NTT Technical Review
April 2012 Vol. 10 No. 4
Feature Articles: Keynote Speeches at NTT R&D Forum 2012
Satoshi Miura, President & CEO, NTT
Hiromichi Shinohara, NTT Senior Vice President, Director of
Research and Development Planning Department

Front-line Researchers
Hiroaki Gomi, Distinguished Senior Researcher,
NTT Communication Science Laboratories

Global Standardization Activities
Electromagnetic Compatibility Standardization Activities in
the Telecommunication Field at
the IEC/CISPR Seoul Meeting

Practical Field Information about
Telecommunication Technologies
Countermeasures to Lightning Damage in Home Gateways
Supporting FTTH Services

External Awards/Papers Published inTechnical Journals and Conference Proceedings
External Awards/Papers Published inTechnical Journals and Conference Proceedings

Feature Articles: Keynote Speeches at NTT R&D Forum 2012

Age of Convergence
Satoshi Miura
President & CEO, NTT
Abstract

This article discusses the progress of convergence between informationand communications technology (ICT) and a variety of industries, explains
the role of ICT and the importance of innovation in these trends, and presents
specific NTT activities. It is based on the keynote speech given by Satoshi
Miura, President and Chief Executive Officer of NTT, at NTT R&D Forum2012, held on February 15–17, 2012.

1. Importance of ICT as revealed bylast year’s earthquake
Let us first look back at the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. It was a tremendous disaster.
Telecommunications facilities were damaged to adegree that we had never experienced before. In thetsunami-stricken area, cables, telecommunicationbuildings, and mobile communications base stations
were flooded and destroyed, rendering us unable tosustain communication services. In areas not directly
hit by the earthquake, traffic rose sharply, making it
necessary to restrict communications. People foundthat they could get better connectivity with packet
communications carried over the Internet than with
telephone calls. On top of that, we experienced theeffects of the nuclear accident and wide-area power
outages followed by scheduled rolling power blackouts. This disaster has taught us valuable lessons andreminded us of the vital importance of information
communications technology (ICT) and the telecommunications infrastructure.
The first thing we did after the earthquake was toinstall special, free public telephones, satellite mobile
phones, and free Internet booths to make a communications environment available as soon as possible(Fig. 1). At the same time, we started work on extending various methods of support: (i) setting up portalsites to provide livelihood-related support information to affected people; (ii) enabling free health consultations via free videophones at evacuation sites incooperation with relevant not-for-profit organizations
to assist in the healthcare of evacuees; and (iii) providing free smartphones, tablets, and electronic textbook and reference-book content to assist in thereopening of school education.
For the future, we are implementing various measures based on the lessons learned from this calamity.
(1)	Constructing disaster-resistant networks andproviding early restoration
The most urgent task is to build disaster-resistantnetworks and put in place means to quickly restore
damaged networks. We are taking a multifaceted
approach, from providing multiple alternative links intransit networks, to facilitating the use of satellite
communications, extending the life of backup batteries, and stockpiling fuel in preparation for prolonged
commercial power outages. On the service front, we
will introduce a service for sending voice files over apacket network by the end of fiscal 2012.
(2)	Further promoting the use of ICT in normal
times
When I visited disaster-stricken sites, I found sheetsof paper with safety information written on themposted on the walls of evacuation sites: people had tolook at every wall to search for information about
their loved ones. And doctors were unable to prescribe the correct medicine for elderly people because
their medical records had been washed away. I feltthat support at the disaster sites could have been
expedited if medical records and residence certifiNTT Technical Review

Fixed-line & mobile

Feature Articles

Installation of special public
phones using portablesatellite equipment
Approx. 3900 phones

Free loan of satellite
mobile phones
Approx. 900 units

Free loan of mobile
phonesInstallation of freebattery recharging stations

Approx. 2100 units

Approx. 410 stations

Satellite mobile phone

Deployment of free Internet booths

Rental of tablet devices

InternetApprox.
410 locations

Approx. 670 units

Support using ICTProvision of portal sites to provide livelihood support information to affected persons(operation status of evacuation sites, water supply locations, stores, etc.)
Government:- Free provision to government agencies of map data and aerial photographs
before and after the disaster

Medicine:- Remote health consultations via free videophones at evacuation sites

Education:- Free provision of a comprehensive contact system for communication from schools toparents and guardians- Support for the creation of student learning environments

Fig. 1. Securing means of communication and use of ICT.

cates had been kept in electronic form and stored
remotely in the cloud. Such services cannot belaunched quickly after an emergency occurs. It isnecessary to promote the use of ICT as part of normallife in order to prepare in advance for the next disaster.
(3) Utilizing social media
Individualized information, such as safety information, that cannot be handled by mass media was collected and posted via social media. In addition, various types of support sites were launched. Social
media played a significant role in connecting people.
However, they also revealed a downside, such as
spreading false or harmful rumors. Although thesenegative characteristics must be reduced, we haverediscovered the potential of social media.
2. Progress of convergence and the role of ICT
We will now look at the current state of ICT fromVol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

viewpoints represented by three key phrases and two
major trends (Fig. 2).
2.1 Three key phrases(1) Multi-device access (mobile)
It has not taken long for smartphones and tablets togrow from their debut to a user base of more than 20
million in Japan, indicating steady progress towards
multi-device access. While Japan has led the world in
the use of Internet access from mobile terminals, themobile Internet is now growing on a global scale.
This development has given rise to new businessmodels and new types of enterprise.
(2) Cloud computing
The rise of cloud computing is shifting the businessworld from owning to using computing resources.
Businesses are now using systems in the form of
inexpensive, fast services rather than owning theirown physical systems. For cloud providers like us,
the challenge is not just to provide individual cloudservices independently but to make them workFeature Articles

Convergence

Globalization

Social networking service

Cloud computing

Multi-device access(mobile)Fig. 2. Three key phrases and two major trends.

together and to automate all processes from the construction to the maintenance of cloud servers in aprocess that we call orchestration. It is also necessary
to meet the needs of customers seamlessly and speedily, and not just domestically but globally.
(3) Social networking service
It seems clear that the fast and widespread propagation of information through social media assisted the“Arab Spring” revolution. And I already mentioned
the significant role played by social media in theaftermath of Japan’s earthquake. Facebook is showing spectacular growth, with its user base now
exceeding 800 million. The company applied to go
public on February 1, 2012. Its market value is
expected to surpass US$ 100 billion. Various types ofsocial networking services, including Twitter, andvarious types of enterprises have emerged and areincreasingly exerting influence on society. Social
media are also moving towards socialization by linking with other services.
2.2 Two major trends(1) Globalization
Globalization, which started in the manufacturingindustry, now encompasses all types of businesses
and individuals. As domestic demand levels off andas the enterprises that are our customers increasingly

do business globally, it is impossible for us to satisfy
their communications needs unless we become moreglobal.
The NTT Group has adopted globalization as oneof its business pillars in its New Medium-term Management Strategy. In line with this strategy, we havereinforced our service profile so that we can cover all
ICT services on every layer and we have expanded
our global area coverage, using mergers and acquisitions where appropriate. In the past, it was sufficient
to concentrate on Asia, America, and Europe, buttoday we cannot meet our customers’ needs unless wecover every corner of the world. This is because
demand for communications is rising in newly
emerging countries, which are now a driving force for
global economic growth. Today, the overseas companies affiliated with NTT number 450 (out of the totalof 770 affiliated companies) and they employ about
48,000 people (out of the total of 235,000).
Since mergers and acquisitions are usually concluded at a premium cost, we believe that their roleshould not be just addition but multiplication, acquiring technologies, human resources, and time, andgenerating synergy between affiliated companies.
There are still challenges in terms of how to maximize the total power of all the affiliated companies,
including how to ensure overall governance. HowevNTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

Academicfield

PublicsectorTechnologicalfield

Industrial
field

Human
resources

Culturalfield

Roles of ICT(1) Accelerate the evolution and development of other industries(2) Act as a catalyst to unite different industries

Fig. 3. Progress of convergence in various fields.

er, we are so far making steady progress, with sales
from global business estimated to exceed US$ 10
billion in fiscal 2011.
(2) Convergence
Convergence, which is one of the main themes ofthis article, has been evident in many fields (Fig. 3).
It has long been actively sought in the technologicaland academic fields, such as biotechnology andgenetic engineering, which arose from the convergence of biology, medicine, and chemistry, and in
financial engineering, which combines finance andmathematics. If we look back at history, convergencehas clearly been evident in culture and humanresources.
Above all, it is in the industrial field that numerous
cases of convergence are in progress, such as industry-government-academia collaboration, vertical
integration in production, processing and selling ofagricultural products, and medical tourism, which
combines medical care and tourism and is gaining in
popularity in Asia. Moreover, the convergence of ICT
and many other industries will be accelerated as
many kinds of objects are connected to the network,and various kinds of information are stored in databases. We believe that ICT has two roles to play inadvancing these types of convergence.
(i)	ICT will accelerate the evolution and development of those industries by being incorporated
into other industries.
Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012(ii)	ICT will act as a catalyst for innovation by uniting different industries.
In the ICT world, the convergence of fixed-line andmobile communications (fixed-mobile convergence)and the convergence of telecommunication andbroadcasting are now taken for granted. For example,
a multimedia broadcasting service called NOTTV [1]will be launched on April 1 by mmbi to supplement
existing services such as NTT’s HIKARI TV [2] andNTT DOCOMO’s BeeTV [3].
The convergence of ICT and different industries isalso giving rise to new markets, new services, andnew added value (Fig. 4).
2.3 Convergence of ICT and automobiles
The most typical example of such a convergence isthe convergence of ICT and vehicles (Fig. 5). Today,
automobiles are effectively moving information terminals. Electric vehicles, which have now begun totake off, can serve as batteries while they are parked
at home, and by being combined with smart metersand Home ICT, they can become a key element of asmart home.
Various other activities are also in progress in thisfield, such as a telematics service, in which moving
vehicles exchange information with information systems that make use of the GPS (global positioning
system) data of these vehicles, and an intelligent
transportation system, which aims to ensure theFeature Articles

Online shopping
Logistics

Public transportation

Financial services

Convergence

Automobiles

Agriculture

80

Infrastructure

Education
Environment & energy

Healthcare
RFID: radio-frequency identification

Fig. 4. Convergence of ICT and other industries.

Payment
systemChargermanagement
systemTraffic control
systemPlug-in station services

Smart house

Verification IC cardfor electric vehicle and charger
Telematics services
Smart
meter
Gateway

Battery chargers
Drive recorder

IC: integrated circuit

Fig. 5. Convergence of ICT and automobiles.



NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

Tenants
A: Municipality
B: Municipality
Promotion of good healthin the community

C: Healthcare facility

Healthcare center

Remote healthconsultation server
on cloud computing

Body
composition
scalesHealthcare practitioner
VPN
Pedometer
Remote health consultation(data sharing on videophone)

Guidance via videophoneby showing medical graphs

Blood-pressure gauge
Doctors and nurses

Healthcare at home

Health guidanceby doctors and nurses

VPN: virtual private network

Fig. 6. Convergence of ICT and healthcare.

safety of vehicles by enabling them to communicate
with the road and with other vehicles.
2.4 Convergence of ICT and healthcare
To overcome the shortage of medical doctors in
aging and underpopulated communities, NTT has
been conducting trials of remote medical care in Tono
in Iwate prefecture and in Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture. On the basis of this experience, we started a
cloud-based remote health consultation service,called Hikari Health Consultation on September 1,
2011 (Fig. 6). Blood pressure data, pedometer readings, etc. of the users are sent automatically from a
videophone to the management server. The user canreceive health advice and instructions from a remotedoctor or nurse while viewing his or her health data
displayed in graphical form on the videophone.
We will apply ICT to assist in inter-hospital cooperation. We are also implementing a form of ICT
convergence in the Future City Model Project sponVol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

sored by Keidanren (Japan Business Federation),
which combines healthcare using ICT with an ondemand bus service.
2.5 M
 achine-to-machine communication and big
data
Today, all sorts of information, such as data fromsensors, location data, and records of human behavior
obtained from mobile phones, can be automaticallycollected and stored in digital form. After it has been
anonymized to prevent personal identities from being
revealed, huge amounts of such information (known
as big data) can be analyzed to generate outputs useful for marketing, providing personal services, andsolving social issues (Fig. 7).
In particular, the global expansion of mobile networks has made it easy to put communication modules into various types of objects, facilitating thecollection of information (Fig. 8). For example,
Komatsu keeps track of the status of construction
Feature Articles

Provide a large
processing base.

