Supplement
Special Issue：Technology and Innovationin the Olympic and Paralympic GamesTokyo 2020

AUGUST 2022
Vol.105 No.8 Supplement
pp.1-332

THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS,
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Editorial Preface ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿

1

For Publication㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KAWAZOE Katsuhiko, KOMIYA Masaaki,
TAWARA Yasuo, and YOSHIKAWA Tetsushi

13

Introduction
Summary of Technology and Innovation in the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿TACHI Takeshi

2

6

Telecommunication, Radio, Broadcast【Data Network and Internet】

2‑1
2‑2
2‑3

Summary of the Tokyo 2020 Games Network㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿SAITO Wataru and SHIGECHIKA Noriyuki
Architecture of Data Network for the Tokyo 2020 Games ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KUROMIYA Takayuki
Tips of Allowlist Based Firewall Operation for the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿OSAWA Yoshika, SASAKI Junichi, ASOU Takamichi, and IWASA Isao

2‑4

13
22
32

Services/Systems Provided over the Games Data Network［Ⅰ］:Functional‑Area Networks and Wi‑Fi for the Games Stakeholders㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿MUTO Kenji and SAITO Wataru

2‑5

38

Services/Systems Provided over the Games Data Network［Ⅱ］:Telecom Services Offered by the Organising Committee㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿MUTO Kenji, KAKUTA Yuki, WATAI Mutsumi, and SAITO Wataru

2‑6㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KUROMIYA Takayuki, SAITO Wataru, and SHIGECHIKA Noriyuki

2‑7

63

Flow Rate Analysis of Syslog Collected in the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿HIROSE Masato and KANAI Akira

2‑9

54

Features of Traffic Generated in the Large‑scale Events and Its Impact
to the Security Operation㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿SUDOH Toshiaki

2‑8

45

Operation and Performance of the Games Data Network

Study of Usage Tendencies of the Remote Access Service ㍿㍿㍿㍿KANAI Akira and HIROSE Masato

67
71【Broadcast Technology】

2‑10

4K IP Production and Virtual Production ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿SUZUKI Takashi and ITO Takahito

2‑11

Universal Service Utilizing Real‑time Sports Data Feeds㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KUMANO Tadashi, UCHIDA Tsubasa, and KANEKO Hiroyuki

76
82【Mobile Communication Environment and Radio Operation】

2‑12

Operation of Radio Equipment and Coordination of Frequency Usageat the Tokyo 2020 Games ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿ISHIDA Eiji

2‑13

Personal Mobile Radio : Supporting Massive Sports Event㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿ISHIDA Eiji, KUNIMATSU Makoto, KONISHI Hirohito, and KATSUYAMA Sakae

2‑14Technology of Personal Mobile Radio, Introduction of PS‑LTE and Its Challenges

2‑15

Enhancement of Mobile Communication Environment for Spectators㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KATSUYAMA Sakae㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KUROMIYA Takayuki and SAITO Wataru

2

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Copyright Ⓒ 2022 by The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers3
3‑1

Information System, Digital Media
Summary of Information System and Digital Media for the Tokyo 2020 Games ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿USUI Akihisa

116【System Platform and Business Applications】

3‑2
3‑3

System Platform for the Tokyo 2020 Games ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KAWASE Takeshi and OGURA Mikio

Support the Game Operations ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿WASHIDA Shinichi

3‑4

132

Development System and Introduction Results of Business Applications
at the Tokyo 2020 Games ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿USUI Akihisa, WASHIDA Shinichi, and TACHII Takeshi

3‑5

124

Enterprise Architecture Study for Design and Development of Systems to138

Introduction History and Operational Performance of the Infection Control BusinessSupport System “Tokyo 2020 ICON” ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿TACHI Takeshi, USUI Akihisa, and NAKAYASU Fumiaki

144【Olympic Diffusion System, Olympic Management System and Face Recognition Technology】

3‑6

Olympic Diffusion and Management Systems : Tokyo 2020, Bringing Agility
into Critical Application Delivery㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿Albert MINGUILLÓN

3‑7

Advanced Access Control System with Face Recognition Technology

3‑8Congestion Monitoring System for Infection Control Measure㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿NAGAMINE Nanaumi, IMAIZUMI Masumi, and KOBASHI Atsushi

151
158

㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿IIO Atsushi, IMAI Masatoshi, SAITO Tsuguharu,
MAEJIMA Seiichi, and MATSUSAKA Kazuyoshi

162【Digital Media】

3‑9Tokyo 2020 Games‑Time Official Website and Mobile Application㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿YAMAMURA Masao and ICHIO Koji

3‑10

Improvement of Web Content Accessibility for Competition Results Distribution㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿YAMAMOTO Shinya

3‑11

169
174

A Study of Impact to Internet Traffic during the Tokyo 2020 Games :Correlation between Traffic and TV Rating㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿YOSHIDA Tomoya, SUZUKI Takashi, and MATSUZAKI Mitsunari

3‑12

182

Customer Relationship Management for the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿FUEKI Nobutaka, ANDO Tatsuya, SAITO Kazuo, and SEKIGUCHI Naohiro

188

Innovation Projects, Innovation Initiatives（Covering High‑presence Communication,

4

5G, Robots, Drone Show, Projection Mapping）

4‑1

Summary of Innovation Projects for the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿SAITO Kazuo, HIRATA Hideyo, TSUCHIYA Koichi, and OKADA Takahiro

4‑2

Future‑oriented Sport Viewing Project ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KOSHIBA Keiichi and KINOSHITA Shingo

4‑3Innovation Projects Utilizing 5G Technology㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿OHTO Yutaka, KINOSHITA Shingo, and FURUNO Noriyuki

197
203
211

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Utilization of Robotics Technology in the Tokyo 2020 Games

4‑5

Supporting the Tokyo 2020 Games with People‑friendly Robots㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿NAKANO Tomohiro, TODA Takahiro, MORIDAIRA Tomohisa,
NAKAYAMA Takahiro, INAGAKI Yuji, and KUWABARA Takeshi㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿OGISHIMA Keiji, UCHIDA Yoshifumi, KUROKAWA Takahiro, and HONDA Renji

