a particular service globally, he now leads
global deployment of Android at Google Head Office.
It’s wrong to think that every aspect of a certain
human resource or technology is good or, conversely,that every aspect of the Galapagos cell phone is bad.
High expectation for smartTVs
Sekiguchi: What fields should Japan focus on, andhow should it approach them?
Murakami: Today, the Internet is seeing a new horizon appear. The International Consumer Electronics
Show held in Las Vegas in January was symbolic. It
was apparent that there are two different trends withregard to making things smarter. One is the trend
from personal computers to smartTVs: Samsung and
LG Electronics are the frontrunners in this field. The
other trend is toward smart-grid devices: again, it was
Samsung and LG Electronics that unveiled smart
appliances. Even though Japanese manufacturers
were the first to introduce the concept of information
appliances, Japan now lags behind Korea just whenthese appliances are taking off. However, Japan still
has a chance to catch up in the area of smartTVs. The
TV industry has a layered structure. Receivers makeup just one layer. There are others: the platform layer,
application layer, and content layer. There is still
scope for Japanese companies to penetrate, depending on how skillfully they go about it.
Among these layers, the most important is applications. And what heads the list in the application layer
is something that may cause you to think “What?
That one?” Yes, it’s Apple’s iBooks Author. Although
iBooks Author is said to be a tool for editing textbooks, it is also capable of handling cross-media
content. Will the advent of authoring tools in theapplication layer of smartTVs make it possible topresent cross-media content in totally unforeseen
ways? TV programs today are said to be uninteresting. Could these tools make them more interesting?
Feature Article

Concrete ideas for future: EV can change our life
EV parking station:
Charging/supplying
available

The game center touse own EVs as agaming tool

EV priority lane

Not a garage,
but a vehicle roomin the house

On-demand
EV taxi

EV sharing

EV: electric vehicle

Fig. 4. Concrete ideas for future: EV can change our life.

The application layer is still an unoccupied area. The
door is wide open. Furthermore, electric vehicles,
which are representative smart-grid devices, can also
become IoT devices. Since the age of IoT has justbegun, I hope that Japanese companies will try hardto gain a foothold in this field.
Sekiguchi: The development and manufacture of
products have traditionally been Japan’s forte. Japan
may have been overtaken by Korea in the area ofmass production, but it should experiment by combining ICT with its elemental technologies whilethese are still superior.
Japan may be the leader in conventionally powered
automobiles, but can it retain its competitive edge in
the age of electric vehicles? I don’t think it will beeasy. Japanese automakers should combine theirautomobile technology with ICT while they still
enjoy the leadership position, to create a brand-new
field—that of smart cars—which will be the equivalent to smartTVs in the home appliance industry.
The key opportunities are in the communication
field and services for the elderly
Hoshino: Yes, we automobile makers are actively
exploring the possibilities of smart cars and smart cities (Fig. 4). We think that this is a field in which Japan
can demonstrate its strengths. One key to the smart
city concept is seamless communication: between
cars and houses, between cars and people, betweenhouses and people, and between cars. This is a field
where we should make sure that we win. Speaking ofcommunication, it should be noted that many people
in advanced countries are still using conventional
telephones while people in emerging countries arestarting out with smartphones. Smartphone use isspreading at an extraordinary rate in emerging countries, resulting in the odd situation in which the valueof communication in these countries is higher than inadvanced countries. I’m convinced that, by fully
grasping these developments, we can create a winning scenario in emerging markets.
Societies around the world are aging, and Japan isin the front line in this regard. If Japan can produce
smart solutions to these issues, it could emerge as awinner five to ten years from now, when Europe andChina start to experience what’s already happening
here.
It’s important to continue to innovate
Uji: Addressing societal problems, such as medical
and healthcare requirements and aging society issues,
through the convergence of existing systems and ICT,and the launch of NOTTV through the convergenceof broadcasting and communication, are examples of
new industries that can emerge. If these initiatives
prove to be successful in Japan, we should be able tosuccessfully deploy them overseas.
NTT’s technical development teams will innovate
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Reforming R&D

SoftwareGlobalization

Drive service development with software.

Expand research activities in Silicon Valley.

Enhance the quality and security of software.

Promote the use of global resources.

SpeedyOpen innovation

Keep abreast of progress in global innovation.

Form alliances with parties in different industries.

Accelerate activities in the mobile and content fields.

Encourage collaboration between industry,
government, and academia and encouragecomprehensive alliances with universities.

Fig. 5. Reforming R&D.

through active use of software to make new services
and capabilities, globalization, increased speed, andopen innovation (Fig. 5). Ms. Hoshino said that theJapanese automobile industry looks at the world market rather than the domestic one. For our part, NTT
will look first at the domestic market, and then broaden its scope to take in overseas markets. As a way topromote science and technology in Japan, the government is advocating life innovation and green innovation. These are also new industries emerging throughthe convergence of various fields. Life innovation has
to do with health, medical, and nursing care, whilegreen innovation is aimed at addressing environmental and energy issues. But if you just hear these termson their own, you might think that they completely
unrelated to ICT. In fact, to drive these innovations, it
is important to ensure convergence between them and
ICT. Nissan Motor Company and the NTT Group are
jointly conducting a feasibility test of a smart city
concept. Such collaborative innovation with otherenterprises and industries will become increasingly
necessary.
Let me conclude with a remark made to me on the
day that the news media reported that Eastman Kodakin the USA had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This
person said, “How does NTT manage to keep its head
above water!” If we were still purely a telephonecompany, we might have gone under. Instead, weVol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

have reinvented our business by venturing into thedelivery of not only voice communication but also
images and video and by providing Internet accessand services, mobile communications, and solutions
to customers’ business operations. Besides reforming
business, we must also reform R&D, which is a fountof business growth and competitiveness, to suit theneeds of the time.
Sekiguchi: Although Japan has its weak points, it canchange if it tries hard. If Japan achieves success in thefields that it is good at or that it has embarked uponahead of the rest of the world, such as automobile
manufacturing, health and medical care, and careservices for the elderly, then surely Japan is capableof successfully deploying them overseas.
Today, we have been fortunate to hear a lot of
insightful views from three distinguished panelists.
Thank you all very much.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

Nikkei Inc.
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/nikkeiinfo/english/index.html
Norio Murakami Office Co., Ltd.
https://plus.google.com/118020952254072119863/about
Nissan Motor Company.
http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/index.html
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr2012
02in1.html

10Feature Article

Profiles of the coordinator and panelists
Waichi Sekiguchi
Editorial Writer, Nikkei Inc. [1]Member of the Research and Development
Strategy Committee, Information and Communications Council, Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications; member of the Information
Economy Sub-Committee, Industrial Structure
Council, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; member of the Security Measures Council,
National Police Agency.
Norio Murakami
President, Norio Murakami Office Co., Ltd.
[2]Formerly, Vice President, Google Inc., andPresident (later Honorary Chairman), Google
Japan Inc. He currently serves as a professor at
the Center for Global Communication, International University, and as a special guest professor
at the Graduate School of Keio University.
Asako Hoshino
Corporate Vice President, Nissan Motor Co.,
Ltd. [3]Joined Nissan Motor in 2002 after having
worked for Nippon Credit Bank, Co., Ltd. andIntage, Inc. She is currently Director of the Global Market Intelligence Dept.
* The photographs and figures provided by thecoordinator and the panelists are included in thisarticle with their permission. It is strictly forbidden to copy, reprint, or disclose to any third party
the photos and figures included in this article
without permission.