Process/analyze data
accumulated in clouds.

Create & use knowledge
having added value.

Provide scalable
hardware/software for managing
big data efficiently.

Shorten execution timethrough high-speed scanning &parallel distributed processingof big data.

Collect data
(web, GPS, sensors, etc.).
Accumulate and manage big dataon the order of petabytes or exabytes.

New businessResolution ofsocial issues

Enriched life

Targeted advertising,prediction ofmarketing demands

Epidemiological/agricultural
applications, urban planning,anti-disaster planning, ITS

Behavior support,
health management,
personal concierge

Activities of enterprises

Activities of society

Activities of individuals
ITS: intelligent transportation system

Fig. 7. New value creation by big data.

Location information services
using car navigation system

AED

Remote monitoringof medical devices

Datacenter
Providing mobile network in
the USA(since April 2011)
Remote readingby smart meter
Providingcommunication modules
for international roaming
Condition
monitoringof electric vehicle

Alliancesin Asia-Pacific region

Payment & inventory
managementof vending machines

Remote monitoringof weather & temperature
for agriculture

Operation managementof construction equipment

Fig. 8. Providing M2M solutions.



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Feature Articles

Publicadministration

Healthcare

Business
Agriculture

Community
healthcaree-health record

e-government

Portal site formunicipality

ITS
Home ICTElectric
vehiclee-learning
e-whiteboard
e-textbook

Transportation

Education,
research

At homeEnergy(smart grid)

ICTthat creates, supports, and continues to evolve.

Fig. 9. The Age of Convergence as a society.

vehicles that it has sold around the world and uses thecollected information for maintenance and repair
purposes. Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication solutions are spreading in many other fields as
well, such as inventory management for vending
machines.
2.6 Smart community
The various types of convergence mentioned above
will converge into a smart community. There will be
convergence of energy and ICT, and then many kindsof objects and services in society, such as electricvehicles and other transport infrastructures, medicalcare, and city planning (architecture and civil engineering), will be integrated to make them more intelligent than before, and this will make for livable cities(Fig. 9).
3. R&D that drives innovation
Some shocking figures were made public this year.
Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

One is that, as Japan continues to see its birthrate
decline, the country’s population is expected toplunge to below 90 million by 2050. Another is thatthe country experienced a trade deficit in 2011 for the
first time in 31 years. These figures show that Japan
has indeed come to a turning point. This is a time
when new companies like Facebook are growing dramatically, while Motorola Mobility is bought by
Google, and Eastman Kodak goes bankrupt. No
enterprise can survive unless it changes. This is a time
when Japan must change in order to survive. Whilesome dispute it, others claim that Darwin said, “It is
not the strongest of the species that survives, nor themost intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable tochange.” Whoever said these words, though, I could
not agree more.
In the world of ICT, voice-call-centric communication has made way for IP-based communication (IP:Internet protocol), and various types of services haveemerged and converged. We have entered the age
when services count for more than networks (Fig. 10).
Feature Articles

Broadband,
ubiquitous

Legacyservice

Service innovation

Leading-edge research(fundamental research, element technology)

ServiceConvergence

Service- Economic growth(triple-play)Service(voice)- Creation of
new industries

Cooperation

Cooperation

Network

Network

Network(fixed, mobile)(IP-based)(seamless)- Solution forsocial challenges

Advanced & economical network
operations security of network equipment

Fig. 10. Direction of R&D.

3.1 I mportance of continuing to change to seek
innovation
Against the abovementioned background, ourresearch and development (R&D) must also change
to achieve innovation. The recent shift in importanceto mobility, services, software, and an open source
approach reflects the current trend and is gaining
momentum. Innovation is to be found not in theextension of current activities but where discontinuity
occurs, or where we encounter something different.
NTT’s R&D must constantly incorporate new ideas.
We are, for example, striving to recruit people from awide range of fields to expand our diversity.

3.3 Full-scale globalization of R&D
Ultimately, R&D itself must go global. NTT has
traditionally pursued R&D, developed specifications,and conducted procurement on its own, but this is not
the time for such self-dependence. We must aggressively seek information about the latest technologies
available in the world and utilize open source software and incorporate them into our home-growntechnologies. For this purpose, we reinforced ourpresence in Silicon Valley in the USA in January thisyear. We must continue to promote globalization
through novel activities.
4. Future activities of the NTT Group

3.2 Importance of speed
In particular, we must accelerate the speed of R&D
of services. R&D must be undertaken in collaboration with operating companies from an early stage.
Efforts to achieve this include personnel exchanges
between the laboratories and operating companies,
such as a program in which newly recruited researchers undergo training in operating companies. NTT’s
Research and Development Laboratory Group has
also undergone changes. Although this perception
may not be right for every research field, we are in atime when we must often undertake R&D with theattitude that an 80% level of product perfection now
is better than 90% level two or three years down the
road.



This article has looked at three key phrases and two
major trends surrounding ICT. Among these, it has
described service creation through convergence andinnovation. Through its R&D, NTT will further
invigorate its current activities while striving to create
new services by continuing to change as it incorporates new information and technologies from aroundthe world.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]

NOTTV (in Japanese). http://www.nottv.jp/
HIKARI TV. http://flets.com/english/bb/hikaritv/
BeeTV (in Japanese). http://pre.beetv.jp/

NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles: Keynote Speeches at NTT R&D Forum 2012

R&D to Create the Future of ICT
Hiromichi Shinohara
NTT Senior Vice President,
Director of Research andDevelopment Planning Department
Abstract

This article introduces NTT’s research and development (R&D) activities
aimed at making further innovations in order to move on from the Great East
Japan Earthquake of March 2011 and create the future of information andcommunications technology (ICT). It is based on the lecture given by Hiromichi Shinohara, NTT SeniorVice President and Director of the Research and Development Planning Department, at NTT R&D
Forum 2012, held on February 15–17, 2012.

1. One year after the Great East
Japan Earthquake
The earthquake that hit East Japan on March 11,
2011, and the tsunami that followed it caused severe
damage to NTT’s telecommunications facilities,
destroying and flooding buildings, breaking cables
and conduits, and felling the concrete masts of basestations for mobile communications. The services
provided via about 400,000 fixed lines and about
2000 base stations were disrupted immediately after
the earthquake and tsunami. The damage for fixedlines grew and peaked two days afterwards at about
1.5 million, while the damage for base stations
peaked one day after the earthquake at about 6700
base stations. This was because NTT’s batteries andgenerators sustained local power supply for sometime after the outage of the commercial power supply,
but then the batteries ran flat and the generators ran
out of fuel so they could no longer support communication.
1.1 I ssues that needed to be addressed by NTT’s
R&D
Confronted with this situation, the NTT Group
worked together to restore service by rushing vehiclemounted power generators and fuel to the stricken
areas, but this all-out effort left much room for

improvement because the commercial power outage
lasted longer and affected wider areas than NTT had
ever imagined and because it was necessary to prepare for the scheduled rolling power blackouts implemented in areas beyond the disaster-stricken ones.
Our disaster-countermeasures had been based on theassumption that a stable commercial power supply
would be available after a disaster, but in future it will
be necessary to be well prepared for the type of conditions that we faced this time.
Improvements in rapid restoration of communications include using satellite communications, particularly at evacuation sites. NTT’s perception of future
research and development (R&D) issues regarding
the provision of earthquake-resistant communication
services are shown in Fig. 1, broken down into three
periods: normal times, the period soon after an earthquake, and several weeks later.
1.2 R
 &D results achieved in the year since theearthquake
The main R&D areas where we have achieved acertain level of progress during the year since theearthquake are described below.
(1) Coping with prolonged power outage
As a backup power supply for NTT buildings, wehave started to develop a new type of battery that has
an energy density several times that of conventional
NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

1) Ordinary times

Reduce power
consumption.

Green R&D
(of ICT)

2) Soon after earthquake3) Several weeks later

Cope withprolonged
power outage.

Restorecommunication
rapidly.

Enhance satellite
communications.

Reduce dependence
on commercial
power sources.

Enhance remote
maintenance.

Enhance portability
and operability.

Respond rapidly
to changing
situation (network
congestion etc.).

Enhance safety
confirmation.

Makecommunications
infrastructurerobust.

Enhance flexibility
and autonomy.

Improve
understandability
and usability.

Support restoration
and reconstruction.

Deploy services
that act as social
infrastructure.

Network infrastructure
resistant toearthquakes- Function distribution- Redundant path design- Rigid infrastructure

Fig. 1. Major R&D activities to be pursued.

lead batteries. We have designed a lower-power optical network unit (ONU) for installation in homes forfiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service. We reduced thepower requirement from 5–10 W for the conventionalmodel to less than 2.5 W, so that the new ONU can be
powered by the battery of a portable personal computer through its USB (universal serial bus) interface.
This development will enable services to continueeven during the outage of the commercial power supply.
(2) Restoring communications rapidly
A ring network is designed to sustain communications through an alternative route if it is broken at one
place. However, ring networks were broken in several
places by the Great East Japan Earthquake, so it wasnecessary to put restored sections back into operation
one by one; this type of operation was not anticipatedwhen ring networks were designed. Over the lastyear, we have made significant progress in developing the capability to deal flexibly with a reoccurrenceof this situation via remote control, which will lead to
rapid restoration of ring networks.
(3) Enhancing satellite communications
We have completed the development of a compact
Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012satellite communication earth station, which has
solved the two major problems of the conventional
satellite communication system: the high level ofskill needed for aligning the satellite dish and theequipment’s size and weight, which made earth station transportation a considerable effort. In addition,
we are developing a mesh-shaped networking capability to allow communication between multiple
evacuation sites and a broadband access capability toallow access to the Internet. The result is a compact,
lightweight, and easy-to-use satellite communication
system (Fig. 2).
(4) Enhancing safety confirmation
We are enhancing the existing safety confirmation
service in three aspects: making it easy for anyone touse the service, making a variety of safety information available at one point, and eliminating barriers
between text and voice so that people can access thesame information from either a telephone or a PC.
1.3 Main R&D activities to be pursued
We have also identified R&D activities that weneed to pursue in the medium to long term.

Feature Articles

Existing system

New system

Ku-band ultrasmall satellite system(Ku-1ch)(communication capacity: audio 1 channel)

Small satellite earth station(communication speed: 1.5 Mbit/s)
Portable antenna- Size: 55 cm × 55 cm- Weight: approx. 30 kg- Diameter: 75 cm- Weight: approx. 100 kg

Automatic
satellite capture

Vehicle rooftop
antenna

Anti-disaster infrastructure satellite system(communication speed: 6 Mbit/s)- Diameter: 1.2 m- Weight: approx. 150 kg• Diameter: approx. 75 cm• Weight: approx. 40 kg• Automatic satellite capture• Portability improved byallowing disassembly• Diameter: approx. 60 cm• Weight: approx. 45 kg• Automatic satellite capture• Automatic satellite tracking

Meshedconnection

Broader
bandwidth

Compact andlightweightFig. 2. Compact, lightweight, and easy-to-use satellite communications system.

(1)	Robust telecommunications infrastructure(earthquake-resistant infrastructure)
Since the 1980s, we have continued to study antiearthquake measures for infrastructures such as manholes and conduits. Just as we studied ways to prevent
water leakage at the joints of cable tunnels anduneven ground settlement after the Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake Disaster (Kobe Earthquake) of 1995, weare now studying solutions to problems that emerged
after last year’s earthquake.
(2)	Flexible response to changes in the situation(supple network)
To ensure that services can be provided stably evenin the event of an earthquake, we are strengthening
our R&D in three areas: (i) a flexible network thatallows facilities in unaffected areas and facilities thatprovide services deemed non-essential in the immediate post-earthquake period to be reallocated to moreessential services, (ii) autonomous restoration frommultiple failures, and (iii) a flat network that is freefrom bottlenecks in restoration from failures and indealing with traffic fluctuations (Fig. 3). Specifically,
we are pursuing R&D of flexible networking technology that virtualizes the network in any of its hierarchical levels and allows the virtual networks to be
configured, assembled, and operated in a variety ofcombinations.
(3)	Lower power consumption: Green R&D (ofICT)
Our R&D of lower power consumption has until
now focused mainly on reducing the consumed powerbase, taking this as an indictor of CO2 emissions.
However, learning from last year’s earthquake, wehave begun to increase the emphasis on backup power
supplies and peak-load-suppressed power supply inorder to reduce the dependence on commercial powersources and we have begun to increase the emphasison datacenter energy management to control thepower consumption of all communications equipment according to the traffic load on the equipment(Fig. 4).
(4)	Support for restoration and reconstruction (provision of social infrastructure services)
With a view to making a smart community a reality,
we are studying community-wide energy management that coordinates distributed power sources, inaddition to relatively small-scale energy management, such as a home energy management system anda building energy management system. In particular,
we believe that NTT’s highly secure and reliable networks together with its high-performance, high-functionality home gateways can contribute greatly to
NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

FlexibleAutonomous

Enable sites and services toexchange communications
resources flexibly.
Utilization rate (%)

Expand the extent towhich automatic
restoration from multiple
failures is possible.
Virtualization

100

Automation…
0

Pref. Pref. Urgent Ordinary…
A B
traffic traffic
Network design(traffic theory etc.)