4‑6㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿Tapio LIUSVAARA, Shilpa PATEL, Andreas JALSOVEC,㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿OOMARU Yoshihisa, MIZUSHIMA Tetsuro, ICHIKAWA Masaki,

5

Cyber Security

5‑1

Summary of Cyber Security Activities at the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿SAKA Akira and IBAYASHI Hiroaki
Terminology ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿

5‑2

Cyber Security Governance of the Tokyo 2020 Games

5‑3

Solutions for Cyber Security Challenges of the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿IBAYASHI Hiroaki, TAMAI Kuniharu, ONISHI Masaki, and NOJIRI Yasuhiro㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿TAMAI Kuniharu, NOJIRI Yasuhiro, HOSODA Naofumi, and IBAYASHI Hiroaki

5‑7

Impact Analysis of Cyberattacks to the Critical Sites by External Monitoring ㍿㍿㍿SUDOH Toshiaki

5‑8

Applying a Reference Document of the Organizational Structure for Cyber
Security Operation ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿TAKEI Shigenori

264
272
279
285
288
291

Cyber Security Cooperation of National Institute to Support the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿INOUE Daisuke, KUBO Masaki, TERADA Kenjiro, MORI Yoshiki, ENDO Yukiko,
JINGU Masato, MATSUMOTO Takashi, ISHIHARA Shota and MAKITA Daisuke

6Games Management, Operation Centres

6‑1

Summary of Technology Management and Operation in the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿YOSHIDA Tadashiro, KASAI Hideo, and YAMAGUCHI Kazuhiko

6‑2Technology Operation Centre as the Central Hub of Technology Management

6‑3

System Integration and Games‑time Observation Remastered for Pandemic Response㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿NAKAMURA Yasutaka and YOSHIDA Tadashiro㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿Michèle HYRON

6‑4

Overview of Equipment Deployment Centre of the Tokyo 2020 Games ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KAWATA Masahiko

6‑5Technology Service Management and Incident Response Performed byTechnology Call Centre of the Tokyo 2020 Games ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿KAWATA Masahiko

4

255

Find Evil‑Know Normal : Tokyo 2020 Games Threat Hunting from Internaland External Perspectives ㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿HATADA Mitsuhiro and SUDOH Toshiaki

5‑9

249
254

Responding to Cyber Attacks during the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿ONISHI Masaki, HOSODA Naofumi, NAKANISHI Katsuhiko, and IBAYASHI Hiroaki

5‑6

244

Cyber Security Operations for the Tokyo 2020 Games㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿㍿ONISHI Masaki, HOSODA Naofumi, NAKANISHI Katsuhiko, and IBAYASHI Hiroaki

5‑5

238

Utilization of Projection Mapping in the Tokyo 2020 GamesMATSUKI Daizaburo, and SAKANISHI Yasuaki

5‑4

232

Drone Light Shows Activation for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony

NAGASE Jun, and MATSUDA Taka

4‑7

220

294

301
307
313
320
327

Special Issue“Technology and Innovation in the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020”
Editorial Preface
The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020
Games”) which was held in Tokyo for the first time in 56 years had been drawing intense
attention not only from the sports industry but also from many industrial sectors since thedecision was made in September 2013 to host the Games The IEICE had also taken a keeninterest in the Tokyo 2020 Games and published several special issues on this topic starting withthe one brought out in December 2014 And now with the full cooperation of the Tokyo
Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (hereinafter referred to as“Organising Committee”) its partner companies related organizations and government
agencies we have published a special issue on the Tokyo 2020 Games covering a wide range oftechnological achievements such as building communication network and information systems
and enhancing cyber security
The Tokyo 2020 Games were not only the largest one ever held with 33 Olympic sports 22
Paralympic sports and 43 competition venues but also the first ever in the history of the Games
that was held after one‑year postponement with strict infection control measures due to theunprecedented challenges of the global spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19)(coronavirus pandemic) In this sense it was also a historical event that should be documented
from the viewpoint that how people overcame difficulties by the use of information andcommunication technology for the success of the event The followings are some typicalachievements
The event was participated with a large number of athletes athletic association officials andother stakeholders who came to Japan from overseas yet it is reported that no clusters of
infection was caused by their visit It is partly because digital tools and the network
environment of the venue were fully utilized to collect the large amount of inspection
information and to implement social distancing measures
The International Olympic Committee announced that the number of Games audience via
television and digital media was the largest in the history of the Games while most of thevenues were unfortunately closed to spectators In order to secure the delivery of the Gamesʼ
contents for such audience the relevant infrastructure technology must have been designed
and operated with meticulous care and well‑prepared system
The Organising Committee and partner companies have carried out a variety of projects inwhich they utilized advanced technologies that could trigger social innovation in the future
These include the provision of a new experience of watching the Games using the combinationof commercial 5G network and ultra‑realistic communication technology the use of hydrogenenergy for the torch and translation vehicles and the introduction of robots for the operation of
the Games Deliverables of these projects are considered to be a valuable step toward full‑scale
market introduction in the future
The government and the Organising Committee reported that no cyber‑attacks affecting theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020©2022 IEICE

1

Games operation were observed during the Games even though there was a big concern ofcyber‑attacks targeting the Tokyo 2020 Games which the media had covered extensively prior
to the Games It is easily assumed that unimaginable efforts were made behind the scenes
Thanks to a great deal of wisdom and efforts of the Organising Committee and other relatedorganizations various insights and experiences have been gained through the processes
introducing new technologies or taking innovation initiatives This will surely become avaluable legacy for industries in order to enrich the lives of the society which has been
dramatically changed after the coronavirus pandemic
We really hope that this special issue will contribute to create such a valuable legacy㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