11

NTT Technical Review

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10-Gbit/s Phase-shift Keying
Modulator and Demodulator MMICs
for 120-GHz-band Wireless Link
Hiroyuki Takahashi†, Akihiko Hirata, Jun Takeuchi,
Naoya Kukutsu, Toshihiko Kosugi, and Koichi Murata
Abstract

We are developing a 120-GHz-band 10-Gbit/s wireless link and have already demonstrated wirelesstransmission of a 10GbE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) data stream over a distance of 5.8 km. In its present state,
the link uses amplitude shift keying (ASK) for the modulation scheme. To improve the system’s
performance, such as sensitivity and spectral efficiency, we need phase shift keying (PSK) modulationin the 120-GHz band. However, it is difficult to make a PSK modulator for frequencies above 100 GHz
because the design is fundamentally more complicated than that for ASK. In this article, we introduce
new PSK monolithic microwave integrated circuit technologies for 120-GHz-band 10-Gbit/s wirelesslinks.

1. Introduction
The capacity of data communication systems continues to increase each year to meet the data rates ofhigh-speed protocols and those needed for the transfer of high-definition video. Along with this tendency,
demand for high-speed wireless systems is also
increasing. In the broadcasting field, standards forhigh-definition video, such as high-definition television (HDTV, 1.5 Gbit/s), three-dimensional video(3 Gbit/s), and 4K digital cinema (6 Gbit/s), havebeen developed to catch up with the demand for highpresence applications. To transmit them in a liverelay broadcast, broadcasting companies need a longdistance wireless technology that can handle multigigabit-per-second data streams. In communication
networks, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE, 1 Gbit/s) and
10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE, 10 Gbit/s) have been
widely used and the standard for the 10-Gbit/s Ethernet passive optical network (10G-EPON) wasapproved in 2009. Multigigabit-per-second wireless† NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories
Atsugi-shi, 243-0198 Japansystems are useful for the last mile of fiber-to-thehome (FTTH) services and for setting up temporaryconnections to restore a network after a disaster orother disruptive event. To meet these demands, there
has been a lot of interest in broadband wireless technologies using the millimeter-wave band from 30 to
300 GHz, because this band can provide sufficient
bandwidth.
In the 60-GHz band, some wireless systems that
can transmit multigigabit-per-second data over ashort distance have been reported [1], [2]. Some commercial point-to-point wireless links using 71–76
GHz and 81–86 GHz provide 1.25-Gbit/s data transmission over a link distance of more than 1 km. However, there are no practical wireless systems that cantransmit 10-Gbit/s data a distance of 1 km.
NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories isdeveloping a 10-Gbit/s wireless link [3] and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) [4].
The wireless link will be suitable for fixed wirelessaccess for 10GbE, OC-192, and certain other protocols. It will also be able to handle uncompressedhigh-definition video. There have already been several successful trials over distances of several
NTT Technical Review

Regular Articles

Controller

RF headCassegrainantennaTransmittermodule(a)First amplifier
moduleSecond amplifier
moduleReceiver module(b)Fig. 1. External views of (a) 120-GHz-band wireless link and (b) RF modules.

kilometers; they include live relay broadcasts of
HDTV [5], 10GbE transmissions in Sapporo, and 4K
digital cinema streaming. At present, the link uses
amplitude shift keying (ASK) and a bandwidth of 17
GHz for 10-Gbit/s data transmission with a spectral
efficiency of 0.6 bit/s/Hz.
In this article, we present 120-GHz-band wirelesstechnologies that improve the link distance and spectral efficiency. First, we introduce the 120-GHz-band
wireless link with ASK modulation and transmission
experiments over a distance of 5.8 km [6]. The transmitter’s output power was increased by a power
amplifier module having a high-breakdown-voltage
high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) [7]. Second, we describe 10-Gbit/s phase shift keying (PSK)
modulation technologies in the 120-GHz band. We
explain the design of new binary PSK (BPSK) and
quadrature PSK (QPSK) modulator MMICs [8], [9]in the 120-GHz band and present 10-Gbit/s datatransmission characteristics of BPSK and QPSK
modules.
2. Configuration and field experience
A photograph of a 120-GHz-band wireless linkwith the ASK modulation scheme is shown in
Fig. 1(a). The wireless transmitter was designed tohave usability and configuration equivalent to thefield pick-up unit currently in wide use by broadcasters. The transmitter head generates a 125-GHz signal
as a radio-frequency (RF) carrier, modulates it with a
10-Gbit/s baseband signal, and amplifies the modulated signal to 16 dBm. The receiver head receives theVol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

incoming signal, amplifies it using a low-noise amplifier (LNA), and demodulates 10-Gbit/s data. The
controller supplies power, the data signal, and control
signals to the head. The antenna used by the wirelesslink is chosen from four available kinds: three
Cassegrain antennas with diameters ranging from
100 mm (gain: 37 dBi) to 600 mm (gain: 52 dBi) anda standard horn antenna with gain of 23 dBi. Photographs of RF modules for generating, modulating,
amplifying, and demodulating the millimeter-wave
signal are shown in Fig. 1(b). The transmitter module, the first amplifier module, and the receiver module use indium-phosphide (InP HEMT MMICs)
developed by NTT Photonics Laboratories. The second power amplifier module uses 0.08-μm-gatelength InGaAs/InP HEMT MMICs, which havehigher breakdown voltages. The on- and off-state
breakdown voltages are around 4 V and 10 V, respectively. These values are almost double those of conventional InP HEMTs. The devices typically havecurrent-gain cut-off frequency fT of 180 GHz and amaximum oscillation frequency fmax of 650 GHz.
The second power amplifier with composite-channel
HEMTs has demonstrated maximum output power of
140 mW and output P1dB of 80 mW at 125 GHz [7].
We conducted field transmission experiments using
the 120-GHz-band wireless link shown in Fig. 2. The
data rate was 10.3125 Gbit/s (forward error correction rate: 11.1 Gbit/s) and the transmission distancewas 5.8 km in the fine weather during the experiments. The transmitter and receiver antenna gains
were 52 dBi and 49 dBi, respectively. The 120-GHzband wireless link performed error free transmissionRegular Articles

Fig. 2. Photograph of experiment on 5.8-km 10GbE
transmission using forward error correction.

(bit error rate (BER): less than 10-12) during theexperiment. At present, that is the longest reported
distance for 10-Gbit/s wireless transmission.
3. PSK MMICs technologies
Our current link uses the ASK modulation scheme;
this is the simplest architecture, but it has poor spectral efficiency because it uses binary modulation andit has lower sensitivity than other binary modulation
schemes. We need a different modulation schemewith greater sensitivity and better spectral efficiency
in order to extend the transmission distance or reduce
the occupied bandwidth. For that purpose, PSK ispromising. BPSK modulation, which uses two phases
which are separated by 180°, has the highest sensitivity among binary modulation schemes so it enables alonger link distance for 120-GHz wireless transmission. QPSK uses four phases and can encode two bits
per symbol. QPSK has double the spectral efficiencyof ASK for the same bitrate because it is a higherorder modulation. It lets us use the 120-GHz-band
10-Gbit/s wireless link with less occupied bandwidth
or increase the capacity of the same occupied bandwidth. The design of a PSK demodulator is more
complicated than that of an ASK modulator owing to
the need for a phase-comparison circuit. In this section, we present PSK modulator and demodulator
MMICs for 10-Gbit/s data transmission in the 120GHz band.
Two system requirements for a 120-GHz-band
wireless link are the ability to handle 10-Gbit/s datawith the same BER performance as the ASK systemand to have a simple architecture. The ASK used forour wireless link has the advantage of a very simple
architecture, which enabled us to design the ASK
modulator and demodulator in a small area and integrate each one into an MMIC with other circuits on
one chip. This is an advantage for reducing the fabrication cost of MMICs. To make the architecture of
PSK MMICs simple, we chose differentially coherent
detection for PSK demodulation since the differentially coherent detector does not need carrier-recovery circuits. In addition, we designed the modulator
and demodulator without intermediate-frequency
circuits. The total size of these circuits should besmaller than those that do have intermediate-frequency circuits, which makes it possible to implement them in a small area. The design goal is to makean integrated one-chip BPSK modulator and an integrated one-chip BPSK demodulator.
3.1 PSK modulator MMIC
Block diagrams of the BPSK and QPSK modulator
MMICs are shown in Figs. 3(a) and (b), respectively.
To implement direct modulation, we chose a simple
architecture consisting of 90º and 180º hybrid couplers, switches, and combiners. The gain-control
amplifier (GC amplifier) acts as an on-off switch
according to the applied voltage level. When the levelis high, a signal fed into the GC amplifier is amplified
by 10 dB; when the level is low, the signal is attenuated by more than 20 dB, resulting in a 30-dB on-off
ratio. The Wilkinson combiner combines the output
signals of the GC amplifiers. For BPSK, when thevoltage level is high (corresponding to a data bit valueof 1), the GC amplifiers amplify the 0º signal andwhen it is low (corresponding to a bit value of 0), they
amplify the 180º signal. For QPSK, when (I, Q) is (1,1), the GC amplifiers for the I (in-phase) channel
amplify the 0º signal, and the GC amplifiers for the Q(quadrature) channel amplify the 90º signal. The
phase of the combined RF signals therefore becomes
45º. To decrease the required frequency of the modulator MMIC, we used a doubler circuit, which converts the local signal to the carrier signal. This
reduces insertion loss generated at wire-bondingsites. We also designed a differential amplifier to control the GC amplifiers. The differential amplifier
divides input data into positive and negative data values and shifts the voltage levels to appropriate values
for GC amplifiers.
We evaluated the magnitude of the static error
vector of the designed modulators. The S 21
characteristics of the BPSK and QPSK modulator
NTT Technical Review