Disaster-stricken
area

Flat
Eliminate bottlenecks inrestoration from failures and indealing with traffic fluctuations.
Pref.: prefecture

Fig. 3. Supple network: for continuously connected services.

Technologies for reducing power consumption basePower-saving
procurement
Detailed guidelines

Power consumption

Air-conditioning
Aisle capping

Networks
Lightweight packet
processing etc.
Equipment
High-temperature
operation etc.
Power supply
Higher-voltage direct
current supply

Cloud computing
Virtualization
Access and terminals
Power saving, functional
integration, etc.
Devices and materials
Low-energy opticaldevices, nanodevices

Reduce dependence on commercial
power sources.
Backup power supply, peak-cut power
supply(fuel cells, new material batteries, etc.)
Control power consumption according toprocessing load.
Datacenter energy management system
Save power according to the load oncommunications equipment.

Traffic load

Fig. 4. Activities of Green R&D (of ICT).

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012Feature Articles

Any person

Any terminal

Urban

Simple andintuitive userinterface

Mobile phones
and smartphones

Platform thatallows access fromany terminal

Any service
MedicalcareHighly reliable
service platform

Age
Sex

Sensors

Education

Entertainment
Rural

Nationality

Audiovisual
devices

PCs

Government
services
OfficeE-mallHome appliances

Generators& batteries

Smartcommunity

Disability
Occupation

Web

Any network

Network-independent
user services

Fig. 5. Future to be brought about by ICT convergence.

such energy management.
We are also working on smart medical care, smart
education, and smart administration. Some NTT
Group companies are jointly participating in thereconstruction of towns as part of land readjustment
projects in Araihigashi and Tagonishi, Sendai, Miyagi, and in the Fukushima medical care service being
trialed in Hinoemata, Fukushima. As a company in acountry advanced in identifying and solving social
issues, NTT considers it to be its duty to spread its
technology and R&D know-how to the world.
2. The future to be brought about
by ICT convergence
The 2011 earthquake has raised salient many issues
regarding what ICT should ultimately provide. We
believe that what ICT can provide to the future world
is a higher level of security and sense of safety than
today and new value through the organic linking ofpeople, objects, and services by ICT, in what may becalled ICT convergence.
Opinions expressed by customers after the earth

quake have been very valuable in our search for thepath to this future. For example, many customers
found that the user interface of the disaster message
dialup and disaster message-board services was toocomplex to use. Many wanted to access the Internet
using terminals familiar to them rather than a mobile
phone or PC. There were also some positive opinions,saying that at the time when the telephone service
was disrupted right after the earthquake it was goodthat NTT kept its core network operating so that avariety of communication means, such as email andTwitter, were still available.
These opinions point to the future ICT world as
being one featuring (i) a simple and intuitive userinterface, (ii) network-independent services, (iii) a
platform that allows access to the Internet from any
terminal, and (iv) a highly reliable service platform.
Simply put, this world can be characterized by fourkinds of any: any person can access any service
through any network using any terminal (Fig. 5).
These are further explained in sections 2.1–2.4.

NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

There’ll be homework
on arithmetic

There’ll be homework
on arithmetic

SchoolThere’ll behomework
on arithmetic

Smartphone, PC

e-blackboard

Nintendo DS

Speech recognition server(speech → text conversion)

Home

Away from home

Note: Field tests ongoing in Okinawa and Tottori (cooperative project of Nintendo, Project Yuai (NPO) and NTT CLARUTY)
NPO: not-for-profit organization

Fig. 6. Koemiru at a special-needs school.

2.1 Simple and intuitive interface (any person)
To enhance the user interface, NTT has been focusing its R&D on three fields: speech processing, language processing, and ICT design. In recent years,
we have focused on adaptive speech recognition andsynthesis, high noise-resistance in speech recognition, and statistical machine translation based on
semantic understanding. We believe that acceleratingthese endeavors is the right course of action for our
R&D directed towards service creation.
The Koemiru (see the voice) service that has been
provided on a trial basis at schools for the hearing
impaired in Okinawa and Tottori since January 2012is shown in Fig. 6. This service is designed to assist
children with hearing impairment in communication
by displaying the speech of the teacher in text on thescreen of a game machine or by linking gamemachines to allow children to write messages to eachother. This service was reported on Japanese national
TV and attracted considerable attention. We believethat bringing this trial service to commercial viability
is an important mission of ours.
2.2 N etwork-independent user services (any network)
We believe that if the network is to become invisible
to customers, it must meet five requirements: (i) it
must connect a customer to an appropriate accessVol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

network, (ii) it must give users no discomfort in termsof speed or bandwidth, (iii) the charge must be affordable, (iv) it must allow services to be accessed fromany terminal, and (v) it must enable services to beaccessed without requiring special skills, in any situation. One direction that we are taking to satisfy theserequirements is to study fixed-mobile interworking
and convergence. Specifically, we are aiming to build
an environment in which terminals can access both
fixed and wireless networks transparently, the core
network provides equivalent functions and performance for both networks, and service servers in both
networks can work together to provide a variety ofservices. In addition, we will strengthen our study of
network-initiated service control, in which terminals
and networks work closely together to enable customers to be led to the most appropriate means ofcommunication, at the network’s initiative, at thetime of a disaster.
2.3 H
 ome platform that allows access from any
terminal (any terminal)
To provide services that aim at multi-faceted value
creation, such as those for a smart community, andare characterized by great convenience of use, it isimportant to enable a variety of terminals, whether IP(Internet protocol) terminals, non-IP terminals, or
smartphones, to be connected and to work togetherFeature Articles

indiscriminately. NTT is studying Home ICT technology that enables all such types of electronic terminals to be connected and work together via a home
gateway, which acts as a hub. It will become possible
for the user to input a terminal interworking scenario,
which, for example, determines that the user has left
home when his/her smartphone has left the home’s
Wi-Fi area and automatically locks the door and turns
off the power to lights and TVs.
2.4 H
 ighly reliable service platform (any service)
Service platform technology has evolved continuously: from the dominance of mainframes in the
1970s to the emergence of the PC and the Internet, tothe server-client model and grid computing, which
owe much to the availability of broadband access, andto the latest cloud computing. NTT considers cloudcomputing to be of critical importance as a service
provision platform. Our R&D strategy related to thecloud is described below.
3. NTT’s R&D strategy for cloud platforms:
SCALE
NTT’s R&D cloud strategy is called SCALE, which
stands for security, cost-effectiveness, agility, andleverage: four keywords that characterize the clouds
aimed at by NTT.
(i) Security: security ensured by cloud security(ii) Cost-effectiveness: economy derived from the useof open source software(iii) Agility: rapid processing of big data(iv) Leverage: value added through total operation,
including networking.
3.1 Cloud security
We are taking a two-pronged approach to security:(1) technical development to establish a Center of
Excellence (CoE) in security as represented by technology for compiling blacklists to prevent attacks andfor detecting attacks, cryptographic technology tohide information, and traceability technology to look
for traces left by attacks and (2) analysis and evaluation technology to exploit the above to provide sufficient defense and cloud operation that emphasizes theaccumulation of know-how.
One recent result of this approach is secret distribution technology, which segments and encrypts a data
file and stores the segments on different servers. If
someone successfully steals a few segments, he or
she cannot reconstruct the original data file. Conversely, if a few segments are lost as a result of aserver failure, the original data can be reconstructedfrom the redundancy provided by the remaining segments. This technology has been further extended tosecret computing technology, in which statistical data
computation can be performed while the data remains
encrypted, thus making it possible to process big data
without compromising the privacy of the people fromwhom it originated. This technology is being used injoint research on clinical epidemiology with theJapan Adult Leukemia Study Group (Fig. 7). This is
the first system in the world that creates a database ofcase data collected from hospitals and generates
medical statistical data from it while keeping the personal information of patients confidential. With its
processing speed having now reached a level sufficient for practical use, the system can be applied toother areas in the future, including epidemiologicalstudies on diseases other than leukemia.
3.2 Full-OSS cloud
One key to achieving economy in cloud computing
is to use open source software (OSS) and build fullOSS clouds. However, OSS generally does not provide sufficient functionality or quality. To counter thisproblem, NTT has formed an OSS Center, whose
mission is to enhance both the functionality and quality of OSS. In addition, with a view to providing acompetitive edge to NTT’s clouds, we are differentiating them by adding those features in which NTT
excels, such as security, big data processing, and networking.
3.3 Big-data platform
The processing of big data in clouds makes it possible to create valuable knowledge. The availabilityof such knowledge promises to encourage the emergence of new businesses and new markets that willassist in all aspects of the activities of enterprises,
communities, and individuals. NTT will intensify its
effort in this field.
Today, a big-data platform is usually implemented
using a piece of OSS called Hadoop. This stores collected data and then batch-processes it periodically;
thus, the resulting data is no longer realtime data. In
other words, it lacks in freshness. Jubatus, a new technology that NTT has developed, enables data collected in real time to be processed in real time on alarge scale and enables machine-learning-based data
mining. (Fig. 8). Our strategy is to promote the use of
Jubatus by offering it as OSS and thereby creating a
new user community. We are hoping that it will be
NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

Kaplan-Meler Method

1

JCI
certificate

University hospital

Cumulative survival rate

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5

NTT’s Kanto Hospital

0.4

Treatment A
Treatment B

0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0

Medical information
system

500

1000

1500
Time

2000

2500

3000

Analyze anduse.
Clinical research dataon adult leukemia

Send case data.

Epidemiologic
database
Private hospital

Secretdistribution

Secretcomputing

JCI: Joint Commission International.
(http://www.jointcommissioninternational.org/About-JCI/)

Fig. 7. Example of application to clinical epidemiology research.

Complex event processing
and streaming

Jubatusmahout/Hadoop

Asynchronous

Intense synchronization(servers share their intermediate
processing states)

Intense synchronization(servers synchronize theirprocessing)

Realtime

Realtime

Batch operation

Large-scale

Large-scale

Large-scale

Simplistic analysis

Sophisticated analysis

Sophisticatedanalysis* mahout is a machine-learning library operated on Hadoop.

Fig. 8. Realtime big-data analysis technology (Jubatus).

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012Feature Articles

Live migration and scale-out
Virtualstorage

Virtualstorage

Virtualstorage

Virtual storage
controller

Virtualserver

Virtualserver

Virtualserver

Virtual server
controller

Virtualnetwork

Virtualnetwork

Virtualnetwork

Virtual network
controller
Orchestration

Performance
crunchFailureJapan

OpenFlow etc.

USA
Asia

Customer
control

Business
continuity
plan

EuropeFig. 9. Making user services portable.

used in new fields such as the machine-to-machine(M2M) market.
3.4 I nterworking between clouds and the network
There can be various situations in which the operation of a cloud must be integrated with the operationof the network, for example, when a new system isneeded to initiate a new service, when a large volume
of backup data is generated in normal system operation, when the system’s performance requirementschange in response to a failure or rise in demand, orwhen the system’s physical configuration needs to bechanged to suit business relocation or a new business
continuity plan. NTT has been seeking to facilitate
the use of clouds in these situations, and the goal ofbeing able to change a cloud service without service
interruption, in order to meet customers’ ongoing
requirements without requiring them to reconfigure
their network devices, is now in sight.
For example, we have developed a technology thatallows a customer’s service processing to be transferred from one server to another, without interruption to the processing, in response to a customer’srequest (Fig. 9). Specifically, a virtual storage controller, a virtual server controller, and a virtual network controller interact with real servers and the
network to allow live migration or scale-out. This
technology is applicable to a global-scale cloud service.
We believe that we can make the most of NTT’s
strengths through services that integrate the operationof a cloud with that of the network in ways such as
those shown in the previous example. NTT aims toachieve service orchestration by harnessing the totality of its carrier-grade networks, which will evolve toallow increased flexibility in functionality (Fig. 10).
4. Looking ahead to future developments
4.1 Aiming at further service creation
Challenges in the R&D of service creation include
packaging services to turn our technical superiority
into competitive superiority, identifying and reflecting the user’s viewpoint, and reducing time to market
so that appealing services can be launched at the righttime. To meet these challenges, NTT has launched aService Incubation Project Team, which develops
NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

Total service
orchestration

Cloud platform

Virtual resource controller

Usability, economy, added service value

Highly flexible
network design

Automated
provisioning
and operation

Autonomous
optimizationof network
configuration

Seamlessinterworking
between
networks

Sophisticatedservice policy
control

Flexible network infrastructure

Fig. 10. Total service orchestration.