2

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

For Publication

President The Institute of Electronics
Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE)KAWAZOE Katsuhiko
It gives me great pleasure to publish “Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020”
In the face of the “Coronavirus Disaster” which no one could have predicted and against the backdrop of
unprecedented and difficult headwinds in the history of the Olympic Games that even the holding of the Games was injeopardy the original vision of the Games as “the most innovative Games in history bringing positive change to theworld” has been transformed from a goal to be achieved to a challenge to be met and without the realization of thisvision the convention would not be a successIn such an environment all the engineers have demonstrated their personal best with their advanced project
management skills and responsiveness even in an unusual environment and under unexpected conditions Furthermore
I would like to share with you the trajectories : the trajectory in which researchers from various fields harmonized theirbest technical capabilities toward a single goal the trajectory breaking down the barriers between industry
government and academia the trajectory of creating and passing on legacy experiences to the children of today who
will be at the centre of creating the next Tokyo Olympics in decades to come Following the basic concepts of the Games
these trajectories of top‑class researchers and engineers who have surprised the world with their innovations for the
future are packed into this magazine
We would like to contribute to the further development of ICT technology in the future by documenting this great
success story as an asset disseminating it globally and passing it on to future generations
In closing I would like to express my appreciation and respect for the efforts of all those involved in the medical field
whose efforts cannot be fully conveyed in this journal and the many researchers and engineers who have supported(and continue to support) them with ICT technology

Vice‑Director General The Tokyo Organising
Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

KOMIYA Masaaki
Due to the coronavirus pandemic an unusual decision was taken to postpone the Olympic and Paralympic GamesTokyo 2020 for one year and we needed to concentrate on ensuring that at the very least the competitions themselves
could be run safely We regret that we were forced to hold the Games with almost no spectators and not able toSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020©2022 IEICE

3

complete our attempts at innovation projects using digital technology as we had originally envisioned However becauseof the difficulties we faced we devised unprecedented solutions which contributed to the execution of the Games I am
proud of thisA rulebook was developed to protect the athletes and stakeholders of the Games from the virus infection Accordingly
a management system for information sharing was essential to securely implement the rulebook We also introduced anenvironment on a trial basis that allows spectators to enjoy a more realistic experience online or virtually participate in
the frenzy We believe that we have used the Games held at the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to develop these
items which will be utilized in the future
On the other hand ensuring cyber security was undoubtedly a mission of a higher priority than ever before and its
realization was also extremely difficult in line with the growing complexity of the Games operations Looking back on the
Games the keys to success were for example how reasonably we could anticipate and estimate possible cyber‑attacks
and how flexibly we could prepare risk control measures in the event of “Outbreak” Among these things I would like tomention that the repetition of on‑the‑job training prior to the Games to master the prepared cyber security functions
was a major key to the success in fact
I hope that this special issue will help you in your future social activities as one of the records of having completed thehistorical event

Director‑General Global Strategy Bureau
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

TAWARA Yasuo
In September 2021 the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 which had been postponed by one year due to the
spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) were successfully completed I would like to express my deep
respect for the efforts of the Organising Committee and everyone involved in the Games which enabled the event to be
successfully completed without any major problems
It is no exaggeration to say that operation of such a large sports‑event and associated video distribution to the world
would not be possible without the proper use of a variety of wireless systems these days In particular since the Gameswas held in Tokyo a city with overcrowded spectrum use there used to be concerns at the outset as to whether thenecessary radio frequencies could really be secured
In cooperation with the Organising Committee and local radio station licensees MIC had worked to secure thenecessary frequencies and to tackle a variety of tasks including spectrum management inspections of wirelessequipment brought in and spectrum monitoring This contributed on the success of the Games through an appropriate
and without interference and jamming use of a variety of radio systems
Unfortunately we were not able to welcome many guests from overseas to Japan to watch the Games in person at thevenues Nevertheless VoiceTra a multilingual voice translation technology developed primarily by the National
Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) was used for smooth communication of necessary
information at the competition venues
The various experiences and technology developments regarding spectrum management left behind by the Games
will be an asset valuable for the future Then it is important to summarize the event and pass the knowledge on to thenext generation
We hope that this special issue will help build a bridge to such future
4©2022 IEICE

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Deputy Director‑General
National center of Incident readiness andStrategy for Cybersecurity

YOSHIKAWA Tetsushi
While the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) were held
without spectators more than 3 billion people around the world watched the Games on TV and online Accordingly
cyber security was a major issue for the Tokyo 2020 Games Then the Organising Committee the private sectors andthe government worked together to prepare for and respond to this issue
One of the governmentʼs representative activities was the establishment and operation of the Japan Information
Sharing Platform (JISP) to facilitate the prompt and efficient sharing of threat information among the approximately 350
organizations involved During the Games we shared information regarding malicious websites promptly and called forfull caution As a result of these efforts no cyber‑attacks that could have affected the operation of the Games wereobserved
It is important to link these activities for the future and utilize the findings It is necessary to share the know‑how
gained through the Tokyo 2020 Games with other countries who are planning to host the Olympics etc as well as toutilize the approach toward the Tokyo 2020 Games for raising the overall level of cyber security preparedness of ourcountry
The Tokyo 2020 Games was probably the first case of such close collaboration that Japanʼs public and private sectors
worked together to ensure the cyber security of the event which attracted global attention We hope that this report will
help to widely share the awareness that cyberspace is a public space that should be protected and nurtured by everyone
and to build and spread the cooperative and interactive models of different entities for ensuring cybersecurity
I hope that this special issue will provide you with hints for strengthening your cyber security measures㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020©2022 IEICE

5

1 Introduction

1

Summary of Technology and Innovationin the Tokyo 2020 GamesTACHI Takeshi

This article provides a quantitative overview of the technologies introduced in the Olympic and Paralympic GamesTokyo 2020 from the perspective of the evolution of technologies in past Games and describes the success factors of the
projects the legacy of the Games and the innovation initiatives
Keywords：Communication networks Information systems Cyber security measures Innovation

1．Foreword

While general spectators were banned from competition
venues the digital media that distributed the results of

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

the games gained the most access in the history of the(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) which

Games The Games were also supported by the largest

were postponed for one year due to the pandemic of thenumber of partner companies and many innovation

new coronavirus infection (hereinafter referred to as

projects were planned and implemented by them“coronavirus pandemic”) were an event that relied

The author believes that accurate and quantitative

more heavily on digital tools than previous Games

records of numerous and various technologies as well as

Specifically digital tools were used first of all toinnovation projects that supported the Games will notprovide a remote work environment for staff engaged inonly serve as a reference for large‑scale events in thethe vast amount of plan revisions and contract changes

future but will also contribute to the development of theas well as to proceed with immigration applicationindustry as footprints of historical projects

procedures health management and social distancing

summary of such special issue of articles this article

measures for the Games stakeholders In addition asreviews the Tokyo 2020 Games including the evolution