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180° hybrid(rat race)
Doubler

Wilkinson
combiner
GC amp.

GC amp.

RF125 GHzLO
62.5 GHz
Data
10 Gbit/s

(a)

I ch.
5 Gbit/s
0°

Wilkinson
combiner

GC amp.

0/180°
180°
Doubler

90°LO
64 GHzGC amp.

0/90°
GC amp.

RF
128 GHz0/180°
270°

GC amp.

Q ch.
5 Gbit/s(b)
GC amp.: gain control amplifier
LO: local oscillator

Fig. 3. Block diagrams of modulator MMICs: (a) BPSK and (b) QPSK.

MMICs are shown in Fig. 4. S21 of the BPSK modulator MMIC had the maximum phase error of 5° andamplitude error of 3% when DC voltages wereapplied. These errors mainly come from the characteristics of the rat-race circuit. From these values, weestimated the static error vector magnitude to beabout 5%. For QPSK, S21 for phases of 45º, 135º,
225º, and 315º had a maximum phase error of 8º andmaximum amplitude error of 11%. From these values, we obtained a static error vector magnitude ofabout 10%.
3.2 PSK demodulator MMIC
Block diagrams of the BPSK and QPSK demodulator MMICs are shown in Fig. 5. As mentioned inVol. 10 No. 5 May 2012section 3, we selected differentially coherent detection because it has a simple architecture and does not
require carrier-recovery circuits. First, the received
signal is split into two. One part is delayed by thelength of a data symbol. The other part goes througha variable phase shifter. The two signals are combined and mixed by a gate mixer. The main issues inthis architecture are the design of the one-symbol
delay circuit and control of the phase relationshipbetween the two split signals. In our delay circuitdesign, the delay line is basically made of a transmission line; this provides an accurate delay time but has
the drawback of being very long. The modulators
using BPSK and QPSK need to be about 13 mm and
25 mm, respectively, if the delay line consists of onlyRegular Articles

120°

90°
0.6

RSSI
60°

0.4

150°

Wilkinson
splitter
30°

0.2

RF
125 GHz

0°

180°

Variablephase shifter
Delay
line

–120°

–90°

–60°
Distribution
amplifier

(a)
90°
0.15
135°

0.10

Gate
mixer

(a)

–30°

–150°

Wilkinson
combinerRF
128 GHz

45°

0.05
0°

RSSI

Variablephase shifter

I ch.
5 Gbit/s

200-psdelay line

Q ch.
5 Gbit/s

90º
Gate
mixer

(b)

180°

Data
10 Gbit/s

RSSI: received signal strength indicator

Fig. 5. B lock diagrams of demodulator MMICs: (a) BPSK
and (b) QPSK.
225°

315°
270°
(b)

Fig. 4. S21 of modulator MMICs: (a) BPSK and (b) QPSK.

a coplanar waveguide with a width of 15 μm andspace of 15 μm. To reduce the length, we made thedelay line by alternating metal-insulator-metal shunt
capacitors and coplanar waveguides. As a result, theactual lengths of our delay lines for BPSK and QPSK
are 5 mm and 10 mm, respectively. Next, we designed
a variable phase shifter to adjust the phase relationship between the received and delayed signals prior to
mixing. The variable phase shifter consists of coplanar waveguides and cold field effect transistors,
which are HEMTs. This circuit can adjust the electrical length continuously by changing the capacitancesof the parasitic capacitors of the HEMTs. Thus, we
can tune the phase of the output signal by means of an
applied voltage. The designed tuning range of thiscircuit is over 180° at 125 GHz, which makes it possible to respond to any phase error caused by variations in process, voltage, or temperature.



3.3 Evaluation for 10-Gbit/s data transmission
We used 0.1-μm-HEMT technology on an InP
substrate. The devices have a current-gain cut-off
frequency (fT) of 170 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) of 350 GHz. Photographs ofthe modulator and demodulator MMICs are shown in
Fig. 6. We succeeded in making a one-chip BPSK
modulator and a one-chip BPSK demodulator. Before
measuring the BERs, we mounted the modulator anddemodulator MMICs in separate packages, as shownin Fig. 7. Thanks to the one-chip integration of themodulator and demodulator circuits, we obtained
compact modulator and demodulator modules. The
package has a WR-8 waveguide for the 120-GHzband RF signal interface. Transitions from a rectangular waveguide to a coplanar waveguide wereneeded to transfer the RF energy from the coplanar
waveguide to the WR-8 waveguide and vice versa.
We then measured the BER of 10-Gbit/s data transmission. To measure the minimum received power,
we set an LNA [10] in front of each demodulator
module. The MMIC in the LNA module was thesame as that used for our current ASK-based wirelesslink, and the noise figure was 5.6 dB. For delay detection, input data for the modulator module usually
goes through a Gray-code adder, which has a oneNTT Technical Review

Regular Articles

180ºhybridGC amp.

LORF

DC pins

Buffer

Doubler
(a)

Data
RSSI

Data in(10 Gbit/s)

Amp.
Phase
shifter

Data out(10 Gbit/s)

LO (15.625 GHz)

GC amp.

Det.

Amp.

RSSI
WR-8 waveguide

Data
Modulator

Demodulator

RF(a)Delay line

Det.: detector

(b)

I ch.
I

LO
(16 GHz)

Q

Q ch.

I ch.

DC
pins

LO

Q ch.