From technical superiority tocompetitive superiority

Timely service provision

Emphasis on “engine”
development

Joint development with
operating companies(open innovation)

Service Incubation
Project Team

Service visualization
Emphasis and reflection ofuser’s viewpoint

Fig. 11. Aiming at further service creation.

engines for differentiating services by using leadingedge technologies, develops prototype services toevaluate and verify the superiority of the engines, andpromotes joint development of commercial services
with NTT operating companies or open innovation
with parties inside or outside the NTT Group (Fig. 11).
A specific example of such an engine is a lightweight, low-delay software codec engine. This allows
Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012high-definition video to be played even on a low-end
PC with a delay of only 100 ms, about 60% shorter
than that of conventional codecs; this enables highdefinition video communication with realistic sensation, which is currently expensive, to be provided at
an affordable price. The application of this engine
with its unsurpassed performance is not limited tohigh-definition video communication. By combining
10Feature Articles

NatureScienceNature Nanotechnology
World’s first clarification of an electronstate that is expected to indicate theexistence of a quasiparticle, which isdifferent from the fundamental particles
in the natural world (Jan. 26, 2012)

Successful principle
experiment of quantum
memory (Oct. 12, 2011)

Successful electrical control ofinteractions between spin orbits ofelectrons (Jul. 22, 2011)(new direction in the development inquantum computers using electron spins)

Physical Review Letters

Physical Review Letters

Successful development of a 2-spin
quantum-bit arithmetic element(Sep. 22, 2011) (new direction inquantum entanglement control
using electron spins)

Quantum
computation

Nanophotonics
Successful control of electron
spins in a semiconductor using
ultrasonic waves (May 30, 2011)

Successful creation of a newquantum state of a substanceusing ultralow-temperature
atomic gas (Jul. 28, 2011)(opens the way to a quantum simulator)

Development of current
injection photonic
crystal laser (Feb. 13, 2012)
Optics Express

Physical Review LettersFig. 12. Recent publications of leading-edge research.

Revolutionary changes in
ICT paradigm(futuristic research)
ICT
convergence

Acceleration of service creation(open innovation)
Enforcement of cloud &big-data platforms(secure, cost effective, agile, andleverageable)

ICT innovations
Only award-winning
carrier in the world

Strengthening of software R&D(globalization of R&D activities) andsecurity R&D (wide range activities
from CoE to analysis & evaluation)
Development of network
infrastructure for future services(disaster-resistant, Green ICT, FMC, …)

2011 Top 100 Global Innovators Award
FMC: fixed-mobile convergenceFig. 13. Creating user values and new industries through ICT innovations.

its leading-edge R&D technologies with external
technologies appropriately, NTT will provide services that are highly valuable to customers in a timely
manner.
11

4.2 L
 atest achievements in leading-edge
research
NTT’s R&D achievements in materials science
over the last year are shown in Fig. 12. An experiment
NTT Technical Review

Feature Articles

related to the principle of quantum memory and an
experiment indicating the existence of a quasiparticle, which is neither a boson nor a fermion, were
published in Nature and Science, respectively, twoworld-renowned science journals. We have also succeeded in developing a current injection photonic
crystal laser, which is another example indicating theextremely high level of activity we are maintaining inleading-edge research.
In the area of leading-edge telecommunication
technology, we are pursuing the development of adigital signal processing large-scale integrated circuit(DSP-LSI), which allows high-capacity wavelengthdivision-multiplexing (WDM) transmission of 100
Gbit/s per wavelength in order to handle the evergrowing communications traffic, and the development of a photodiode for converting electromagnetic

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

radiation at visible light frequencies to terahertz frequencies, which can be used to detect the chemicalcomposition of a dangerous gas or a drug. In particular, we are considering the application of opticaldevice technology, which is NTT’s forte, to fields notdirectly connected with telecommunications.
5. Concluding remarks
NTT was the world’s sole telecommunications carrier to win the 2011 Top 100 Global Innovators Award
from Thomson Reuters. As a carrier’s R&D organization, striving to lead global innovation, the NTT R&D
Laboratory Group will keep on opening up new possibilities while zealously guarding superiority in coretelecommunications technology: the very technology
on which a carrier stands (Fig. 13).

12

Front-line Researchers

Pursuing Your Interests Using
Inspiration from the Outside World
Hiroaki Gomi
Distinguished Senior Researcher
NTT Communication Science Laboratories
Dr. Hiroaki Gomi, an NTT Distinguished Senior Researcher, israre among technical researchers: He explores the mechanisms of
information processing in the brain, an area normally associatedwith medical science and psychology. His achievements haveattracted attention throughout the world, and his papers haveappeared in numerous publications including the American academic journal Science. We asked him to tell us about his motivating force and the source of his ideas and how his research is currently progressing.

Exploring the mechanisms of information processing in the brain to unravel everyday wonders—Dr. Gomi, please tell us about your research.
In a few words, I am exploring the mechanisms of
information processing in the brain. Only a small portion of information processing from sensory input tomovement is performed consciously; most of it isperformed unconsciously. This function is acquired
through a development process that begins in childhood. It becomes increasingly diverse as you learn
how to process information from sensory input tomovement in everyday life according to your purpose. In our research, my colleagues and I seek toclarify the mechanisms of implicit, quick, and autonomous sensorimotor programming and control processes in human movement and the interaction
between sensorimotor control and perception from a
new perspective. To this end, we are focusing on topdown modification and prediction (forward estimation) and postdiction (retroactive estimation) processes that interact with information processing fromvisual and somatic sensations to the generation of

motor commands, and we are working to explain thisinteraction mechanism using a composite approachthat includes psychophysics, electrophysiology, brain
imaging, and computational modeling.
—That gives us a general idea of your research, but
could you give us an even simpler description?
Please imagine for a moment that the brain contains
embedded sensors associated with vision, touch, andmuscles and that we wish to understand how information from those sensors is used to represent the outside world and move a person’s hands, feet, mouth,and eyes (Fig. 1).
It might be better to experience such information
processing instead of just talking about it (smiles), so
let’s move into the laboratory (Fig. 2). In this laboratory, we have constructed a mock-up of an escalator
and covered it in black. When experimental subjects
walked onto a black step, they felt nothing strange.
On the other hand, after the black covering had been
removed, they felt an odd sensation together with aswaying of their body in the forward direction as soon
as they stepped onto a step that was now visually
NTT Technical Review

Front-line Researchers

recognized as being part of an escalator. Since there
is no difference between the two structures, such as
step height, we attribute this phenomenon to a difference in perception.
—This odd sensation is just what you feel when stepping onto a stopped escalator, isn’t it.
That’s right. No doubt many people have experienced this sensation. We are researching why it
occurs.
Not everything about implicit brain processing has
been explained, and I think this is why our view ofPerception
Decision making

these strange happenings with a stopped escalator is
attracting the interest of many people. Our interpretation differs from what has been said in the past aboutsuch phenomena.
Up to now, one frequently offered explanation of
the mechanism behind such human behavior has beenthat the incline at the escalator’s entrance causes the
body’s center of gravity to shift forward and become
unstable. Another explanation has been that thecontinuous stripes on the escalator’s steps create theillusion by a binocular miscorrespondence. On thecontrary, we have shown that this postural change
originates from the brain’s implicit information processing (motor programming) for the moving escalator even though its conscious perception is completely aware of the stopped escalator [1]. We are currently conducting further research on this finding.
Inspiration came from an escalator in Barcelona

Vision—What drove you to begin this research?
Auditory
sensation

Somatosensory
Somatotactile sensation
Motor control

Explicit (conscious) processing
Implicit (unconscious) processing

Fig. 1. S chematic representation of information processing
in sensation, perception, and motor control.

Some time ago, I visited the city of Barcelona in
Spain to attend an academic conference. Perhaps
because of the region’s good weather, there was an
outdoor escalator there, though it was clearly not
moving. As soon as I stepped onto this stopped escalator, I felt a strange sensation that’s hard to describe,and I felt a strong urge to understand its mechanism.
I mentioned my interest in researching this sensation
to my colleagues at the conference, but they did notshow any enthusiasm.
This inspiration reminds me of a question that I
posed when majoring in robotics at university. At thattime, I thought “Why can’t a robot perform actions

Subjects suffered from odd sensationand postural imbalance (forward bodysway) when stepping onto a stopped
escalator mock-up, but not when thehand rail and step-board strips wereshielded by a black cover.
(a) Escalator mock-up(b) Apparent escalator
shielded by black covermock-up(c) Subject stepping onto a stopped
escalator mock-up.

Fig. 2. Wonder of information processing in the brain.

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012



Front-line Researchersthat are very simple for a human to do?”For my first assignment after entering NTT, I actually hoped to be placed in a department outside thefield of robotics, but as it turned out, I was given a
post related to robots that put me on a firm career
path. This was quite lucky for me. I was also interested in information processing in the brain at thattime, and I was able to participate in research exploring the mechanisms of human learning and movement as well as research in information processing
related to human motor learning at the Advanced
Telecommunications Research Institute International(ATR) in Kyoto.
I also had the opportunity to work with researchersat the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) (former name, Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL)) on eye movement generated by surrounding visual motion and its physiological mechanism. During this research, I came tounderstand what kind of information about movements in the outside world is used to make the eyes
move. Specialists in this field have been aware forsome time of the connection between movement in
the outside world and movement of the body, and I
thought that maybe I could use this phenomenon of
unconscious body movement and knowledge of its
mechanism to clarify the mechanism behind the
body’s forward sway on an escalator.
When first starting out on this research, I was
focused on information processing in relation to
motor learning and control, but from around 2000, I
began to expand upon this and pursue the relationshipbetween movement and visual information processing and perception.
Taking great pride in rare but necessary research—Why is knowledge of sensorimotor mechanisms
necessary in NTT laboratories?
I am often asked this question. To be sure, suchresearch is mostly pursued by people in the fields of
medical science and psychology. In the past, people
like my colleagues and I, who are first and foremost
technical researchers, rarely became deeply involved
in research on sensorimotor functions and mechanisms. Even today, we sometimes feel like heretics in
NTT laboratories. Although it has been many years
since I returned to NTT and began this research, I’m
still being asked “Why?” However, a strong point ofNTT laboratories is that you are given the opportunity to pursue a certain line of research provided that

you can provide a clear, logical reason why it is necessary.
For example, among engineers attempting to
improve communications technology, one way of
thinking is that equipment and system functions
should be enhanced and made more convenient, atleast as a starting point. Of course, this is very important, but it is no less true that it is human beings thatwill be using such equipment and functions. Accordingly, could we not put more emphasis on communications technology by clarifying and understanding
human sensory and cognition mechanisms? Could we
not make communications technology even easier to
use and more convenient by, so to speak, deceiving
and altering human cognition? This aspect of communications is what we wish to explore. Though it israre among research topics in communications, I
believe that it is necessary. As members of NTT laboratories where a wide array of fields from fundamental technologies to applications are researched, wetake great pride in undertaking the most fundamentalof studies.
Moreover, there are many world-class experts invision and hearing at NTT Communication Science
Laboratories. Holding discussions with them andsharing results helps to bring a variety of questions
and ideas to the surface. Putting myself into such anenvironment is stimulating and makes my research all
the more satisfying.
—Was there a moment when you first felt that yourresearch was bearing fruit?
In research that aims for explanations, it is often
difficult to get useful results that make people happy
in a relatively short period of time. What can provide
emotional support here is that research results cansometimes present and draw attention to new andinteresting findings. It gave us great pleasure and asense of accomplishment when our research on computation in the brain for moving the human arm wasreported in the American journal Science [2] (Fig. 3)
and our discovery of new characteristics of implicit
visuomotor processing appeared on the covers ofleading journals [3], [4] (Fig. 4).
However, a complete explanation is, in fact,
difficult. While we may think that we understand,something may not hold true depending on conditions, so it’s best to take one step at a time. Taking, forexample, the question of why your body sways forward when you step onto a stopped escalator, wewere able to give a good explanation and to understandNTT Technical Review

Front-line Researchers

Arm stiffness ellipses measured in response toa time-series of perturbations during arm
movement (blue: before movement; orange:
during movement; green: after movement),
tangential velocity of actual movement (redline), and estimated equilibrium-point velocity(yellow line). The measured arm stiffness was
lower than previously predicted. This
demonstrates that the brain must code
complicated equilibrium-point movements
according to the arm dynamics in order toachieve smooth arm movements. This finding
argued against the hypothesis that the brain
codes simple “equilibrium-point” control.