As aGames without a centralized Olympic Park where theof technology introduced in the past Games analyses thecompetition venues are located it was necessary tofactors that enabled the Games to be a great success inconstruct the most extensive communication andterms of technology operation and also discusses thebroadcast contribution network in the history of thetechnology legacy of the Games

Games Furthermore cyber security measures wereanother issue that attracted worldwide attention

2．Evolution of Games Technology

following the cyber incident that had occurred at the
opening ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 GamesThe information systems and broadcast technologies
introduced in the Olympic and Paralympic Games have
evolved in response to the technological trends of theeras and the contributions of partner companies (Table

TACHI Takeshi
The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games1) (1)The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 6‑12 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

6

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1
Year/Host city

Olympic Host Year Host City and Technologies Introduced (1)■ Games management perspective (results measurement information systems etc )□ Games watching perspective (broadcast digital media etc )London 1948

□ TV broadcast covering a 50‑mile radius

Rome 1960□ First live TV broadcast of the Olympic Games in 18 European countries

Squaw Valley 1960

■ Data processing of competition results by computer (punch card input)

Tokyo 1964

■ Aggregation and distribution of competition results by on‑line system■ Adoption of quartz timers□ First live broadcast by relay vehicles and helicopters□ First live satellite broadcasting relay

Grenoble 1968

■ Timing and scoring by using quartz timers with 1/1000th second accuracy and computers

Mexico City 1968

■ Large‑scale broadcast centre and press centre□ First color broadcast live slow‑motion video

Sapporo 1972

■ Direct guidance on an electronic bulletin board

Munich 1972

■ Information retrieval by computer system private television system□ Video recording instant replay

Montreal 1976

■ Integrated results system

Sarajevo 1984

■ Systematization of the Games management business (accreditation
distribution ticket sales etc )Los Angeles 1984

■ Dedicated technology teams for each competition venue■ Messaging system (e‑mail voicemail bulletin board application entry form)

Seoul 1988

■ Integrated information system (competition results/games management)■ Olympic Computer Centre□ First live high‑definition broadcast

hotel reservations

Lillehammer 1994

■ INFO (games information retrieval system) and CIS (Commentator Information System)

Atlanta 1996

■ From mainframe to client‑server system□ First official Olympic website on the Internet

Nagano 1998

□ Full‑scale use of the Internet

Sydney 2000

□ BS digital high‑definition test broadcast (Japan)

Salt Lake 2002

■ Competition data feed in XML format

Turin 2006

■ Wi‑Fi service for media

Beijing 2008

□ High‑definition broadcast of all competitions□ Liberalization of media content posting on their websites

Vancouver 2010

□ Streaming video distribution using video signals provided by OBS□ Authorized social media (Facebook Twitter etc )□ Mobile application for the general public

London 2012

■ Media use of INFO on mobile devices (myInfo＋)■ Data service of streaming video distribution for right‑holding broadcasters□ Official YouTube channel by IOC□ 8K Ultra‑High Definition (Super Hi‑Vision) exhibition broadcast

Rio de Janeiro 2016 ＊■ Partial cloud‑based games information system□ Introduction of 360‑degree camera images

Pyeongchang 2018 ＊■ Complete cloud‑based games information system■ 5G trial introduction□ Introduction of free viewpoint images and afterimage video

Tokyo 2021 ＊■ Introduction of face recognition■ Full‑scale introduction of Public Safety‑LTE radio system■ Full‑scale introduction of 5G■ CRM platform in corporation with the IOC□ Ultra‑High Definition (4K) standard signal□ Content distribution for right‑holding broadcasters via the OBS cloud□ Official website operation platform by the IOC＊

uniform

Items after Rio de Janeiro 2016 were added by the author

21

Evolution of Game Management Technologies

results and the system evolved into an integrated

The Tokyo Games in 1964 adopted the first online

information system through the Games in the 1980s andsystem for aggregating and delivering competition

1990s Since the PyeongChang 2018 winter Games (andSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 20207

the Tokyo 2020 as the first summer Games) this system
has been implemented in a fully cloud environment
operated by worldwide partners (partners that continuously participate in multiple Games) contributing to asignificant reduction in operations and costs that
previously required at a data centre in each host city
The information system that supports various administrative tasks accompanying the personal information
management such as the accreditation of the participation of Games officials has been further developed for
the Tokyo 2020 Games This system was combined witha face recognition system for the secure entry of the
stakeholders and staff It also worked with immigration
management health management and screening test

Figure 1 International Broadcast Centre
This is the basewhere competition images from all venues are aggregated anddistributed to each country （©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

management of the stakeholders for the special operation of the Games under the coronavirus pandemicof the largest in the history of the Games due to the large
Evolution of Game Watching Technologies

number and distributed locations of competition venues

After the partial introduction of the high‑definition

Furthermore the data network for the Games which

22

live broadcast in the Seoul 1988 Games and the fullspanned approximately 100 locations

introduction for all events in the Beijing 2008 Games theathletesʼ village Main Press Centre and other non‑Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) adopted Ultra‑competition venues consisted of 1 200 km of optical

High Definition (UHD) video signals as the standard forfiber 3 900 km of metal cable 5 000 km of WAN lines

the Tokyo 2020 Games It means all competition footages

and 16 000 network devices and was connected to two(2)

including the

The shiftdata centres in Japan (which accommodated 35 physicalto remote production by broadcasters which has been aservers 220 virtual servers and 490 TByte of storage

were basically recorded in the UHD format

trend in recent years has made further progress due incapacity) and overseas data centres operated bypart to the coronavirus pandemic As an environment toworldwide partners In addition 85 000 applications the

support this trend the collaboration between OBS andlargest number in the history of the Games were

the worldwide partners was realized for the cloud‑based

submitted for use of spectrum by the Gamesʼ stakehold-contents distribution

ers of which 64 000 were approved and monitored in

Meanwhile the official Olympic website which wascooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs andfirst introduced in Atlanta 1996 Games was provided inCommunications (MIC) (For details see Chapter 2seven languages in Tokyo 2020 Games and accessed by“Telecommunication Radio Broadcast” of this special

the largest number in the history

issue )The technology equipment installed included 17 000

3．Technology Overview of the Tokyo
2020 GamesPCs 20 000 smartphones 15 000 Personal Mobile Radios(6 300 of which were Public‑Safety LTE systems thefirst full‑scale introduction in the history of the Games)