Modulator

GC amplifiers

RSSI

WR-8
waveguideRF

Demodulator(b)Fig. 7. P hotographs of (a) BPSK modules (b) QPSK
modules.
(c)
RSSI

Distribution
amplifers

I
Q

RF

Delay line(d)Fig. 6. Die photographs of MMICs:(a) BPSK modulator (1 mm x 2 mm)(b) BPSK demodulator (1 mm x 2 mm)(c) QPSK modulator (2 mm x 2 mm)(d) QPSK demodulator (2 mm x 2 mm)

Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

symbol delay circuit. In this measurement, a pulse
pattern generator directly outputs the data encoded by
the Gray-code adder. In addition, a limit amplifier for
10-Gbit/s base-band signals was installed after the
demodulator module to satisfy the required power forthe error detector.
The relationship between the LNA’s received power
and the measured BER is shown in Fig. 8. BPSK and
QPSK modules achieved a BER of less than 10-10 atreceived power of -39.5 dBm and -38.5 dBm, respectively. In the current ASK-based link, the received
power at a BER of 10-10 is -38.5 dBm. If we simply
compare these values, it would appear that we canindeed make BPSK and QPSK systems with the sametransmission performance with the ASK system.
However, in this measurement, some conditions weredifferent from those for the ASK system. For example, there was no RF filter at the demodulator and noRegular Articles

between link distance and other characteristics is asfollows:
Pr (dB)=Pt +Gt +Gr -20×log 4πd -L1 ×d , (1)
 λ 

10−3

Bit error rate

10−4

10−5
10−6
10−7
10−8
10−10
−46

−44

−42

−40

−38

−36

Received power (dBm)
(a)

10−3

where d is link distance, λ is wavelength, Pr is
received power, Pt is transmitter output power, Gt istransmitter antenna gain, Gr is receiver antenna gain,
and L1 is atmospheric loss. L1 at 128 GHz is about 1
dB/km. As shown in Fig. 8, the BPSK and QPSK
demodulators need Pr of more than -39.5 dBm and-38.5 dBm, respectively, when the required BER is10-10. From these values, we estimated that both the
BPSK and QPSK wireless links in 120-GHz-band
would be able to transmit 10-Gbit/s data a distance of
2 km with a link margin of more than about 3 dB if
we used the same amplifiers and antennas as in the
ASK system.

I ch. 5 Gbit/s

Bit error rate

4. Future plans

Q ch. 5 Gbit/s

10−4

We hope to implement BPSK and QPSK modules
in the 120-GHz-band wireless link. We would also
like to improve the analysis of the propagation characteristics of 120-GHz-band millimeter-wave signals,
especially their dependency on weather, by making
use of data from long-term, continuous transmission
tests.
Acknowledgments

10−5
10−6
10−7
10−8
10−10
−46

−44

−42

−40

−38

−36

Received power (dBm)(b)

This research was partially done under contract
with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications under the “RF Resource Use R&D” initiative.

Fig. 8. B
 ER characteristics of (a) 10-Gbit/s BPSKtransmission and (b) 10-Gbit/s QPSK transmission.

References[1]

power amplifier for the modulator. It is possible thatusing an RF filter in the demodulator will further
improve the sensitivity.
Finally, we estimated the transmission distance ofthe 120-GHz-band wireless link with 10-Gbit/s
BPSK and QPSK. To make the link, we need additional RF components, i.e., power amplifiers, antennas, and RF filters. For this purpose, we can use thesame amplifiers and antennas as those for the ASKbased wireless link [3] because the operating band for
ASK covers those for BPSK and QPSK. By using
such amplifiers, we should obtain output power of 10
dBm. Moreover, the antenna gains of the transmitterand receiver are both 48.7 dBi. The relationship


[2]

[3]

[4]

S. Pinel, S. Sarkar, P. Sen, B. Perumana, D. Yeh, D. Dawn, and J.
Laskar, “A 90nm CMOS 60GHz Radio,” Proc. of the 2008 IEEE Int.
Solid-State Circuits Conf., Dig., pp. 130–132, San Francisco, CA,
USA.
C. Marcu, D. Chowdhury, C. Thakkar, L. Kong, M. Tabesh, J. Park, Y.
Wang, B. Afshar, A. Gupta, A. Arbabian, S. Gambini, R. Zamani, A.
M. Niknejad, and E. Alon, “A 90nm CMOS Low-power 60GHz
Transceiver with Integrated Baseband Circuitry,” Proc. of the 2009
IEEE Int. Solid-State Circuits Conf. Dig., pp. 314–315, San Francisco, CA, USA.
A. Hirata, R. Yamaguchi, T. Kosugi, H. Takahashi, K. Murata, T.
Nagatsuma, N. Kukutsu, Y. Kado, N. Iai, S. Okabe, H. Ikegawa, H.
Nishikawa, T. Nakayama, and T. Inada, “10-Gbit/s Wireless Link
Using InP HEMT MMICs for Generating 120-GHz-band Millimeterwave Signal,” IEEE Trans. Microwave and Tech., Vol. 57, No. 5, pp.
1102–1109, 2009.
T. Kosugi, T. Shibata, T. Enoki, M. Muraguchi, A. Hirata, T. Nagatsuma, and H. Kyuragi, “A 120-GHz Millimeter-wave MMIC Chipset
for Future Broadband Wireless Application,” Proc. of IEEE MTT-S
Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., 2003, Vol. 1, pp. 129–132, Philadelphia, PA,
USA.

NTT Technical Review

Regular Articles

[5]

[6]

A. Hirata, H. Takahashi, N. Kukutsu, Y. Kado, H. Ikegawa, H. Nishikawa, T. Nakayama, and T. Inada, “Transmission Trial of Television
Broadcast Materials Using 120-GHz-band Wireless Link,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2009.
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr2009
03sf3.html
A. Hirata, T. Kosugi, H. Takahashi, J. Takeuchi, K. Murata, N.
Kukutsu, Y. Kado, S. Okabe, T. Ikeda, F. Suginoshita, K. Shogen, H.
Nishikawa, A. Irino, T. Nakayama, and N. Sudo, “5.8-km 10-Gbps
Data Transmission over a 120-GHz-band Wireless Link,” 2010 IEEE
International Conference on Wireless Information Technology and
Systems (ICWITS), pp. 1–4, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 2010.

Hiroyuki Takahashi

[7]

[8]

[9]

T. Kosugi, H. Sugiyama, K. Murata, H. Takahashi, A. Hirata, N.
Kukutsu, Y. Kado, and T. Enoki, “A 125-GHz 140-mW InGaAs/InP
Composite-channel HEMT MMIC Power Amplifier Module,” IEICEElectronics Express, Vol. 6, pp. 1764–1768, 2009.
H. Takahashi, T. Kosugi, A. Hirata, K. Murata, and N. Kukutsu, “10Gbit/s BPSK Modulator and Demodulator for a 120-GHz-band Wireless Link,” IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Techniq., Vol. 59,
No. 5, pp. 1361–1368, 2011.
H. Takahashi, T. Kosugi, A. Hirata, K. Murata, and N. Kukutsu, “10Gbit/s Quadrature Phase-shift Keying Modulator and Demodulator
for 120-GHz-band Wireless Links,” IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Techniq., Vol. 58, No. 12, pp. 4072–4078, 2011.

Naoya Kukutsu

Research Engineer, Smart Devices Laboratory,
NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories.
He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees inapplied physics from Nagoya University, Aichi,
in 2001 and 2003, respectively. Since joining
NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories in
2003, he has been engaged in designing and testing millimeter-wave MMICs. He received the2008 Young Engineer’s Prize from the European
Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference(EuMIC). He is a member of the Institute ofElectronics, Information and Communication
Engineers (IEICE) and IEEE.

Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, Group
Leader, Smart Devices Laboratory, NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories.
He received the B.E., M.E., and D.E. degrees inelectrical engineering from Hokkaido University
in 1986, 1988, and 1991, respectively. His D.E.
dissertation described research for a time-domain
electromagnetic wave numerical analysis method. In 1991, he joined NTT Applied Electronics
Laboratories in Musashino. His current research
involves millimeter-wave and terahertz-wave
transmission, as well as imaging systems. He is amember of the IEEE MTT and COM Societies
and IEICE.

Akihiko Hirata

Toshihiko Kosugi

Senior Research Engineer, Smart Devices
Laboratory, NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories.
He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees inchemistry and the Dr.Eng. degree in electricaland electronics engineering from the Universityof Tokyo in 1992, 1994, and 2007, respectively.
He joined NTT Atsugi Electrical Communications Laboratories (now NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories), Kanagawa, in 1994. His
current research involves millimeter-wave
antenna and photonic technology. He received
the 2002 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference
APMC Prize, the 2004 YRP Award, and the 2007
Achievement Award from IEICE. He is a member of IEICE and IEEE.