Fig. 3. Arm stiffness during movement and equilibrium-point velocity profiles.

Manual following response (MFR) Perceptual contrast sensitivity
(Hz)

MFR

MEG

(mm/s2)
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0.1

MEG ampFt

MFR amp

10

(fT)
70

1

0.1

Fs

1 (c/deg)

0.1

Fs

1 (c/deg)

The differences in these characteristics indicate that the visual information
processing differs in visuomotor control and visual perception.
(a) Comparison of spatiotemporal frequency tuning between manual
response in reaction to visual motion and perceptual contrast
sensitivity when viewing the same motion (Fs: spatial frequency;
Ft: temporal frequency; c/deg: cycles per degree of visual angle
on the retina).

(b) Experimental setup

60
50
40
30

10
Fs
(c/deg)

1.0

Ft
(Hz)

20

10

0.1
Fs
(c/deg)

1.0

Ft
(Hz)

The similarity of these spatiotemporal frequency tunings suggests that thesignal source of MFR is generated in the occipital lobe.
(c) Spatiotemporal frequency tuning of MFR and magnetoencephalography (MEG)(d) Experimental setup for
MEG measurement(e) MEG brain mapping.

Fig. 4. Discrepancy in visual-motion analysis between manual response and perception.

that human movements that we are all familiar withcan manifest themselves in a variety of situations.
However, we are still researching why that forwardsway is conveyed not as a mistake in body movement
but as an odd sensation. We would like to understandwhat part of the brain is used for what kind of information processing.

Pursue your interests insistently,
but do not fear backing out—Is the driving force behind your research a sense of
mission as in contributing to society? Or are you
interested in solving riddles?
Pursuing my interests is a major force behind myVol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012



Front-line Researchers

work. Basically, the reason for this is that a strong
desire for knowledge makes me passionate about
research more often than a sense of mission.
I often tell young researchers that there is no point
in working on something that does not interest
them—it can’t go well in the end. The more one wonders about something that one does not understand or
why something is happening in an area of interest, themore one’s intellectual curiosity is tickled. This isbeneficial for society while giving the researcher asense of fulfillment.
Perhaps I myself have a persistent personality. It is
not so easy for me to give up. I just keep thinking
about a problem over and over again when I want tosolve it. But sometimes, when I can no longer comeup with new ideas or have lost my direction, I call ahalt to the study. But this is not really giving up: when
you move on to another topic, you sometimes think
about the earlier problem later from a new perspective and see things that you could not see before.
—From where do you receive your flashes of inspiration?
I participate in academic societies in fields somewhat different from my area of specialization. We
have often presented our research results to academic
societies related to neuroscience and brain sciencefrom the viewpoint of information processing, but inthe past, these were mainly societies specializing inmotor control. Recently, however, we have been making presentations to societies that mainly target visionand cognition, which has been quite enjoyable.
Furthermore, when talking to foreign researchers, I
can hear lots of opinions from a perspective completely different from that of Japanese researchers
even if we are talking about a problem in the same
area of research. Perhaps this is due to differences inbackground and fields of learning. In this way, I can
see things that I had not noticed on my own and canbe inspired as a result.
In addition, I make an effort to interact withresearchers in different fields. Brilliant researchers,
even those in different fields of study, will ask me
straightforward questions, which are often quite
important and worthy of considerable thought.
—How is your research tied into the future?
This is a matter of focusing on new discoveries andnewly explained functions and showing the direction
to applications. Uncovering applications from funda

mental knowledge is often difficult, but what wewould like to do is to build a foundation for paths
leading to diagnostic techniques for deteriorating
brain functions and brain disorders, training techniques for recovering and fortifying brain functions,and the creation of new human-machine interfaces, togive some examples.
Manipulating sensory information even just a little
can produce some strange effects in cognition andmovement. Such phenomena may be apparent to theperson in question or go unnoticed. It’s important that
we deeply investigate those phenomena and clarify
the information processing that enables the brain tointeract with the outside world and show the direction
for applying that processing.
To give some familiar examples, the present technology used in three-dimensional (3D) television isquite amazing, but watching such 3D images for an
extended period of time can be tiring. Moreover, if
you attach a similar 3D display mechanism to yourhead and move you hands or body in a virtual visual
space, your movements will become awkward andyou will tire and feel sickly even sooner. This isbecause difficulties arise in cerebral information processing, which we still have not explained sufficiently. If we can understand what kind of information
processing is carried out in the brain and how to prevent such difficulties from occurring there, we shouldbe able to contribute to the development of technology for achieving natural, easy-to-watch 3D
television.
A rebellious spirit is very welcome.
Let the heated debates begin!
—Dr. Gomi, could you leave us with some advice foryoung researchers?
Our laboratory is presently made up of about 30
young researchers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Youngpeople tend to be quite flexible when facing new matters, and such an attitude is very gratifying. On theother hand, I sometimes feel that young researchers
can be too quiet.
Perhaps the rebellious spirit that I look for in
researchers is in conflict with what is normallyrequired to receive praise as a good member of community. But in the world of research, I believe that aheretical stance is something that a researcher should
be proud of.
The research process is more than just learning. I
am always trying to figure out what I can take fromNTT Technical Review

Front-line Researchers

heated debates and how I can connect them to newexperimental paradigms and new ideas. So, to young
researchers, I say “Please, do not hesitate to debate.
Engaging in lively and even heated discussions canlead to better research.”
References
[1]
[2]
[3]

[4]

T. Fukui, T. Kimura, K. Kadota, S. Shimojo, and H. Gomi, “Odd
Sensation Induced by Moving-phantom which Triggers Subconscious
Motor Program,” PLoS ONE, Vol. 4, No. 6, e5782, 2009.
H. Gomi and M. Kawato, “Equilibrium-point Control Hypothesis
Examined by Measured Arm-stiffness during Multi-joint Movement,”
Science, Vol. 272, No. 5258, pp. 117–120, 1996.
H. Gomi, N. Abekawa, and S. Nishida, “Spatiotemporal Tuning ofRapid Interactions between Visual-motion Analysis and Reaching
Movement,” The Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 26, No. 20, pp.
5301–5308, 2006.
K. Amano, T. Kimura, S. Nishida, T. Takeda, and H. Gomi, “Close
Similarity between Spatiotemporal Frequency Tunings of Human
Cortical Responses and Involuntary Manual Following Responses to
Visual Motion,” J. Neurophysiol., Vol. 101, No. 2, pp. 888–897,
2009.

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

Hiroaki Gomi
Distinguished Senior Researcher and Group
Leader of Sensory and Motor Research Group at
NTT Communication Science Laboratories.
He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D degrees inmechanical engineering from Waseda University,
Tokyo, in 1986, 1988, and 1994, respectively. He
was a researcher at Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (1989–
1994), Adjunct Lecturer of Waseda University(1995–2001), and Adjunct Associate Professor(2000–2003) and Professor (2003–2004) of
Tokyo Institute of Technology. He was also
involved in CREST (1996–2003) and ERATO(2005–2010) projects of the Japan Science Technology Agency. His current research interests
include computational and neural mechanisms of
implicit human sensorimotor control and interactions among action, perception, and sensation. He
is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, theJapan Neuroscience Society, the Japanese Neural
Network Society, the Society of Instrument andControl Engineers, and the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers.

Global Standardization Activities

Electromagnetic Compatibility
Standardization Activities in the
Telecommunication Field at the
IEC/CISPR Seoul Meeting
Kimihiro Tajima†, Yoshiharu Akiyama,
Norihito Hirasawa, and Fujio Amemiya
Abstract

This article summarizes recent electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standardization activities in thetelecommunication field at the 2011 IEC/CISPR Plenary Meeting held in Seoul, South Korea, from
October 11 to October 21 and reports on the state of standardization deliberations relevant to NTT’s
telecommunication business. International EMC standards are an important issue for the NTT Group, as
they define EMC requirements for the provision of safe and secure telecommunication services.

1. Introduction

2. Summary of CISPR Seoul Meeting

The NTT Group maintains in-house technicalrequirements (NTT-TRs) that set out the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) quality levels to beadhered to when developing or procuring telecommunication equipment and devices. NTT-TRs stipulate EMC requirements (acceptable limits and measurement methods) to ensure safe and secure telecommunication services in terms of emissions (ofelectromagnetic disturbances), immunity (to electromagnetic disturbances), and overvoltage tolerance
capability (Fig. 1).
The acceptable EMC limits and measurement
methods specified in NTT-TRs conform to international standards for information technology equipment (ITE) or telecommunication equipment set out
by organizations such as IEC/CISPR (see section 2)
and ITU-T SG5 (International Telecommunication
Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector,
Study Group 5) so that enterprises in related industrial sectors in Japan and abroad can abide by the
NTT-TRs.

The Comité International Spécial des Perturbations
Radioélectriques (CISPR)—also known as the International Special Committee on Radio Interference—is a special committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). To ensure that there areconsistent global standards, it issues international
standards for the emission levels of unwanted electromagnetic disturbances from various devices (radio
interference sources) as well as for the apparatus andmethods used to measure such disturbances. The
CISPR secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
The 2011 IEC/CISPR Plenary Meeting was held at
the Palace Hotel in Seoul from October 11 to 21. The
Steering Committee, the five subcommittees (Subcommittees A, B, F, H, and I), 14 Working Groups,
and the IEC Subcommittee SC77C (High power transient phenomena) met in parallel with the Plenary
Meeting. Japan sent 35 delegates representing the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, theNational Institute of Information and Communications Technology, NTT, universities, testing organizations, and industry groups (Photos 1 and 2). An
organizational map of the EMC-related IEC

NTT Technical Review

Global Standardization Activities

NTT standards 1.1
EMC for Telecommunications Equipment
Ver. 3 (Dec. 8, 2009– )Regulation
TR for Electromagnetic Disturbance Emitted
from Telecommunications Equipment
NTT-TR550004 Ver. 4 (Dec. 18, 2009–)
Technical
Requirements

Recommendation
TR for Immunity of Telecommunications Equipment
NTT-TR549001 Ver. 3 (May 11, 2005–)
Recommendation
TR for Resistibility of Telecommunications Equipment
to Overvoltage and Overcurrent
NTT-TR189001 Ver. 1 (Jan. 31, 2003–)

NTT-TRs are available from the International Procurement website [1]Fig. 1. NTT-TRs for EMC standards.