This section provides a field‑by‑field summary of all

and 2 900 printers and MFPs Kitting out such a large

the technologies that supported the Tokyo 2020 Gamesamount of infrastructure and equipment without failwhich involved installing operating and removing them

31

Infrastructure and technology equipment thatat all venues was a major challenge for each Game It

supported game operations

required careful planning in advance and a complete

Having no Olympic Park built as a centralized locationteam structure (Figure 2) including the Equipmentof venues the Broadcast Contribution Network connect-

Deployment Centre and venue technology teams (Foring the 43 competition venues and the International

details see Chapter 6 “Games Management Operation

Broadcast Centre (Figure 1) spanned 1 900 km ofCentres” of this special issue )optical fiber and 10 000 km of leased lines making it one
8

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2 Organization Structure Supported Technology Services
The structure was divided into three main sections : the Technology
Operation Centre (TOC) the venues and other centres (Technology Call Centres Equipment Deployment Centres) Each staff wereassigned under the respective duty managers of the teams

32

Results Systems and Information Systems Thatof time to ensure the safe operation under the

supported Games

coronavirus pandemic was used to register a total ofSince the ODS (Olympic Diffusion System) was

490 000 participants during the Games time to manage

originally strengthened to increase the number of users

1 79 million health information and 920 000 screening

beyond the capacity of past Games it was able to cope

test results and to issue 53 000 negative certificatesstably with the increased number of users via the(For details see Chapter 3 “Information System Digital

Internet due to the coronavirus pandemic SpecificallyMedia” of this special issue )myInfo the Games information system for the media
was provided to 16 000 users at the Olympics (previ-

33

ously capped at 10 000 users) and CIS the information

While the stable operation of technology has always

system for commentators was provided to 450 users at

been a universal issue throughout the history of thethe Olympics (previously capped at 300 users)

Olympics cyber security and congestion control of the

Successful Cyber Security Measures

The video adjudication system has been adopted for 30

mobile communication environment have emerged as

Olympic and 13 Paralympic sports numbers that far

focal points since the London 2012 Games (3) Especiallyexceeded those used in the past Gamesfor cyber security concern cyberattacks and cyberter-

As for the game management system the number ofrorism in recent ICT‑driven event operation can beregistered Games stakeholders increased significantly

relatively inexpensive and effective means to carry out

from the past Games to 420 000 for the Olympic Gamesthe undesirable actions such as radical political propa-

and 310 000 for the Paralympic Games This is mainly

ganda through the media obstruction of the Games by

due to the large number of contractors who wereterrorism and fraud in the sales of Games tickets which

registered to provide transportation and security

are regarded as typical interferences in the Games

services in accordance with the decentralized layout of

In 2014 a group of experts from the ICT industry

the venues The 66 business applications and the 120

including the author joined the Tokyo 2020 Organisingbusiness websites were built and operated to support

Committee (hereinafter referred to as the “Organisingbusinesses of these large numbers of Games stakehold-Committee”) and began analyzing cyber security risks

ers In particular Tokyo 2020 ICON an infection control

that could affect the operation of the Games andsupport system that was implemented in a short period

examining countermeasures During the nearly sevenSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 20209

years of study and preparation

new malware and④ prompt incident response through global collaboration

security risks emerged and critical incidents occurredand cooperation during the Games (For details seeat the PyeongChang 2018 Games Also related solutions

Chapter 5 “Cyber Security” of this special issue )became more sophisticated and cloud‑based and thepower structure of the solutions industry changed

34

Therefore it was essential to constantly review andStable Operation of Technology during theGames Timereexamine countermeasures

Each of the Games uses a trouble‑ticket management

Despite the cyber security risks of the Tokyo 2020

system of the technology field to register all incidents

Games being pointed out in the media prior to thethat occurred from the test event period to the Games

Games

time period according to their severity level and theno cyberattacks affecting the Games wereobserved

and
(4)

the

Games

were

successfully

Technology Operations Centre (TOC) manages them

The followings can be cited as success(Figure 3) In particular a comparison with the past

factors : ① the early establishment of an information

Games shows that the number of high severity incidents

security management system by the Organising Com-

that occurred during the Tokyo 2020 Games was

mittee ② implementation of secure architecture design

significantly lower than those in other recent Gamesand proactive countermeasures in collaboration with

(Table 2)completedpartner companies IOC and OBS ③ repeated security

This is partly due to the fact that the postponement ofaudits and practical exercises of incident handling and

the Games by one year allowed sufficient time for testing
information systems But it is also due to the extremely
small number of troubles that have frequently occurredin past Games such as communication infrastructure
problems delays in the delivery of venue technology
and disruptions in the operational support of venue
technology Needless to say this is due to the high‑quality services and careful operations provided bymany technology‑related partner companies including
telecommunication partners as well as the staff of theOrganising Committee

4．Conclusion

Figure 3 Technology Operation Centre (TOC)
This centre
remotely monitors and controls all technologies and directs
trouble‑shooting （©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All
Rights Reserved）

41

System Centred on Expert Human Resources

Since the large scale and wide range of technologies

Table 2 Number of Incidents
That occurred in the four weeks which started before the Games ended at theclosing ceremony of each Olympic GamesCounting period(Set to 4 weeks for comparison)

Incidents
Severitylevel 1

Severitylevel 2

Severitylevel 3

Tokyo 2020 Games counting period
7/12〜8/8

12

35

1 091

The Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games
counting period 7/25〜8/21

30

London 2012 Games counting period
7/16〜8/12

21

Total 47

6 755

Servicerequest9 808

Total 17 654
203

Total 233
111
Total 132

Severitylevel 4

Total 32 673
Total 25 473【Definition of Severity】
Severity level 1 : Critical system/service is not working
Severity level 2 : Critical system/service is at risk of failure
Severity level 3 : A component of the system/service is not working and multiple users are affected
Severity level 4 : A component of the system/service is not working and a specific user is affected