Senior Research Engineer, High-Speed Devices and Technology Laboratory, NTT Photonics
Laboratories.
He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees inelectrical engineering from Osaka University in1990 and 1993, respectively. His Ph.D. dissertation addressed characterization of point defects
in GaAs and processing of GaAs. He joined NTT
in 1993. He is currently with NTT Photonics
Laboratories studying the microwave characteristics of HEMTs on InP and their application in
MMICs.

Koichi Murata

Jun Takeuchi

Researcher, Smart Devices Laboratory, NTT
Microsystem Integration Laboratories.
He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees from
Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2006 and 2008,
respectively. He joined NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories in 2008. He is engaged in
R&D of millimeter-wave components and wireless systems. He received the 2010 Asia-PacificMicrowave Conference APMC prize. He is amember of IEICE.

Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, Group
Leader, High-Speed Devices and Technology
Laboratory, NTT Photonics Laboratories.
He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees inmechanical engineering and the Dr.Eng. degree
in electrical and electronics engineering from
Nagoya University, Aichi, in 1987, 1989, and2003, respectively. He joined NTT LSI Laboratories, Atsugi, in 1989. He has been engaged in
R&D of ultrahigh-speed mixed-signal ICs for
optical communication systems. His current
research interests include optoelectronic IC
design and high-speed optical transmission systems. He is a member of IEEE and IEICE.

Regular Articles

Security Device Management Platform
Takeya Takeda† , Koji Kishi, Keizo Murakami,
Hiroki Kawamoto, and Shoko Nishida
Abstract

NTT Service Integration Laboratories has developed a security device management platform that
includes functionality for issuing smart cards, adding applications to cards after they have been issued,
issuing temporary cards when a smart card is lost, and linking with external systems. The platform cansupport the management of smart cards and other tamper-resistant security devices in a wide range of
operational scenarios.

1. Introduction
Security and personal authentication have recently
become increasingly important in enterprise, academia, and the public sector. The variety of tamperresistant security devices used for personal authentication also continues to increase: it currently includes
SD (secure digital) cards that incorporate an integrated circuit (IC) chip, mobile phones with a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, and other devices
in addition to conventional smart cards.
NTT Service Integration Laboratories has developed the Security Device Management (SDM) platform for centralized management of this diverse
range of tamper-resistant security devices. The platform enables efficient management and operation ofa safe and secure societal infrastructure that uses
these tamper-resistant security devices, including
configuration and updating of personal identification
and authentication information and addition andremoval of applications. This platform is expected to
be used to generate new business and as a replacement for the Network-based IC Card Environment(NICE) [1]–[3], a platform for managing smart card
information that is currently in use by companies.
2. Overview
SDM is platform software that provides integrated† NTT Service Integration Laboratories
Musashino-shi, 180-8585 Japanmanagement of tamper-resistant security devices,from device issuing through operational functions(Fig. 1). Its functionality can be divided into issuing
functions, which gather user information for eachservice and configure tamper-resistant security devices so that they can be used, and operational functions,which add and remove applications from tamperresistant security devices and manage the multiple
devices of different types used by users.
(1) Gathering user information for each service
SDM provides an interface for linking with external
systems. Through this interface, user information canbe automatically retrieved from an external, corporate information database system. This allows user
information accumulated during registration for various services in the past to be used when a tamperresistant security device is being issued. Thus, SDM
reduces the work involved in creating new user information, reduces errors in data entry, and otherwise
improves the efficiency of issuing tamper-resistantsecurity devices.
(2) Managing smart cards
SDM can manage all of the smart cards held by
each user.
(3)	Adding and removing applications from tamperresistant security devices
SDM allows applications to be added or removed
from tamper-resistant security devices that havealready been distributed to users. Thus, applications
for a variety of services such as a facility entry system, personal computer login, and cafeteria andlibrary systems can be added to a tamper-resistant
NTT Technical Review

Regular Articles

External system
Database forhuman resources
information system etc.

Card manufacturing company
Shipping
Smart card A

Smart card B(1) Gather user information
automatically and generate
information for card issuing.

Smart card C(tamper-resistant security devices)

SDM
Operations management server
Operator terminal
Employee A

Employee B

Online smart cardmanagement
technology

Card issuing device
Issuance

Internet(network)

Issuance(2) Manage smart cards
held by each user.

User(4) Support a variety of secure
devices.

Distribution
to users(3) Add services safely
online.
User terminal

Smart card

Smart card reader/writer

Fig. 1. Overview of SDM functionality.

security device such as a company ID (identity) cardthat has already been issued and distributed to
employees. This allows the range of applications forthe tamper-resistant security device ID to be expanded and enriched gradually.
(4)	Supporting multiple tamper-resistant security
devices of various types
SDM can issue and manage multiple types ofdevices. The functionality for managing different
types of tamper-resistant security devices makes
operation easier in the case of migration among tamper-resistant security devices, for example, to updatea tamper-resistant security device when encryption
has been compromised. The ability to manage multiple tamper-resistant security devices allows a device
to be created with the same applications as theemployee’s original ID card; for example, a temporary ID card can be issued to an employee who has
forgotten his or her ID card or the ID card can be reissued if it has been lost. Systems can thus be operated
at a higher level of security and aspects such as issue
numbers and expiry dates can be managed strictly.
3. Technical features
SDM is implemented as a client-server web serVol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

vice, so operators can perform various operations
using a web terminal, such as issuing new tamperresistant security devices or performing operationaltasks. An open source framework was used, so theuser interface and business logic can be customized,
modified, and maintained easily.
3.1 S cript for generating device issuing information
SDM is easily customizable for various solutions
owing to the development of an easy scripting language called Apdu Markup Language (AML). AML
makes it easy to write task rules, such as rules forgenerating commands to issue or operate a tamperresistant security device or to transform data when
linking with an external system (Fig. 2). Writing andmodifying AML scripts not only makes it possible tolink with external systems, but also enables systems
to handle new tamper-resistant security devices,
whether they are a new type of IC card or an SD or
SIM card incorporating an IC chip.
3.2 User-oriented data model
SDM uses a data model to manage the number,
types, and states of tamper-resistant security devices
that users possess, enabling multiple tamper-resistantRegular Articles(3) Script engine parses script file andcreates a list of card commands.

(4) Card issuing function
receives the list of commands.

Script engine

User information
User A: Access control, PC login
User Z: Access control, secure printing

Card issuing function(2) Card issuing functionstransfers a script file listinguser information.

Command 1

Command 1

Command 2

Command 2

Command 1
YYY
Command 2

Access control
script file

PC login
script file

Secure printing
script file(1) Card issuing function reads
User A’s information.
(5) Card issuing function
issues a card.
Information flow
PC: personal computer

Changes in issuing and operational services are handled per-caseby adding or modifying scripts.