Photo 1. Meeting place: the Palace Hotel in Seoul.

committees is shown in Fig. 2.
3. Main topics at IEC/CISPR Seoul Meeting
3.1 S
 mart grid standardization activities (creation of a WG)
Smart grids have been attracting increasing attention in recent years as a means of preserving the
global environment and mitigating risks from major
natural disasters. They provide coordinated systematic control over loads on decentralized energy
sources, such as storage batteries and natural energy
sources, to shift peak loads and reduce overall power
consumption. To examine smart grids, the IEC decidVol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

Photo 2. Meeting.

ed to establish a Strategic Group on Smart Grid (SG3)at the Sao Paulo meeting in November 2008 andselected a convenor and 13 members at the February
2009 Seoul meeting. SG3 released a standardization
roadmap in June 2010 and noted the need to workwith TC77 and CISPR in the area of EMC.
In view of this background, it was agreed at the
recent Seoul meeting to establish a smart grid WG
under the CISPR Steering Committee. It was alsodecided to circulate a Document for Comments (DC)in November 2011 to the National Committees(NCs), SCs, and Technical Committees (TCs), such
as TC77, with strong relations with CISPR to nominate members for the new WG. It was determined that

Global Standardization Activities

IEC(International Electrotechnical Commission)
SMB(Standardization Management Board)

SMB advisory committees

CISPR(International Special Committee on Radio Interference)
Smart Grid
WorkingGroup

CISPR Steering CommitteeSCs (subcommittees)

ACEC(Advisory Committee on Electromagnetic Compatibility)

SC A(Radio-interference measurements and statistical methods)

ACOS(Advisory Committee on Safety)

SC B(Industrial, scientific and medical radio-frequency apparatus)

ACEA(Advisory Committee on Environmental Aspects)

SC D(Electric/electronic equipment on vehicles)
SC F(Household appliances, lighting equipment and similar devices)TCs (technical committees)
TC 77
(EMC)
SC 77A(EMC—Low frequency phenomena)

SC H(Emission limits for the protection of radio services)
SC I(Information technology equipment, multimedia equipment andreceivers)

SC 77B(EMC—High frequency phenomena)
SC 77C(EMC—High power transient phenomena)
TC 22(Power electronic systems and equipment)
TC 62(Electrical equipment in medical practice)TC 65(Industrial-process measurement, control and automation)

Fig. 2. EMC-related IEC committees (organizational maps of TC 77 and CISPR).

the WG will report on the progress of its activities to
the Steering Committee, which meets by conference
call every two months.
3.2 P roposal to establish new acceptable limits
and measurement methods for radiated emissions below 30 MHz
This proposal, tabled by Germany, was triggered byfield data indicating that large-screen plasma TVs
produced radiated emissions below 30 MHz and thatthese emissions were interfering with radio services.
Current CISPR standards for measurement methods
and acceptable limits for sub-30-MHz radiated emissions apply only to special devices, such as induction
heating devices. This new proposal, therefore, called

for these regulations to be extended to cover all
devices. As a majority was in general agreement with
the need for measurements, it was decided that, as afirst step, Subcommittee A would start to examine
antenna calibration methods, test site validation
methods, and other issues in line with Japan’s
approach to the problem.
3.3 P roposal to establish new EMC provisions for
conducted emissions between 9 kHz and 150
kHz
This proposal, tabled by Australia, recommends
that acceptable levels of conducted emissions be
examined in the range from 9 kHz to 150 kHz, which
is not covered in current CISPR standards, in light of
NTT Technical Review

Global Standardization Activities

Measuringreceiver200±20

>200
EUT

>800

CDNE

100±10

Reference ground plane

30+10/-0AE/mains
NOTE: All dimensions are in mm.

Non-conductive support
EUT: equipment under test

Fig. 3. CDNE test setup (measures power-supply line radiated disturbances between 30 MHz and 300 MHz).

the introduction of smart meters using low-speed
power line communications (PLC) with frequencies
up to 450 kHz. In response to a questionnaire on theneed to regulate such acceptable levels (CISPR/
S/337/INF), Japan submitted the comment that there
should be discussion about introducing emission
measurements on the way to creating a standard since
there have been cases of PLC impairing the performance of other devices and causing malfunctions.
Countries submitted opinions both in agreement andopposition, but it was pointed out that there were
procedural problems in how the questionnaire wascirculated. Therefore, it was decided to resubmit thequestionnaire to NCs and obtain comments. It wasagreed that an action plan draft based on the obtainedcomments would be presented prior to the 2012 Plenary Meeting.
4. Main issues and discussions
The NTT Group’s in-house EMC regulations
include EMC standards for telecommunication equipment (in-house standards), which specify the minimum EMC requirements and operational methods fortelecommunication equipment that NTT uses to provide telecommunication services as well as for telecommunication equipment provided to customers.
NTT-TRs consist of technical requirements takenfrom the in-house standards [2]. This section introduces the direction of discussions on standardization
issues concerning these test methods, test apparatus,
radiated emissions standards, and immunity standards.
4.1 Subcommittee A
CISPR Subcommittee A is engaged in forming baseVol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

international standards for radio disturbance measurement apparatus and methods. Its main mission ispreparing and revising the CISPR 16 series of standards that specify radio disturbance measurement
apparatus and methods and are designated as basestandards cited by all other CISPR standards.
(1)	Proposal of a simple alternative method using
coupling decoupling networks (CDNE method)
The proposal (measurement apparatus specifications, measurement methods, and uncertainties) on
the coupling decoupling network for emission measurement (CDNE method) will move to a Committee
Draft for Vote (CDV). Japan has expressed reservations about the basic correlation between the CDNE
method and the ten-meter method, but it did not
oppose the establishment of the CDNE method as a
disturbance measurement method. Japan did submit
technical comments on such matters as the CDNE
specification and the rationale for the testing setup.
The CDNE method, as a measurement method, wasoriginally intended for lighting equipment tests anddoes not require radiated disturbance measurements(between 30 MHz and 300 MHz) at 10 m (Fig. 3).
Japan had been seeking an accurate specification for
the CDNE method, because its inclusion in the
CISPR 16 series, the base standards for measurement
apparatus, raised the possibility of its use in tests ofdevices other than lighting equipment.
At the Seoul meeting, Japan was successful in getting incorporated into the text the importance of longitudinal conversion loss provisions for CDNE intests of products dominated by differential-mode
components and the issue [3], [4] of common-mode
crosstalk.
Japan’s proposal was based mainly on the results ofactual measurements performed in NTT’s R&DGlobal Standardization Activities

laboratories, which have a wealth of experience and along track record with conducted disturbance measurements on transmission lines. Because of this factual basis, neutral third-party countries approved
Japan’s suggestions.
(2)	Validation of test sites for measurements of radiated disturbances below 30 MHz
With the growing momentum of the energy-conservation movement in recent years, inverters and otherenergy-saving electrical products have been adopted
in increasing numbers and are now in widespread use.
However, there are concerns that these devices willlead to greater electromagnetic interference at frequencies below 30 MHz. To date, disturbances in the
sub-30-MHz frequency range for most products havebeen regulated by the disturbance voltage at thepower supply terminals. But as the development andtransformation of electrical and electronic devices
have changed disturbance-emission mechanisms,
there is a growing need to directly measure and regulate radiated disturbances to avoid electromagnetic
interference. Consequently, there is a growing needfor measurement methods and standards for sub-30MHz radiated disturbance measurements.
SC-A/WG1 set up new ad hoc groups for “test site
validation” and “measurement methods” with respect
to sub-30-MHz radiated disturbance measurements.
Dr. Akira Sugiura from Japan (NICT) was selected as
the convenor of the test site validation ad hoc group.
It was also decided to circulate a DC (CISPR/A/978/
DC) after the Seoul meeting and ask for volunteers
from countries for the following tasks related to sub30-MHz radiated disturbance measurements.
1. Loop antenna calibration methods (A/WG1)
2.	Standards on test sites for radiated disturbances
below 30 MHz (A/WG1)
3. Test site validation methods (A/WG1)
4.	Standards for measurements of radiated disturbances below 30 MHz (A/WG2)
5.	Uncertainties assessment of radiated disturbances below 30 MHz (A/WG2)
4.2 Subcommittee I
Subcommittee I is involved in creating international
standards regarding EMC of ITE and multimedia
devices. This subcommittee is preparing emissions
standards (CISPR 13, 22, and 32) and immunity standards (CISPR 20, 24, and 35) for telecommunicationequipment. It is working on two issues that have a
direct bearing on NTT’s business.
(1)	Emission and immunity standards for multimedia equipment
This issue concerns the establishment of emission
standards (CISPR 32) and immunity standards(CISPR 35) that target ITE and broadcast receivers.
Since the functional barrier between them has disappeared, new standards that cover both categories arebeing drawn up. NTT’s emissions TR and immunity
TR are based on the existing CISPR 22 and CISPR 24
standards, but these TRs are expected to be replaced
once CISPR 32 and CISPR 35 come into effect. The
establishment of new standards that will govern
NTT’s required EMC performance in the future is
therefore a highly relevant issue for NTT’s business.
A vote was held on the Final Draft International
Standard (FDIS) for CISPR 32 (the vote deadline was
Dec. 9, 2011), and as a result the FDIS was approved.
It was also decided to start debate quickly on the fivepending Committee Drafts for Comments (CDs) withthe aim of issuing them as an amendment 1 of CISPR
32 Edition 1.
Japan has steered the debate on this standard andhas contributed multiple proposals. NTT has also
contributed actively to the standardization process,particularly in the area of conducted disturbance measurement methods.
With respect to CISPR 35, the Seoul meeting concluded most of the debate on NC comments on the
CD (I/380/CD) and it was agreed that the next stepwould be to prepare and vote on a CDV.
It was determined that the Subcommittee I WG4
management team will prepare the CDV draft basedon the debate to date, confirm the CDV draft at the
February 2012 WG4 meeting, and vote on it in time
for the Subcommittee I meeting to be held in Bangkok in October 2012. The publication of this standard
will speed up measurements and possibly have economic benefits, since where a device previously had
to be measured under both CISPR 20 and CISPR 24,
it can in future be measured under only CISPR 35.
(2)	New ISN for measuring conducted disturbancesat telecommunication ports
This issue involves the inclusion in CISPR standards of NTT’s newly developed impedance stabilization network (ISN) for measuring conducted disturbances at telecommunication ports. This issue wasalso proposed at the 2010 Seattle meeting and thistime it was accepted officially by Subcommittee I,
which decided to propose the new type of ISN as a
new measurement apparatus to Subcommittee A
again.
A schematic diagram of the proposed ISN, whichuses an asymmetrical transformer is shown in Fig. 4and examples of the improvement in voltageNTT Technical Review

Common mode disturbancevoltage-current ratio (V cm ÷ l cm) (dB)Global Standardization Activities

L1
EUT port

AE portC 1-a:1+aC
Asymmetrical transformer

R

Measuring port
R

Fig. 4. Diagram of impedance stabilization network using
an asymmetrical transformer.

characteristic measurements of a transmission port
when a telecommunication device’s disturbance ismeasured with the proposed measurement apparatus
are shown in Fig. 5 [5].
This example demonstrates that the proposed measurement apparatus can accurately measure common
mode disturbance voltages independent of the common mode impedance of the device under test.

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

45

40

35
30
0.1

1

10

30

Frequency (MHz)

55

50

300 Ω
150 Ω
75 Ω
Requirement

45

40

35
30
0.1

1

10

30

Frequency (MHz)(b) Measurement results with the proposed ISN

Fig. 5. E xample of improved voltage characteristic
measurements at telecommunication ports.

5. Concluding remarks
This article described the main topics discussed at
the IEC/CISPR Seoul meeting and looked at thedirection of those discussions. CISPR will continue
to establish new standards and update existing standards to keep abreast of the many transformations in
the electromagnetic environment, such as the convergence of telecommunication equipment and broadcasting equipment driven by broadband-service proliferation and the development of smart grids causedby the move to intelligent power control.
Through participation in international EMC standardization processes and active promotion of inhouse regulations, the NTT Group is committed tomaintaining a good electromagnetic environment andproviding high-quality, highly reliable telecommunication services.

50

300 Ω
150 Ω
75 Ω
Requirement(a) Measurement results with a conventional
ISN (measured voltage varies depending on
the common mode impedance of the EUT)

ReceiverCommon mode disturbancevoltage-current ratio (V cm ÷ l cm) (dB)

AE: auxiliary equipment

55

References
[1]
[2]

[3]
[4]
[5]

NTT International Procurement website.
http://www.ntt.co.jp/ontime/eg/tr/tr.html
K. Tajima, Y. Akiyama, and F. Amemiya, “Standardization Activities
in IEC/CISPR for Communications Electromagnetic Compatibility(EMC),” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2010.
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr2010
02gls.html
CISPR/A/WG1 (Seoul/Amemiya, Tajima, Hirasawa, Akiyama) 1101, Oct. 2011.
CISPR/A/WG2 (Seoul/Amemiya, Tajima) 11-01, Oct. 2011.
CISPR/I/WG3 (Hirasawa, Amemiya, Akiyama) 11-01, Oct. 2011.

Global Standardization Activities

Kimihiro Tajima

Executive Manager, Development Promotion
Project, NTT Energy and Environment Systems
Laboratories.
He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees fromthe Department of Electronics at Kumamoto
University in 1986 and 1989, respectively. He
joined NTT Telecommunications Networks
Laboratories in 1989. He has been engaged instudies on optical-scheme-based measuringmethods in the EMC field and the developmentof mobile communication systems using infrared
rays for EMC. He is the secretary of the Japanese
National Committee of CISPR Group A. He is amember of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) andIEEE.