10

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

are required for the Games it is clear from the past

Challenge

Games that one of the conditions for success is to have aspectators to watch the Games for which the final

a contest to develop an application forand ③ the significant

system consisting of expert staff in each field within the

judging was held in 2020

Organising Committee and to proactively face partners

improvement of the web accessibility of the competitionand suppliers and lead the project (1) In the Tokyo 2020

results pages in the official website and mobile app

Gamesseveral gold partners in technology‑related

which was achieved with the cooperation of visuallyfields sent their experts as seconded staff at an early

impaired students from Tsukuba University of Technol-stage and these staff took the lead in establishing ICT

ogy All of these were the results of the participation andgovernance to implement and operate the back‑officecontribution of the younger generation in the prepara-

environment in the preparation phase for the Gamestion process of the Games

This ICT governance which was a major feature andadvantage compared to the past Games continued to be

43

brushed up and functioned throughout the Games time

While the Tokyo 1964 Games left behind a lot ofLegacy of the Games

hardware legacies in the host city such as bullet trains
42

Innovation Initiatives

and highways a theme often discussed by the Technol-

Many innovation projects were planned by technology

ogy Advisory Committee mentioned above was “whatpartners to introduce their latest technologies askind of software legacy the Tokyo 2020 Games can leave

showcasing in the Games On the other hand projects

behind ”

planned by partners tend to experience insufficient

The fact that many competitions were held without

communication and sometimes conflicts of interest with

spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic was very

the teams that build and operate the infrastructure that

unfortunate in terms of the spectator experience whichis central to Games operations such as communication

could have been one of the valuable legacies On the

networks and common system platform Thus there

other hand the CRM (Customer Relationship Manage-

were concerns that this situation would cause problemsment) platform was built and operated in collaboration

and reworks that could have been avoided otherwise

with the IOC for the first time in the history of the

Therefore the Organising Committee launched theGames This platform preserves the precious records ofInnovation Promotion Office in 2017 to separate themulti‑millions of people who have participated in the

projects aiming at showcasing innovation from theGames in various ways such as the Games ticket holders

projects introducing core technologies essential to theor volunteer staff And this for example will be a

Games operations to balance the two different types ofbeneficial legacy to be utilized in future Games andprojects As a result many of the innovation projects

sporting events as clearly seen in the case of the London

were successfully completed in terms of the introduction2012 Games (5)and operation of solutions although the objectives of theMedia” of this special issue )(For details see Chapter 3 “Digitalprojects were not always fully achieved because many ofFurthermore all of the accomplishments reported

the competitions were held without spectators due to thehere were achieved through collaboration discussions

coronavirus pandemic

see Chapter 4

rehearsals and careful handling of problems by a great“Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives (Covering

team consisting of those seconded to the Organising

High-presence Communication

Committee those of partner companies and of related(For details
5G

RobotsDrone

Show Projection Mapping)” of this special issue )organizations including the national government and theOn the other hand because of the technology teamTokyo Metropolitan Government Above all things thestarting its activities early on we were able to initiate

greatest legacy of the Games is that these engineers andseveral activities to promote “open innovation” through-project managers will contribute to the future digitiza-out the preparation period of the Games Referring totion projects and use of technologies in Japanese society

advice from the Technology Advisory Committee

based on their experience working on the historic

which was established in 2016 to reflect the opinions ofproject

external professionals activities including the followings

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all thewere carried out : ① Tokyo 2020 Ideathon held threepartners suppliers related organizations and volun-

times in total aimed at solving issues related to theteers for their participation and significant contributions

operation of the Games ② Tokyo 2020 Open Innovation

to the Games

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202011

References
(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

M. Tasaki, “Olympic IT challenge : Behind the scenes of the Gamessupported by systems,” Impress R&D, Tokyo, 2016.
Y. Exarchos, “The biggest challenge the Olympic Games have everfaced,” Media Guide Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Olympic
Broadcasting Services, July 2021.
Delivering London 2012 : ICT implementation and operations, The
Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2013.
B. Gant, “The Tokyo Olympics are a cybersecurity success story,”
Security, Aug. 2021.
R.H.H. Robertson, Written ministerial statement : sporting legacy, May
2013.

TACHI Takeshi
Mr Tachi received his M S from Osaka
University in 1989 and M S from University ofCalifornia at Berkeley in 1997 He joined Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)in 1989 where he was engaged in research anddevelopment of next‑generation IP networks
and cyber security
He has been seconded to the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee since 2014 Executive
Director of Technology Services Bureau
Since July 2022 Senior Vice President
General Manager of IPES Business Division
NTT Advanced Technology Corporation(Received February 9 2022)㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

12

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑1

Summary of the Tokyo 2020 Games Network
SAITO Wataru

SHIGECHIKA Noriyuki

This artiele provides an overview of the “Telecommunication platform” and the various “Network services” preparedand provided by the organising committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 and summarizes theachievements and challenges in providing them by considering problems that arose during preparation and Games‑time
operation
Keywords：Games Data Network Telecommunication platform Systems and Network services for the Games

1．Introduction

other systems used at the competition venues andfacilities were in principle also based on this “communi-

The communication network is indispensable for thecations infrastructure” Naturally “Network services”

operation of the Games for those involved in the Games

were no exception with the Internet access and fixed‑

including the organising committee staff It was installed

line telephones also being provided over this networkand operated by the organising committee from its
establishment to its liquidation

Starting with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic

while changing its

Games (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”)

function and size In particular the communication

the organising committee has also provided a network of

network used during the Games was called Games Data

video‑material transferring for broadcasting (Broadcast

Network This section mainly introduces the “Telecom-

Contribution Network)

munication platform” and “Network services” of Games

Contribution Network is to provide dark fiber or leased

Data Networklines to the video transmission system prepared by

The role of the Broadcast

The “Telecommunication platform” was a network

Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) This is the relaythat connected the two data centres in Japan as hubs totransmission part for collecting 4K video materials shotcompetition‑related systems in cloud data centres inat each venue to International Broadcast Centre (IBC)