Fig. 2. Script-based generation of card issuing information.

security devices of different types to be issued andmanaged for each user.
3.3 S
 ecure online tamper-resistant security device
management technology adopted in the international standard
SDM can safely add services to a tamper-resistantsecurity device over a network after the device has
been issued because it uses online tamper-resistantsecurity device management technology developed
by NTT based on a public key infrastructure (PKI)and secure messaging. This technology has been recognized for its ability to add applications safely to atemper-resistant security device through its functions
for flexibly managing applications on it and for flexibly handling global geographical regions, and it has
been adopted in the Global Platform 2.2 international
standard [4].
4. Application to system integration
The flow of a typical SDM application scenario for
a company is shown in Fig. 3 and some specificexamples are described below.
(1) University student identification
When new students enter university, the information required to issue tamper-resistant security devices for all new students can be generated from student
information in the registration system, and devices


for all students can be created at once, by contract
with a printing company, for example.
In the past, when a university spanned multiple
campuses, students would have to go to another location where there was a card-issuing machine in orderto add applications to their student ID card in order touse new facilities or services on another campus.
SDM makes this much more convenient because
applications can be added, or removed to stop a service being used, wherever there is an operator terminal. Temporary cards can be issued if a student forgets
or loses an ID card, which helps prevent unauthorized
use of student cards and enables the student to continue using the services on the card.
(2) Corporate identification
When an employee’s employment status or location
changes or the card’s expiry date is approaching,
information for issuing a new ID card or reissuing a
new version of the existing one is generated. SDM
allows the card to be issued immediately, rather than
through a processed contracted out to a printing company, for example.
When an employee needs access to in-house thinclient devices or entry to secure areas, the required
application can be added to his or her employee ID
card. Moreover, when an employee forgets or loses an
ID card, a temporary card with only the minimum
applications and limited to the required use can beissued. This helps prevent abuse of ID cards and
NTT Technical Review

Regular Articles

External environment

Customer environment
External system
Database for humanresources information system
PortalCard manufacturing
company

Groupware

Operator terminal(user terminal)

Library

Smart card
reader/writer

Card procurement
Smart card (e.g.,
employee ID)

User information
Initialization data
(1) Gather user
information.

Smart card delivery

Card
Operations
status information
management server

Smart card
(initial state)
Printing
company etc.

Card information

Issue data, surface data
(2) Bulk card issuing(contracted)(3) Add/remove
applications forvarious services.

SDM platform

Use of services

Operatorterminal(4) Card issuing/reissuing

Operator terminal(for issuing)Cardissuing device
Distribution withincompany
Smart card(e.g., employee ID)

Smart card(in usable state)

Smart card(in usable state)

Distribution

Information flow

Fig. 3. SDM application scenario.

allows employees to continue to use the added services.
5. Future development
For some time, we have been working on updatingand expanding existing systems such as employee
and student ID cards that have been used in environments where they are relatively limited. This has
included organizing and streamlining public andother external use of smart cards and extending basic
functionality such as gathering user information,issuing cards, and performing other operationaltasks.
We will continue to work on needs and issues
selected from both domestic and global perspectives,
targeting cost reductions and business continuity
planning and considering general market trends suchas cloud-services business and smartphones equippedwith near-field communications, as well as trends

Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

toward external use in national and regional governments. As technical development advances, we will
also contribute to the development of businesses thatoffer superior solutions for enterprises.
References
[1]

[2]

[3]
[4]

S. Ijuin, T. Yamamoto, S. Hirata, K. Suzuki, Y. Wada, T. Kashiwagi,
and N. Kaku, “Development of a NICE-based Smart Card System
Conforming to the GlobalPlatform Specifications,” NTT Technical
Review, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 66–69, 2004.
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr2004
04066.pdf
T. Kashiwagi, H. Kawamura, K. Kishi, K. Murai, and T. Yamamoto,“NICE V8.1: Smart Card Management Platform that Can Replace
Compromised Encryption Schemes,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 7,
No. 4, 2009.
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr200904le1.html
Nippon Information and Communication (in Japanese).
http://www.niandc.co.jp/interview/institute/no02.html
GlobalPlatform. http://www.globalplatform.org/

Regular Articles

Takeya Takeda

Hiroki Kawamoto

Koji Kishi

Shoko Nishida

Senior Research Engineer, Smart Card Platform Development Project, Public ICT Solution
Project, NTT Service Integration Laboratories.
He joined NTT in 1986. He was initiallyengaged in research studies on the e-Japan initiative and in consulting and systems engineering
for the information and communications infrastructure of local governments. He is currently
engaged in the development of an ICT platform.

Senior Research Engineer, Smart Card Platform Development Project, Public ICT Solution
Project, NTT Service Integration Laboratories.
He received the B.A. and M.A. degrees in basic
science from the University of Tokyo in 1994 and1996, respectively. He joined NTT in 1996. He iscurrently engaged in the development of an ICT
platform.

Research Engineer, Smart Card Platform
Development Project, Public ICT Solution Project, NTT Service Integration Laboratories.
He joined NTT in 1991. He was initiallyengaged in the development of an in-company
operation system in NTT WEST. He is currently
engaged in the development of an ICT platform.

Engineer, Smart Card Platform Development
Project, Public ICT Solution Project, NTT Service Integration Laboratories.
She received the B.A. degree in science education from Fukuoka University of Education in2007 and the M.E. degree in nonlinear physics
from Kyushu University in 2009. Since joining
NTT Service Integration Laboratories in 2009,
she has studied an ID-management system for
e-government and developed an e-government
system. She is a member of the Information
Processing Society of Japan.

Keizo Murakami

Smart Card Platform Development Project,
Public ICT Solution Project, NTT Service Integration Laboratories.
He received the bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in pharmacy from the University ofTokyo in 2008 and 2010, respectively. He joined
NTT in 2010. He is currently engaged in thedevelopment of an ICT platform.



NTT Technical Review

Global Standardization Activities

Overview and Status of Future
Networks Standardization in ITU-T
Takashi Miyamura† and Akihiro Tsutsui
Abstract

To overcome the limitations of the current Internet, research and development of future network technologies has been undertaken extensively in the USA, EU, and Asian countries including Japan. This
article gives an overview of and describes the current status of Future Networks standardization in ITU-T
SG13 (International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector, Study
Group 13).

1. Introduction
ITU-T SG13 (International Telecommunication
Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector,
Study Group 13) established the Focus Group on
Future Networks (FG-FN) in January 2009 to investigate possible standardization items for Future Networks including the New-Generation Network(NWGN) and Future Internet (Fig. 1). Future Networks are expected to meet changing requirements
into the future. The target time frame of the initial
deployment or service trials of Future Networks is
assumed to fall approximately between 2015 and2020. FG-FN initiated an information exchange anddiscussion of the vision and possible key technologies for Future Networks [1]. FG-FN was closed in
December 2010 and the discussions were taken overby SG13. The main deliverables, which are the outcome of FG-FN’s activities, were published as theY.3000 series of Recommendations at the SG13
meeting in October 2011.
Y.3001 describes the vision of Future Networks.
Furthermore, to identify certain key technology areas,
it was agreed in October 2011 that framework documents on network virtualization and energy savingsof networks would be standardized as Y.3011 andY.3021, respectively. In particular, discussions on
network virtualization have been initiated from the† NTT Network Service Systems Laboratories
Musashino-shi, 180-8585 Japan

FG-FN phase. Y.3011 incorporates several contributions submitted by NTT. This article presents an
overview of the Recommendations for the Future
Networks vision and for networks virtualization.
2. Overview of Future Network vision
Y.3001 is the world’s first standardization document about future network visions. This Recommendation identifies four types of awareness, twelve
design goals, and key enabling technologies corresponding to each goal (Fig. 2). One of the twelve
design goals is network virtualization, which has
been identified as a key technology for achieving
resource abstraction and has been standardized asY.3011.
Service awareness describes some challenges in thecreation and management of diversified services
including broadband and narrowband services, diversified mobility, security, and privacy.
Environmental awareness addresses energy savingsof networks and by networks. The energy saving of
networks has been standardized as Y.3021.
Data awareness describes content-centric and datacentric networking architecture and identification. In
identification, a framework document (Y.FNid) is
being discussed for future standardization. Y.FNid
includes an analysis of existing IDs (identities) andgeneral requirements for future network IDs.
Finally, social and economic awareness addresses
the need to reduce barriers to entry network
NTT Technical Review

Global Standardization Activities

Jan. 2009

Jun. 2009

Nov. 2010

Jan. 2011

May 2011

Oct. 2011

1st FG meeting

8th FG meeting

SG13

SG13

SG13

Approval of
Recommendation for Future
Networks vision.

