R&D Information

CRYPTREC: the cryptography evaluation project for
e-governance by MPHPT (Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications) and METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry).
Since the late 1990’s, the U.S. and Japanese governments, the EU, and ISO have actively promoted
these encryption algorithm validation, selection, andstandardization activities. They are now almost
reaching completion, and the cryptographic algorithms that will be widely used in the first half of the21st century are being chosen. The above Japanesecryptographic algorithms were highly regarded
throughout these activities for their excellent efficiency and high commercial viability (LSI implementation), and it is likely that one or more of them will bewidely used. Currently, ISO and CRYPTREC recognize that they need to emphasize secure implementation, and they plan to establish the corresponding validation criteria and validation standards.
As concern over secure implementation of cryptosystems increases, CRESERC is expected to beapplied in various situations that require information
security (for example, e-governance and ubiquitouscommunication systems) as the world’s leading
implementation technology in the field.
Roles of the three companies
In this joint R&D, Hitachi provided secure implementation technology for elliptic curve operations,
Mitsubishi Electric provided efficient implementation technology for elliptic curve operations, andNTT provided efficient and secure implementation
technology for the basic arithmetic.
Future plans
All three companies plan to launch products incorporating each others’ technology in e-governancesystems and ubiquitous-related security products
based on their joint R&D results, namely CRESERC.
For further information, please contact
NTT Information Sharing Laboratory GroupMusashino-shi, 180-8585, Japan
E-mail: koho@mail.rdc.ntt.co.jp

Most Advanced Wireless Technology in Scotland
Launched at EICC

An exhibition of the most advanced wireless technology ever to be seen in Scotland was launched at
the Edinburgh International Conference Centre(EICC) on August 5, 2003 and will run until March
2004. Scottish Enterprise has been instrumental inbringing this technology to Scotland with assistancefrom NTT in partnership with the EICC and BT. The
exhibition will give visitors to the EICC the opportunity to experience data-transfer and connection
speeds of more than 50 times faster than normal dialup speeds—without the need for wires.
Users who have a wireless-enabled laptop or PDA(personal digital assistant) will be able to send andreceive e-mail, browse the web, and securely accessVol. 1 No. 7 Oct. 2003

their own company intranet sites if available—
demonstrating the benefits of broadband and wirelesstechnology.
EICC visitors will have the opportunity to experience the most widely used wireless technologies(802.11b*1), provided and installed by BT. This will
be contrasted with the wireless technology of the*1 802.11 standards: 802.11 is a family of specifications for wireless
local area networks (WLANs) developed by a working group ofIEEE. There are currently four specifications in the family:
802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. All four use the Ethernet
protocol and CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance) for path sharing.

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R&D Information

future, in the form of 802.11a and HiperLAN2*2 solutions, being supplied and installed by NTT, which cansend information at speeds of up to 54 Mbit/s. The
exhibition will demonstrate in a hot spot area the difference in data transfer and connection speeds
between the three technologies. This demonstration
is part of the Scottish Enterprise Broadband for Business Program, which aims to educate and raise awareness about the business benefits achievable withbroadband technology.
Charlie Watt, senior director of e-business at Scottish Enterprise, spoke at the launch. He said: “Thisexhibition capitalises on Scotland’s growing expertise in wireless technology and recognises Scotland
as a centre of excellence in this field. It is extremely
pleasing that such a major player in the world’s telecoms industry, NTT, has chosen Scotland for thisexhibition—it is a welcome opportunity to showcase
Scotland’s wireless expertise on a world stage.”NTT has provided some of the world’s most forward thinking wireless equipment and the technicalexpertise and back-up to support the installation ofthis equipment. Kazuyoshi Tateishi, Executive Director, NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group,
said: “This exhibition is of great significance since itis the first time for 5-GHz-band wireless LAN systems to be demonstrated in a practical environment inEurope. In Japan, the broadband population exceeds10 million, and hot spot services using wireless LAN
technology have been deployed on a commercialbasis. Intercarrier roaming and content delivery services are now growing rapidly. Our main purpose isto promote the 5-GHz-band wireless LAN technology developed by NTT Laboratories, especially theHiperLAN2 technology that is a common standard inboth Europe and Japan. We expect that a great number of visitors to the EICC will experience wirelessbroadband and become aware of the benefit.”*2 HiperLAN: A set of WLAN communication standards primarily
used in European countries. There are two specifications: HiperLAN/1 and HiperLAN/2. Both have been adopted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

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EICC Chief Executive Hans Rissmann commented:“The introduction of cutting-edge wireless technology is extremely important to the EICC. The Centre
has forged a reputation over the last eight years of
being at the forefront of new developments and this is
one of the most important to date. Our delegates will
be able to move seamlessly around the building andstay in touch with their office via wireless access tothe Internet. However, more importantly, they willhave a glimpse of the future with two additional
demonstration networks. These new networks will
mean greater numbers of delegates will be able toaccess more information—more complex information—faster. When this facility is linked to ouraward-winning customer service, I believe that wewill have a very powerful mix and a unique offering.
Ultimately we are always trying to improve our efficiency and effectiveness and provide the best possible service for our clients. I am confident that this will
be another step towards that ultimate goal.”
BT has been working with the EICC on a range oftechnical projects to make it one of the mostadvanced facilities of its kind. Wireless networks
have been installed to provide fast, flexible platforms
for voice, data, video, and multimedia functions.
Brendan Dick, BT Scotland’s general manager, said:“Wireless technologies are recognised as being partof the broadband jigsaw as we work to create a fully
connected Scotland. Wireless has the potential tobring fast Internet access to areas currently outside
the reach of existing networks and BT plans to test awide-range wireless solution in Scotland this winter.
As well as leading the way for its own customers, theEICC’s innovative project has allowed us to provide aplatform for an acknowledged world leader to showcase its hyper-speed wireless networks and enablepeople to glimpse the future at first hand. We believe
partnerships are essential to ensure everyone has fastInternet access—north, east, south and west!”
For further information, please contact
NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group
Musashino-shi, 180-8585, Japan
E-mail: koho@mail.rdc.ntt.co.jp

NTT Technical Review