Europeand approximately 70 major centres andin real time so in principle the physical conditions were

facilities that included 43 Olympic and Paralympic

strict : complete redundancy and undergrounding In

Games venues The network could be said to be one offact some competition venues had to deal with issues

the largest telecommunication network in the history ofsuch as “There is an underground route but no second

the Games due to the large number and distributed

route and what to do about the underground conduit for

locations of competition venues throughout the country

the second route ” etc Depending on the competition

from Hokkaido to Kanto and Tokai (Table 1)
In addition to the competition‑related system theschedule and the facilities available to the venues newunderground conduits were installed backup for theaboveground section was added as third or fourth

SAITO Wataru
Technology Services The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic GamesSHIGECHIKA Noriyuki
RCA Co Ltd (Telecom Advisor of Technology Services)

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 13‑21 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

cabling route or other countermeasures and mitigation
measures were taken Although the organising committee and the partners had lots of challenges for theprovision this report would not deal with those in detailbecause we basically focus on the bandwidths between

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202013

Table 1

43 Games Venues across 9 Prefectures

RegionNumber of Venues

Remarks

23 Tokyo wards (cities)

22

Outside 23 wards

3

Kanto area except Tokyo

11

Chiba 4 Saitama 3 Kanagawa 3 Ibaraki 1

Outside of Kanto

7

Shizuoka 3 Fukushima 1 Miyagi 1 Hokkaido 2

Figure 1
Physical Configuration of the Network for Conventions (overview)The data network for the Games (blue in the figure) isconnected to the Domestic Data Centre and other venues in a star configuration using high-speed broadband Ethernet etc The broadcasting
network is connected to the International Broadcasting Centre using dark fiber and leased circuits

the competition venues and IBC The physical configura-Janeiro Gamestion of Games data network and Broadcast Contribution

bandwidth required by each service system the number

Network is shown in Figures 1of expected visitors to Japan the growth in Internet use

taking into account the expected

after the Rio de Janeiro Games and the like The

2．“Telecommunication Platform” for the Tokyo
2020 Games21

capacity of “Telecommunication platform” thus set up
did not get saturated during the Games in Summer
2021

Howevera very brief Internet congestion

Consideration of Architecture and Requirements

occurred during the peak traffic period of the Olympics

Since not all requirements for “Telecommunication

but this did not affect the operation of the Games This

platform” were given we started by understanding thewould be the result of a balance between the increase in

network requirements and design concepts of past

general Internet use due to the one‑year postponement

Games and finally after confirming the requirementsof the Games and the decrease in the number of visitorsfrom the top partner that operates the competition‑

due to the restriction of entry to Japan since therelated system we attempted to decide the require-capacity was originally designed for use in the summer

ments in consideration of the domestic situationof 2020For example the design of the WAN bandwidth

The Tokyo 2020 Games used commercial network

between the venue and the data centre and the Internet

services provided by partner companies for communica-

connection bandwidth was determined based on thetion between venues and facilities

configuration and the bandwidth used in the Rio deexample of the domestic situation In many past Games

14

which was an

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

such as Rio de Janeiro dark fiber was mainly used for

OTNʼs purposes and usage methods varied For thistransmission and actual network control was performed

reason the common network functions were kept to a

only by network equipment provided by the organisingminimum and the necessary functions and operationscommittee This is thought to have been in conjunction

were to be provided by the individual systems andwith a policy to install optical fibers in the region on theservices

occasion of the Games However Japan has a high fiber

CPN were logically divided into several networks

penetration rate in other words the demand for new(VLANs) according to the systems that handled thefiber installation was small and if new cables weregoal‑scoring photographs the progress of the Games orneededit would be a burden on the Organising

the competition results data such as scores andCommittee and there were many distant venues thatmeasurement times BON were also divided into several

could not be configured with only dark fiber Therefore

networks according to the devices used such as thewe chose to use commercial network services

network to which the staff PCs were connected and the
network to which the staff smartphones were connected

22

Functional Classification of Networks (“Tele-

via Wi‑Fi OTN was divided into VLANs according tocommunication Platform”)

the services and systems to be accommodated resulting

Games Data Network as “Telecommunication plat-in a large number of VLANs being set up and operatedform” for the competition can be broadly classified into

CPN BON and OTN had common policies such as thethe following three networks : the Competition Network

total prohibition of Lateral Movement between terminals(CPN) which housed the competition results distribu-

such as PCs to prevent the propagation of malware

tion system ; the Back Office Network (BON) which

infection and the independence of VLANs (no inter‑

was used by the Organising Committee staff for

VLANs communication) to prevent the propagation topreparation and operation before/during the Gamesother services On the other hand CPN and BON

period ; and the OCOG Technology Network (OTN)

required physical security of the usage location network

which provided VLANs dedicated for the various

authentication and monitoring by proxies while OTN

systems and services provided by each Functional Areain principle left the operation of each VLAN to each

(internal organization of the Organising Committee

service or system policy

hereinafter referred to as “FA”) and each stakeholder
involved in the Games (Table 2)
Needless to say competition‑related matters wereprimary in the Games operation In other words in

3．“Network Services” Provided in Tokyo
2020 Games

terms of networks CPN had the highest priority and31

required a high level of monitoring and operation BON

The Network services described here were studied

Main Network Services

handled all information related to the preparation andand prepared

operation of the Organising Committee

platform” based on the requirements of the past Gamesand thus

required a high level of monitoring and operation over ain parallel with “Telecommunication

The following is a list of representative services :long period of time OTN might be responsible for FA
services indispensable for their operation in some cases
and also provided the connectivity for the Wi‑Fi Internet
services to office visitors in other cases That is to say

Internet for stakeholders (wired and Wi‑Fi connections)
VLAN service for the press (Press Plus)
CATV (Community Access Television) service
IP fixed‑line telephone and FMC services

Table 2

Classification of Games Data Network

CPN

Network for distribution system of competition results

BON

Network for organising committee operations

OTN

Others used for Network services FA systems etc

Remark : Here “Games Data Network” is used to collectively refer
to “Telecommunication platform” and “Network services”
provided responsibly by the Technology Services bureauof the Organising Committee In terms of “Telecommunication platform” “Games Data Network” was divided into
the above three categories