Approval of
Recommendation
for Future
Networks vision.

SG13 reached consent
to set up FG-FN
Summary ofdeliverables forvision andframeworks.

Initial discussion
on Future Networks
visionReport on FG-FN
activity.
Discussions ondeliverables.

FG-FN period

SG13 Q.21 (Future Networks)

Fig. 1. FG-FN history.

Service awareness

Data Awareness

Service Diversity

Data Access

Functional Flexibility

Identification

Virtualization of Resources

Y.FNid(being discussed)

Social and economic awarenessNetwork Management
MobilityY.3011(Recommendation)

Service Universalization
Economic Incentives

Reliability and Security
Environmental awareness

Energy Consumption
Optimization

Y.3021(Recommendation)

Fig. 2. Future Networks vision.

ecosystems and lifecycles cost for sustainability,
which will contribute to service universalization.
3. Standardization status of
network virtualization
Y.3011 identifies terminology of network virtualization technologies, technical challenges, design
Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

goals, applicability, and use cases. Network virtualization enables multiple service networks to be runover a common physical network infrastructure. It
brings improved resource utilization through resource
sharing, quick responsiveness to traffic changes andnetwork failures, and simplified network management through resource abstraction. A framework for
network virtualization is shown in Fig. 3. AnGlobal Standardization Activities

Virtual networks

LINP manager
LINP 1LINP 2

Virtual resources

Virtual resource
manager

Physical resources

Physical network
manager
Physical network

Fig. 3. Framework of network virtualization.

abstraction of physical resources is created by logically dividing and abstracting physical resourcescomposing of physical networks such as nodes andlinks. The abstracted physical resources are calledvirtual resources. By combining multiple virtual
resources, we can create a logical network called avirtual network or a logically isolated network partition (LINP).
Network virtualization enables the creation of multiple virtual networks which can be independently
controlled and managed over the common physicalnetwork infrastructure. By creating different virtual
networks for each service, we can accommodate multiple services with diversified requirements in thesame physical network. Moreover, in network virtualization, the owner and user of network resources are
separated, which means that a virtual network user is
not required to own and deploy physical network
equipment. This enables a virtual network to dynamically add and delete network resources from thecommon virtual resource pools in response to traffic
demand changes and other environmental changes.
Since the addition of virtual resources is much fasterthan the deployment of additional physical equipment, we can construct and operate service networks
more efficiently and flexibly.
NTT submitted contributions concerning network

virtualization requirements and use cases. For
requirements, we proposed hard isolation among virtual networks; for use cases, we proposed the application of network virtualization to a carrier’s transport
networks. Those proposals have been included in the
Recommendation.
4. Conclusion
In this article, we overviewed the Future Networks
vision and network virtualization Recommendations
in ITU-T. The frameworks of the two remaining typesof awareness (data awareness and social & economic
awareness) will be discussed to enable the publication of Recommendations. Regarding network virtualization, general requirements and high-level network architecture will be discussed. NTT will continue to contribute to Future Networks standardization.
Reference[1]

A. Tsutsui and N. Morita, “Overview and Status of Focus Group on
Future Networks at ITU-T,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 8, No. 9,2010.
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr2010
09gls.html

NTT Technical Review

Global Standardization Activities

Takashi Miyamura

Senior Research Engineer, Backbone Networking Systems Group, Broadband Network
Systems Project, NTT Network Service Systems
Laboratories.
He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees from
Osaka University in 1997 and 1999, respectively.
In 1999, he joined NTT Network Service Systems Laboratories, where he engaged in R&D ofa high-speed IP switching router. He is now
researching future photonic IP networks and an
optical switching system. He received the 2001
APCC Paper Award at the 7th Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications. He is a member of
IEICE and the Operations Research Society ofJapan.

Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

Akihiro Tsutsui

Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, NTT
Network Innovation Laboratories.
He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in systems engineering from Kobe University, Hyogo,
in 1988 and 1990, respectively. Since joining
NTT in 1990, he has been researching programmable network devices, high-performance Internet protocols, and home networking. His current
interests include terabit-level scalable communication technologies and architectural modelingof the future Internet.

NTT around the WorldNTT Europe
Shingo Kimata†Abstract

NTT Europe provides total global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions for enterprise customers
in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This article describes
NTT Europe’s cloud services and its collaborative efforts withother companies in the NTT Group.

1. Introduction
Founded in 1988, NTT Europe [1] serves ninecountries (the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland,
Poland, and the United Arab Emirates) in the EMEA
region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) from a
total of 13 offices with its headquarters in London(Figs. 1–3). It started expanding its business in the
Russian sphere through collaboration with NTT Com
Russia and is planning to expand its office presence
to Italy and Sweden in 2012.

Since 2010, NTT Europe and NTT Europe Online(formerly Verio Europe) [2] have been integrating
their business operations, bringing together the network business of the former with the managed-hosting business of the latter. Under the slogan of ONE!
(One NTT in EMEA), they have been providing private networks, Global Tier 1 IP backbone access (IP:Internet protocol), and other network services as well
as datacentre and cloud services, information andcommunications technology (ICT) consulting, andother enterprise solutions in an integrated manner.
Furthermore, in 2012, NTT Europe moved toFig. 1. Devon House, home of NTT Europe.

Fig. 2. NTT Europe reception.

† NTT Europe
St. Katharine’s Way, London E1W 1LB, UK

NTT Technical Review

NTT around the WorldNTT Com Russia
SaintPetersburg Office
OfficeSaint Petersburg

NTT Europe Benelux
Netherlands Office
Netherlands OfficeNTT
NTT Europe
Europe Central
Central Europe
EuropeDüsseldorf
OfficeDüsseldorf Office

NTT Europe Central Europe
Hamburg
Sales Office
OfficeHamburg SalesNTT Europe
NTT
EuropeUK& NorthNorth Europe
EuropeUK &NTT Europe East Europe

NTT Europe
NTT
Europe Central
Central Europe
EuropeFrankfurt OfficeNTT
NTT Europe
Europe Benelux
Benelux
Brussels Office

NTT Europe Central Europe
Regensburg Office
Regensburg Office

NTT Europe France

NTT Europe Central Europe
ZurichSales Office
OfficeZurich Sales

NTT Com Russia
NTT
Com Moscow
Moscow Office
OfficeNTT Com

NTT Europe
NTT
Europe Central
Central Europe
EuropeMunichSales Office
OfficeMunich SalesNTT Europe srl
Barcelona
OfficeBarcelona OfficeNTT
NTTEurope
Europesrl
srl
MadridOffice
OfficeMadridNTT Europe Middle East

Fig. 3. NTT Europe office locations.

integrate business with Atlas Information Technology[3], a subsidiary of NTT Europe in Spain providing
application-management services, as part of a plan toexpand business as a core enterprise in the EMEA
region.
NTT Europe currently employs about 600 people ofwhich only 20 or slightly more than 3% are employees dispatched from Japan. About 80% of all revenues
come from European multinational customers, andthe ratio of local staff is increasing yearly. NTT
Europe’s employees are of diverse nationalities:
while some are citizens of the country where theywork, others are from various EU, Asian, and Africancountries. The atmosphere within the company isvery international.
2. Cloud services provided by NTT Europe
A key feature of NTT Europe is its provision ofcloud services (Fig. 4), which has been the mostadvanced among NTT Group companies outside
Japan. NTT Europe provides three types of cloudservices as summarized below to serve a wide varietyof customer needs:(1)	Private cloud: A secure, high-quality, and easily
managed environment enabling enterprise cusVol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

tomers to roll out applications on a dedicatedserver infrastructure.
(2)	Compute cloud: A multi-tenant cloud fusing
private and public clouds among which computing is allocated according to the customer’sbusiness, functions, and provided services.
(3)	Public cloud: A shared, multi-customer computing environment that can be easily and quickly
provided (in collaboration with OpSource,Inc.).
NTT Europe excels not only in selling individual
services but also in making proposals to its customers
and providing them with attractive solutions thatcombine a variety of services. It is a top cloud services provider among overseas subsidiaries of the
NTT Communications Group.
Another feature of NTT Europe is its superb operations support system, which is essential to the operation and management of these cloud services. It lets
customers themselves monitor and remotely control
services running on servers at any location from acustomer portal. They can easily and swiftly increaseor decrease the number of virtual servers or server
resources depending on current business conditions.
This support system, developed by NTT Europe, isstarting to be used for global cloud services in theNTT around the WorldInfrastructure