Yoshiharu Akiyama

Senior Research Engineer, EMC Technology
Group, Energy System Project, NTT Energy andEnvironment Systems Laboratories.
He received the B.E. and Dr.Eng. degrees incommunication engineering from the University
of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, in 1990 and2010, respectively. Since joining NTT in 1990,
he has been researching EMC of broadband communications such as wireless local area networks,
DSLs, and PLT.

Norihito Hirasawa

Engineer, EMC Technology Group, NTT
Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories.
He received the B.E. degree in electrical engineering from Tokyo University of Science,
Chiba, in 1998. He joined NTT Electrical Communication Laboratory in 1998. He has been
researching EMC of broadband communications
such as PLT since 2008.

Fujio Amemiya

Senior Research Engineer, NTT Advanced
Technology Corporation.
He received the B.E., M.E., and Dr.Eng.
degrees in communication engineering fromTohoku University, Miyagi, in 1971, 1973, and2007, respectively. He joined the Musashino
Electrical Communication Laboratories, Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation(now NTT) in 1973. He has been involved in thedevelopment of digital telephone sets and in thedesign, evaluation, and EMC testing of communication equipment.

NTT Technical Review

Practical Field Information about
Telecommunication Technologies

Countermeasures to Lightning
Damage in Home Gateways
Supporting FTTH Services
Abstract

This article introduces lightning damage countermeasures for home gateways supporting fiber-to-thehome (FTTH) services, which have been developed by NTT EAST. It is the tenth in a bimonthly series
on the theme of practical field information about telecommunication technologies. This month’s contribution is from the EMC Engineering Group, Technical Assistance and Support Center, Maintenance andService Operations Department, Network Business Headquarters.

1. Introduction

2. Countermeasures to HGW lightning damage

The number of lightning-related failures of communication terminals such as home gateways(HGWs) was expected to decrease as metallic-circuit
services are replaced by optical fiber-to-the-home(FTTH) services. However, it has become clear thatthe number of lightning-related failures of HGWs is
not so different from that of integrated services digital
network (ISDN) terminal adaptors and digital service
units or asynchronous digital subscriber line (ADSL)
modems using metallic circuits. We analyzed HGW
failures and the manner in which customers use communication equipment. We found that the cause oflightning damage to HGWs was essentially unrelated
to the transmission medium but closely related tolightning-induced current surges entering through thepower-supply lines of equipment connected to the
HGW’s analog ports, local area network (LAN) ports,
and other ports.
This article introduces specific countermeasures tolightning damage to HGWs for various HGW usage
formats.

2.1 One telephone unit
First, we describe a countermeasure when an HGW
supporting Internet protocol (IP) telephony has one
mains-powered analog terminal connected to it. If thepower supplies of both the HGW and analog terminal
are connected to different power outlets, a lightning
surge current entering through the home’s power distribution board could generate a potential difference
between the two power outlets, which could cause
damage to both the HGW and analog terminal.
A countermeasure to this problem is shown in
Fig. 1. A lightning protection adaptor for analog port
(Thundercut A-2 (Photo 1)) is installed between the
power-supply line and analog port so that any lightning surge currents bypass the HGW via a surge
protective device. It is recommended to install a lightning protection adaptor on both the HGW and analog-terminal sides. However, some business phones
and fax machines incorporate lightning protection
circuits and devices similar to lightning protection
adaptors, so it may not be necessary to install an
adaptor on the analog-terminal side.
Connecting both the HGW and analog terminal to
the same power outlet can practically eliminate any
potential difference between the two. Therefore, thisconfiguration results in a low risk of lightning damage to the HGW and analog terminal. If both the
HGW and analog terminal are installed in the same

† NTT EAST
Ota-ku, 144-0053 JapanNTT Technical Review

Practical Field Information about Telecommunication Technologies

Power distribution board

Power taken from different power outlets

HGW
Analog terminal
Lightningprotection
adaptor may
be effective
here dependingon the type ofterminal.

Lightning protection
adaptor for
analog port

Fig. 1. Lightning damage countermeasure when the HGW has one analog terminal connected to it.

Photo 1. Lightning protection adaptor for analog port.

room, it is recommended that they be supplied powerfrom the same power outlet if at all possible.
2.2 Multiple telephone units
Many HGWs that support IP telephony have multiple analog ports and, in many cases, the HGW has
more than one analog terminal connected to it irrespective of the number of IP-telephone subscriberlines. If there are many HGW and analog-terminal
connections, there is a high probability that at least
one analog terminal will receive power from a different power outlet from the HGW, which opens up the
possibility of lightning-related damage. Moreover,Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

among the equipment connected to the analog ports,a network control unit (NCU) for reading the gas
meter, supporting a security system, etc. may be connected to an electrical earth that could act as a path forlightning backflow current [1]. In this case, the HGWshould be connected to a power outlet separate fromthe NCU earth.
A countermeasure for this usage format is shown in
Fig. 2. Since existing HGWs often provide two ports,
an effective method for protecting the HGW fromlightning is to use a lightning protection adaptor with
two analog ports. Therefore, the HGW can be protected by installing a lightning protection adaptor, but
a surge current can still flow toward the telephone
units in the same manner as when only one unit isused. For this reason, adding lightning protection
adaptors separately for the telephone units can also
protect them from lightning damage.
2.3 One personal computer
The countermeasure to lightning damage when the
HGW has one personal computer (PC) connected to
it is basically similar to that for one analog terminal.
Here too, lightning damage is more likely to occur if
the PC is connected to a different power outlet fromthe HGW.
In this case, one countermeasure is to add aPractical Field Information about Telecommunication Technologies

Analog terminal

Power distribution board

HGW

NCU

Terminal likely to be
on a lightning surge path

Lightning protection adaptor
for two analog ports

Fig. 2. Countermeasure to lightning damage when the HGW has two analog terminals connected to it.

Power distribution board

Power taken from different power outlets

HGW
PC

Lightning protection adaptor for LAN+ lightning protection adaptor for power supply

Fig. 3. Countermeasure to lightning damage when the HGW has one PC connected to it.

lightning protection adaptor for LAN in combination
with a lightning protection adaptor for power supply,
as shown in Fig. 3. An external view of this combined

adaptor is shown in Photo 2 (lightning protection
adaptor for LAN 100B-T and lightning protection
adaptor for power supply PW). If the HGW’s LAN
NTT Technical Review

Practical Field Information about Telecommunication Technologies

port is damaged by lightning, there is a high probability of the PC connected to that port being affected. It
is therefore recommended that countermeasures tolightning damage be applied to both the HGW andPC.
In the case of a wireless LAN, there is no route
between the HGW and PC for lightning surge current
to take. However, there is a risk of lightning-related
damage if the wireless router’s power supply isconnected to a different power outlet from the HGW.

Lightning protection
adaptor for LAN(100B-T)

Lightning protection
adaptor for power
supply (PW)

2.4 Multiple analog terminals and PCs
Here, we present a comprehensive countermeasure
to lightning damage when the HGW has multiple
analog terminals and PCs (or hubs) connected to it. In
the example shown in Fig. 4, the HGW is connected
to one telephone unit that incorporates a fax function,
one NCU for reading the gas meter, and two PCs
using Ethernet cables. In this case, if even one pieceof equipment connected to one of the HGW’s ports isusing a different power outlet from the HGW, thenlightning damage countermeasures must be applied
to all of the HGW’s ports. Moreover, since a PC does
not have a surge-bypass circuit, if a PC is connectedto the same power outlet as the HGW, then it is necessary to protect the HGW by using a lightning protection adaptor for the other ports.
The housings for the Thundercut A-2 and 100B-T
adaptors can be integrated into one unit by a sliding
mechanism. The ground terminals for both housingscan also be linked via its coupling bar. Moreover, if
there is felt to be a need to protect equipment on theother side of an adaptor, then it is recommended thata separate lightning protection adaptor be installed
for that equipment.

Photo 2. Lightning protection adaptor for LAN and lightning
protection adaptor for power supply.

Power distribution board

HGW

NCU

Lightning protection
adaptor for
two analog ports

Fig. 4. Countermeasure to lightning damage when the HGW has multiple analog terminals and PCs connected to it.

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

Practical Field Information about Telecommunication Technologies

3. Conclusion
This article presented examples of countermeasures
to lightning-related damage for a variety of customer
usage formats using lightning protection adaptors
developed by the Technical Assistance and Support
Center. In the future, HGW interfaces are expected to
become increasingly diverse. There are already ones
with a coaxial port for broadband television, and the
addition of USB (universal serial bus) ports is understudy (USB-type ADSL modems already exist).
At present, there is not a complete lineup of antilightning products for all interfaces, so appropriate
schemes for connecting the HGW and user equipment to power outlets and the introduction of wirelessLANs will continue to be effective countermeasures
to lightning damage. Nevertheless, the Technical
Assistance and Support Center is constantly survey-



ing the surge resistance of commercially available
user equipment and anti-lightning products andworking to develop anti-lightning products for new
HGW interfaces. To further reduce lightning-related
failures in communication equipment, including
HGWs, from here on, we plan to conduct on-site surveys and continue to develop anti-lightning products
and lightning-protection measures while actively
holding seminars on lightning countermeasures foron-site maintenance personnel in various regions of
the country, updating websites about countermeasures to lightning damage, and so on.
Reference[1]“Countermeasures to Lightning Backflow Current in Telecommunication Cables,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 8, No. 10, 2010.
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr2010
10pf1.html

NTT Technical Review

External Awards
FY 2011 Industrial Standardization Awards (Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau
Director-General’s Award)
Winner: Hideaki Yamamoto, NTT Service Integration Laboratories
Date: Oct. 17, 2011
Organization: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

Celtic Excellence Gold Award 2012
Winners: Servery Project (Hiroki Baba†1 and Naoki Takaya†2)†1 NTT Service Integration Laboratories†2 NTT EAST
Date: Feb. 22, 2012
Organization: Celtic plus (Celtic Core Group)

For outstanding contributions to international standardization
activities regarding ISO/IEC SC17/WG8 (Contactless smart card).

The European research project SERVERY has been honored with
the Celtic Excellence Gold Award 2012 for its excellent performance.
NTT Service Integration Laboratories was involved in the project.
http://www.celtic-initiative.org/Publications/Press_releases/CelticPlus_Press-Release_2012-02-28.pdf

Papers Published in Technical Journals andConference Proceedings
Generic Construction of Strongly Secure Timed-release
Public-key Encryption
A. Fujioka, Y. Okamoto, and T. Saito
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 6812/2011, pp. 319–
336.
This paper provides a sufficient condition to construct timedrelease public-key encryption (TRPKE), where the constructed
TRPKE scheme guarantees strong security against malicious time
servers, proposed by Chow et al., and strong security against malicious receivers, defined by Cathalo et al., in the random oracle model
if the component identity-based encryption (IBE) scheme is IND-IDCPA secure, the component PKE scheme is IND-ID-CPA secure, and
the PKE scheme satisfies negligible γ-uniformity for every public
key. Chow et al. proposed a strongly secure TRPKE scheme, whichis specific in the standard model. To the best of our knowledge, ourproposed construction is the first generic one for TRPKE that guarantees strong security even in the random oracle model.

Learning Condensed Feature Representations from Large
Unsupervised Data Sets for Supervised Learning
J. Suzuki, H. Isozaki, and M. Nagata
Proc. of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: short papers, pp. 636–641, Portland, Oregon,
2011.
This paper proposes a novel approach for effectively utilizing
unsupervised data in addition to supervised data for supervised learning. We use unsupervised data to generate informative ‘condensedfeature representations’ from the original feature set used in supervised natural language processing (NLP) systems. The main contri-bution of our method is that it can offer dense and low-dimensionalfeature spaces for NLP tasks while maintaining the state-of-the-art
performance provided by the recently developed high-performancesemi-supervised learning technique. Our method matches the resultsof current state-of-the-art systems with very few features, i.e., Fscore of 90.72 with 344 features for CoNLL-2003 named entity recognition data and unlabeled attachment score of 93.55 with 12,500
features for dependency parsing data derived from PTB-III.

Circulator-free Reflection-type Tunable Optical Dispersion
Compensator Using Tandem Arrayed-waveguide Gratings
Y. Ikuma, T. Mizuno, H. Takahashi, and H. Tsuda
Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 29, No. 16, pp. 2447–2453,
2011.
A tunable optical dispersion compensator that uses cascaded
arrayed-waveguide gratings and an integrated phase shifter is reported. It is a catoptric circuit but does not require a circulator. The dispersion is successfully controlled from +142 to +1148 ps/nm. Errorfree transmission was confirmed after dispersion compensation in atransmission experiment using 43 Gbps CSRZ-DQPSK modulation.

Awareness of Central Luminance Edge is Crucial for the
Craik-O’Brien-Cornsweet Effect
A. Masuda, J. Watanabe, M. Terao, M. Watanabe, A. Yagi, and K.
MaruyaFrontiers in Human Neuroscience, Vol. 5, No. 125, 2011.
The Craik-O’Brien-Cornsweet (COC) effect demonstrates thatNTT Technical Review

Papers Published in Technical Journals and Conference Proceedings

perceived lightness depends not only on the retinal input at corresponding visual areas but also on distal retinal inputs. In the COC
effect, the central edge of an opposing pair of luminance gradients(COC edge) makes adjoining regions with identical luminanceappear to be different. To investigate the underlying mechanisms of
the effect, we examined whether the subjective awareness of the COC
edge is necessary for the effect to be generated. We manipulated thevisibility of the COC edge using visual backward masking and continuous flash suppression while monitoring subjective reports regarding online percepts and after effects of adaptation. Psychophysicalresults showed that the online percept of the COC effect nearly vanishes in conditions where the COC edge is rendered invisible. On theother hand, the results of adaptation experiments showed that the
COC edge is still processed at the early stage even under perceptual
suppression. These results suggest that processing of the COC edge
at the early stage is not sufficient to generate the COC effect and that
subjective awareness of the COC edge is necessary.

Characterization of Strongly Secure Authenticated Key
Exchanges without NAXOS TechniqueA. Fujioka
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 7038/2011, pp. 33–50.
This paper examines two-pass authenticated key exchange (AKE)
protocols that do not use the NAXOS technique and that are secure
under the gap Diffie-Hellman assumption in the random oracle
model. Their internal structures are also discussed. We introduce animaginary protocol, however insecure, to analyze the protocols andshow the relations between these protocols from the viewpoint of
how they overcome the insecurity of the introduced protocol. In addition, this paper provides ways to characterize the AKE protocols anddefines two parameters: one consists of the number of static keys, thenumber of ephemeral keys, and the number of shared values, and theother is defined as the total sum of these numbers. When an AKE
protocol is constructed on the basis of some kind of group, these twoparameters indicate the number of elements in the group, i.e., they are
related to the data sizes for storage and communication.

Multi-closure-interval Linear Prediction Analysis based on
Phase Equalization
S. Hiroya, N. Miki, and T. Mochida
Proc. of APSIPA ASC 2011, Xi’ an, China.
This paper presents a multi-closure-interval linear prediction(MCLP) analysis based on phase equalization in order to remove theeffect of subglottal resonance in speech signals for estimating a
vocal-tract spectrum. The validity of this method is evaluated byusing a vocal-tract simulator that models vocal-tract losses and thesubglottal system. Results show that the proposed method improves
the estimation accuracy of a vocal-tract spectrum compared with theconventional MCLP method.

Stochastic Resonance Using a Steep-subthreshold-swing
Transistor
K. Nishiguchi and A. Fujiwara
Proc. of the 24th International Microprocesses and Nanotechnology Conference, Kyoto, Japan, 2011.
We demonstrated stochastic resonance (SR) using nanoscale
metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) witha small subthreshold swing. The MOSFET has a wire channel withtriple gates and shows current characteristics, whose subthreshold

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

swing is much smaller than 60 mV/dec owing to a parasitic bipolartransistor. The strong nonlinearity and hysteresis of the MOSFET’scurrent characteristics increase the effect of SR, which allows the
MOSFET to output a signal similar to an input signal that is muchsmaller than the MOSFET’s threshold voltage. Additionally, using
these features, we demonstrated pattern cryptography as a new application of SR.

Distributed Minimum Error Rate Training of Statistical
Machine Translation Using Particle Swarm Optimization
J. Suzuki, K. Duh, and M. Nagata
Proc. of the 5th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing, pp. 649–657, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2011.
Direct optimization of a translation metric is an integral part ofbuilding state-of-the-art statistical machine translation (SMT) systems. Unfortunately, widely used translation metrics such as the LEU
score are non-smooth, non-convex, and non-trivial to optimize. Thus,
standard optimizers such as minimum error rate training can be
extremely time-consuming, leading to a slow turnaround rate for
SMT research and experimentation. We propose an alternative
approach based on particle swarm optimization, which can easily
exploit the fast growth of distributed computing to obtain solutions
quickly. For example in our experiments on NIST 2008 Chinese-toEnglish data with 512 cores, we demonstrate a speed increase of up
to 15 times and reduction in parameter tuning time from 10 hours to
40 minutes with no degradation in BLEU score.

Bound Exciton Photoluminescence from Ion-implanted
Phosphorus in Thin Silicon Layers
H. Sumikura, K. Nishiguchi, Y. Ono, A. Fujiwara, and M. Notomi
Optics Express, Vol. 19, No. 25, pp. 25255–25262, 2011.
We report the observation of clear bound exciton (BE) emission
from ion-implanted phosphorus. Shallow implantation and high-temperature annealing successfully introduce active donors into thin silicon layers. The BE emission at a wavelength of 1079 nm shows thatsome of the implanted donors are definitely activated and isolated
from each other. However, photoluminescence and electron spinresonance studies find a cluster state of the activated donors. The BEemission is suppressed by this cluster state rather than by the nonradiative processes caused by ion implantation. Our results provide
important information about ion implantation for doping quantum
devices with phosphorus quantum bits.

Tunable Optical Dispersion Compensator with a High-resolution Arrayed-waveguide Grating
Y. Ikuma, T. Mizuno, H. Takahashi, and H. Tsuda
IEICE Electronics Express, Vol. 8, No. 24, pp. 2087–2092, 2011.
A tunable optical dispersion compensator (TODC) that uses ahigh-resolution arrayed-waveguide grating and integrated resin
lenses is reported. The dispersion tuning range is 1426 ps/nm, threetimes larger than that in our previous report for the same type of
TODC. A transmission experiment using a 43-Gbps carrier-suppressed return-to-zero differential quadrature phase shift keying(CSRZ-DQPSK) signal is also reported.

Papers Published in Technical Journals and Conference Proceedings

Effect of Hydrogen Entry into Steel
H. Saito, N. Fujimoto, and T. Sawada
Proc. of the ISSS-6: 6th International Symposium on Surface Science, 13PN-112, Tokyo, Japan, 2011.
Hydrogen embrittlement of steel is caused by the interaction
between hydrogen and metal. We investigated this phenomenon byusing an electrochemical technique and microscope observation.
Since a hydrogen atom does not have extranuclear electrons, thebehavior of hydrogen atoms is difficult to analyze. We therefore
reduced a hydrogen molecule into protons, or hydrogen cations, at
one surface of a steel plate sample and oxidized protons at the othersurface of the plate. Reduction and oxidation were carried out by
controlling the electrical potential. The measured current revealed theelementary reduction/oxidation process and entry properties ofhydrogen on steel sample surface(s). We found that the polarizationof a sample controls the entry of adsorbed hydrogen. Microscopeobservation showed that a critical concentration induces the growthof micro-cracks.

SAW: Java Synchronization Selection of Lock or Software
Transactional Memory
Y. Yamada, H. Iwasaki, and T. Ugawa
Proc. of 2011 IEEE 17th International Conference on Parallel andDistributed Systems (ICPADS), pp. 104–111, Tainan, Taiwan, 2011.
To rewrite a sequential program into a concurrent one, the programmer has to enforce atomic execution of a sequence of accesses
to shared memory to avoid unexpected inconsistency. There are twomeans of enforcing this atomicity: one is the use of lock-based synchronization and the other is the use of software transactional memory (STM). However, it is difficult to predict which one is moresuitable for an application other without trying both mechanisms
because their performance heavily depends on the application. We
have developed a system named SAW that decouples the synchronization mechanism from the application logic of a Java program andenables the programmer to statically select a suitable synchronization
mechanism: either lock or STM. We introduce annotation to specify
critical sections and shared objects. In accordance with the annotatedsource program and the programmer’s choice of a synchronization
mechanism, SAW generates aspects representing the synchronization
processing. By directly comparing the cost of rewriting using SAW
and that using an individual synchronization mechanism, we showthat SAW relieves the programmer’s burden. Through several benchmarks, we demonstrate that SAW is an effective way of switching
synchronization mechanisms according to the characteristics of eachapplication.

Proposal of Channel-grouping Wireless-transceiver Architecture for Suppressing Local-oscillator Phase Noise
M. Ugajin
IEICE Electronics Express, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 86–91, 2012.
This paper proposes an architecture-level solution for suppressing
the phase noise of local oscillators in wireless-transceiver large-scale
integrated circuits (LSIs). Because a phase-looked loop (PLL) supplies only one local oscillator frequency for multiple channels, the
PLL’s large loop bandwidth can be used to suppress the phase noise.
Simulation results show that a sixteen-channel grouping can suppress
the phase noise by more than 24 dB in narrow-band wireless systems.
Channel selection in receive mode can be ensured by a variable intermediate frequency (IF) complex band-pass filter. Local-leak andimage signals in transmit mode can be suppressed by a quadrature
up-conversion mixer and radio-frequency band-pass filter with ahigh-IF configuration. A digital-to-analog converter, analog-to-digital converter, and digital LSI perform modulation and demodulationof the variable-IF signals.

Growth and Device Properties of AlGaN/GaN High-Electron Mobility Transistors on a Diamond Substrate
K. Hirama, M. Kasu, and Y. Taniyasu
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 51, No. 01AG09, 2012.
A crack-free c-plane AlGaN/GaN heterostructure was grown on adiamond (111) substrate by using an AlN/GaN multi-buffer layer. We
found that in the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, the GaN layer wascoherently grown on the AlN/GaN multi-buffer layer. The a-lattice
constant of strain-free GaN is longer than the average a-lattice constant of the AlN/GaN multi-buffer layer. Therefore, compressive
strain is induced in the GaN layer of the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure.
The compressive strain compensates for the tensile strain induced by
the diamond substrate, which makes the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure
free of cracks. AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors(HEMTs) fabricated on diamond substrates show maximum draincurrent of 275 mA/mm, transconductance of 60 mS/mm, and clear
pinch-off characteristics for a gate length of 6 µm. The low thermal
resistance of the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on diamond is demonstrated.

Security of Sequential Multiple Encryption
A. Fujioka, Y. Okamoto, and T. Saito
IEICE Trans. on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications
and Computer Sciences, Vol. E95-A, No. 1, pp. 57–69, 2012.
This paper analyzes the security of sequential multiple encryptions
based on asymmetric key encryptions and shows that a sequential
construction of secure multiple encryptions exists. The sequential
multiple encryption scheme can be proved to be indistinguishable
against chosen ciphertext attacks for multiple encryptions (IND-MECCA), where the adversary can access the decryption oracle of themultiple encryption, even when all the underlying encryptions of themultiple encryption are indistinguishable against chosen plaintext
attacks (IND-CPA). We provide an extended security notion ofsequential multiple encryptions, in which the adversary is allowed toaccess decryption oracles of the underlying encryptions in addition to
the multiple encryption, and we show that our constructed scheme
satisfies the security notion when all the underlying encryptions areindistinguishable against chosen ciphertext attacks (IND-CCA).

A Semitransparency-based Optical-flow Method with a
Point Trajectory Model for Particle-like Video
H. Sakaino
IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 441–450,
2012.
This paper proposes a new semitransparency-based optical-flow
model with a point trajectory model for particle-like video. Previous
optical-flow models have used properties ranging from image brightness constancy to image brightness change models as constraints.
However, two important issues remain unsolved. The first issue is
how to track/match a semitransparent object when the displacement
between video frames is very large. Such moving objects with different shapes and sizes in an outdoor scene move against a complicatedbackground. Second, due to semitransparency, the image intensity
between frames can also violate a previous image brightness-based
optical-flow model. Thus, we propose a two-step optimization for the
optical-flow estimation model for a moving semitransparent object,

NTT Technical Review

Papers Published in Technical Journals and Conference Proceedingsi.e., particle. In the first step, a rough optical flow between particles
is estimated by a new alpha constancy constraint that is based on animage generation model of semitransparency. In the second step, theoptical flow of a particle with a continuous trajectory in a definite
temporal interval based on a point trajectory model can be refined.

Vol. 10 No. 4 Apr. 2012

Many experiments using various falling-snow and foggy scenes withmultiple moving vehicles show the significant improvement in the
optical flow compared with a previous optical-flow model.

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