Middleware

Applications

Users

SAAS
(software as a service)providersPAAS(platform as a service)providers

IAAS(Infrastructure as a service)providersApplication code
(CRM. HR application...)Software framework(database application service)

CRM: customer relationship management
HR: human resources

Public cloud
Operating system
Virtual machine
Hardware/facility

Compute cloudPrivate cloud

Segmentation

Components

Delivery model

Distributed(multiple datacentres)
Remote(service provider datacentres)
Local (customer’s datacentres)
Locality

Fig. 4. NTT Europe’s cloud services.

NTT Communications Group.
A third feature of NTT Europe is its ability to provide application-management services through its
subsidiary Atlas Information Technology. Throughthese services, NTT Europe monitors and manages awide range of software for databases, web servers,
and other applications on behalf of the customer. This
frees the customer from application upgrade management, application monitoring, fault handling, problem management, and other burdens that would normally be handled by an in-house team on a daily
basis.
3. Collaboration with NTT Group companies
One challenge facing NTT Europe going forward is
how to foster collaboration with Dimension Data,
Integralis, and NTT DATA Group companies, which
are now expanding in Europe, so as to generate asynergetic effect. Although NTT Europe has only
about 600 employees in Europe, the total if counted

together with these NTT Group companies would
represent a huge business group of about 150 offices
and more than 6000 employees in Europe alone(Fig. 5). The objective here is to make full use of thislarge repository of resources.
On the business side, NTT Europe is already providing total solutions by combining its network andcloud services with the security services of Integralis,the information technology support services ofDimension Data, and the consulting services of the
NTT DATA Group, and it expects to see a yearly
increase in joint orders.
In addition to collaborative connections formed bysuch joint business, ties are becoming even deeper assome of the new NTT Europe offices such as those inBrussels, Munich, and Milan come to be co-locatedwith these group-company offices and conversely asgroup-company offices come to be co-located withNTT Europe offices such as those in Paris and Düsseldorf.

NTT Technical Review

NTT around the WorldNTT Europe/NTT Com Russia
Atlas
Cirquent
itelligence
Docomo Europe
Integralis
SecodeDimension Data
EmerioNetmobileKeane
NTT Data

6000+ employees
in EMEA

Fig. 5. NTT Group coverage in the EMEA region.

4. Future developments
Looking to the future, NTT Europe expects to further expand its business coverage and service line-up
and plans to raise its competitiveness in services bybuilding up its network and datacentre/cloud services
within the European region. Creating total NTT
Group value and promoting that value in the market
is without doubt the key to expanding NTT Groupbusiness in EMEA.

References
[1]
[2]
[3]

NTT Europe. http://www.eu.ntt.com/en/index.html
NTT Europe Online, NTT Technical Review, Vol. 8, No. 6, 2010.
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr2010
06ov1.html
Atlas Information Technology. http://www.atlasit.com/

NTT Europe—short column
British culture as seen through the Olympics
Amid the many sombre topics in Europe today,
such as the Euro crisis originating in Greece andsevere economic conditions and austerity policies
in various countries, one of the few bright spots is
the London Olympics to be held in August 2012.
The Olympics have generated much conversation in the workplace. When tickets first went onsale, for example, there was lots of talk about
which events people had been lucky to get tickets

Vol. 10 No. 5 May 2012

to and which were sold out. At the same time, it
became apparent that similarities and differences
between British and Japanese culture could beseen through the hosting of these Olympics.
To give an example, public transport is predicted to be somewhat chaotic during the
Olympics, and the advice given in a newspaper
article entitled ‘Survival Guide for Commuters’ isto have a drink in a pub before going home to
avoid the rush. This is about the same as having aNTT around the World

drink in an izakaya before going home in Japan.
On the other hand, there was a story of London
Underground (subway) workers being offered a£500 bonus for their services during the Olym­
pics to prevent a strike during that period andtheir union contesting that amount as being too
low. Using the Olympics as a pawn in labour
negotiations is a bit distasteful.
At work as well, some cultural differences
could be felt. We held monthly meetings on dealing with the Olympics beginning about a year
before the start of the Games, and a business continuity plan for that period was discussed. Various
questions were asked such as ‘What should we do
if a terrorist attack occurs?’ and countermeasures
were studied.
Indeed, opinions were exchanged on a varietyof threats that would hardly be thought of inJapan, such as ‘What happens if employees cannot get to work if Underground workers strike?’,‘What shall we do if employees request holidays
en masse to attend Olympic events?’, and ‘How
shall we respond to employees viewing a major

event during working hours (given that the company’s internal network could crash if many
employees start watching a popular event bystreaming video)?’. At first, I was somewhat confused, as I was not sure which of these were jokes
and which were serious issues for discussion.
Some surprising proposals—at least to me—were offered, such as ‘Why not let employees
watch a major event together in the company’s
conference room?’ (But in all fairness, such ameasure had already been taken during the 2010
World Cup soccer matches, when the Englandand Japan matches generated great excitement.)
On speaking with people at local firms, I learned
that this kind of activity was commonplace inEngland and that human-resource personnel
would often provide food from various nations
and treat the occasion as an employee event. I was
impressed in the way that business continuity
plans can differ from one country to another.
This kind of minor cultural difference can makeoverseas service both fascinating and difficult attimes.

Giant Olympic rings at St Pancras railway station.

2012 Olympics countdown clock in Trafalgar Square.

NTT Technical Review

External Awards
WTC2012 Best Poster Award
Winners: Arifumi Matsumoto †1, Masaki Minami †2, and Ichiro
Inoue†1†1 NTT Service Integration Laboratories†2 NTT WEST
Date: March 6, 2012
Organization: The World Telecommunications Congress (WTC)
2012, Miyazaki, Japan.
For “A Novel Management Method of Carrier Grade NAT for
Large Scale IPv4/IPv6 Networks”.
IPv4 address depletion is forcing Internet service providers andenterprises to deploy network address translation (NAT) in their networks. At the same time, network providers have to maintain traceability of abuse of and by their users. These two requirements do notcoexist easily because NAT makes tracing difficult. The NAT session
log is the key to keeping traceability in such a large-scale NAT environment, but the problem is that it can become too large. This paper
proposes a method of reducing the size of the NAT session log. The
method is evaluated using actual traffic data and confirmed to reduce
the session log to almost half. Moreover, the method is analyzed tofind several approaches to producing further improvements in the
reduction ratio.



The Young Scientists’ Prize, Commendation for Scienceand Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology
Winner: Norio Kumada
Date: April 17, 2012
Organization: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology
For “Many-body Physics in Two-dimensional Systems Formed in
Semiconductors”.
Quantum Hall states, which appear in high-mobility two-dimensional systems under a high-magnetic field, show a variety of quantum many-body physics. We investigated many-body states by controlling carrier interactions by using bilayer systems formed insemiconductors. In particular, we developed highly sensitive nuclear
magnetic resonance techniques, which revealed low-frequency spin
fluctuations associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking in a
two-dimensional system.

NTT Technical Review