VLAN for TV conference service
IOC staff network
VLAN Connect (intra‑and inter‑venue VPN connectivity)
Internet with a global IP address etc
In addition to these services remote access VPN canalso be listed as one of the services provided to the staff

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

15

The remote access VPN was installed with theGames

expectation that staff members would use it for businesstelephone service for use at the management andbut we added a stable quality fixed‑line

purposes at venues under construction However since

operation centres of each FA to create an integrated

Tokyo 2020 Games was postponed for one year soon

telephone system In the end 2 600 fixed‑line phones

after its installation it actually became the main tool forand 15 000 extension smart phones were used at thestaff to work remotely at home with a maximum ofGames time

approximately 3 500 users at one time
Except for the last one Remote Access the above‑
mentioned were basically the similar services provided

32

Identification of Service Requirements andQuantities

for stakeholders at the past Games but the Press Plus

The basic functions were determined based on the

dynamic VLAN connection function the distribution of

specified requirements and advice from IOC OBS andcell phones to all staff members and the Fixed Mobile

others who were familiar with the requirements of theCommunication (FMC) function for internal calls based

past Games while the quantity was determined by theon the distribution of cell phones were newly added atnumber of requests received from each FA and thethis timenumber of rate card orders for paid services for

In principle“Network services” were

provided using stable and well‑proven technologies but
some advanced technologies such as “Local5G” were also

stakeholders
Requests from FAs were identified through a process
called TEAP (Technology Equipment Allocation Plan)

incorporated on a limited basis
The details of the functions and construction/opera-

which was conducted every year or half a year or everytion of the Wi‑Fi connection service will be left forquarter including minor updates starting three years

another article but the connection service was unstableprior to the Games in which the Technology Services

someplace when the press‑related personnel and others

bureau of the Organising Committee asked all FAs about

were concentrated in certain locations There eventhe quantity required and collected their requests

when connected each connection speed was much slow

However the requests from other bureaus and FAs

This was caused by a sharp increase in Wi‑Fi usage in

generally tended to be excessive as the services were

the press area a few days before the opening ceremony

not covered by their own budgets

but it was an opportunity to realize the difficulty ofallocation in the venue was not decided until one year

“short‑term intensive use” and the importance of

before the convention so there were many duplicate

and the room

requests which made the scrutiny a challenging task

“responsiveness” during the GamesCATV was provided in two types : In‑Venue CATVFor example even in case that several FAs requested(3 200 units) which was provided using the RF system

Wi‑Fi Internet we could find one AP sufficient for thembecause significant signal delays were not allowed andif those requests in the same room in the final room

Inter‑Venue CATV (3 700 units in total including theassignment

number of units re‑deployed at the Paralympics) using

On the other hand rate card orders are subject tothe IP multicast system which was designed for viewing

stakeholders and even the number of advanced orders

over a wide area Since this service required coordina-would not be known until about six months before thetion with projects other than our telecommunication thestart of the Games Therefore we had to preparedelays in procurement of monitors

the delays inequipment etc based on the quantities of the past

installation work to receive images from OBS and theGames and to respond to the actual number of orders

necessity of additional frame synchronization equipment

Orders were closed three months prior to the start of theat some venues to stabilize In‑Venue CATV images

Games and we provided the service for the rest of thewere consecutively found in the last‑minute delivery

time including during the Games period if the provisionperiod of May to July These made us keenly aware of

was possible in terms of facilities and lead‑time In fact

the need to keep proactively track of the progress of

CATV could not provide the service during therelated others in this kind of short‑term projects ; others

Paralympic Games due to lack of STBs (Set Top Boxes)

cannot afford to think about the impact on us

in stock even when we received orders

For the telephone service each staff member was
given a smartphone and used the extension service
function of a Network services partner before the16

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

4．“Telecommunication Platform”(i e network) Provided to FA
41

detailed preparations were rather exceptional
42

Major FA Systems Provided with “Telecommunication Platform”

Understanding

Network

Requirements

andQuantities from FAs and Others
The system administrator or network user from theIn addition to our “Network services”

there were

viewpoint of Technology Services Bureau was each FA

cases in which FAs and others organized functional

and we obtained the requirements from the staff of therequirements based on their own business designs andrelevant FA their system integrators or IOC organiza-

requested the network/capacities necessary for theirtion and examined the configuration and functions

systems

Then we decided the configuration and allocation of the

In such cases

the network was mainly

provided as sub‑network of OTN As shown in the

bandwidth for inter‑venue communication

following list the network was provided for various

connection and the like on the assumption that Gamessystems ; for example Internet connection for payment

Data Network especially OTN be provided to themterminals used in shops at the venue

However except for the previously‑mentioned CCTVInternetno concrete discussions could be made until less than 12
Security systems including surveillance cameras(Closed Circuit Television CCTV)

months before the Games
In order to avoid any discrepancies or omissions in the

Medical systems

construction and provision of these services specific

UPS (uninterruptible power supply) monitoring

locations and quantities were collected and organized insystemsthe same way as for “Network services” by establishing

Energy management systems

service codes for the newly applicable FA systems

Simultaneous interpretation and distribution systems

Namelyfor medalist interviewsin principle we had the recent requests

collected in the same TEAP process

Video board image and information systems
Temperature control system for venue data centres
Internet connection for specific FA information
terminals
Internet connection for payment terminals etc

43

Common Issues and Responses That Emergedin the Last Period

Many of FA systems started operation in June or Julyof 2021 and most of them began actual use and operation
without a trial in a production environment Because of

The network to accommodate the Closed Circuit

the large communication loss in the complex system andTelevision (CCTV) system had been provided physi-

the small number of engineers who could see from thecally separately from the data network for the past

undercarriage to the service the survey from earlyGames But for Tokyo 2020 Games it was superimposed

2021 just before the operation start found a number ofon OTN from the viewpoint of efficiency (decided insystem projects that raised concerns about implementa-

2018) Based on this early decision to superimpose

tions of the operational level that had been previously

because of the expected fact that it was a specialaligned and promised Although there were no major

network that would transmit and receive a large number

problems at the communication some were concernedof video images by IP multicast regarding this CCTV

about the security operation Since the Games was

network under the supervisory of Security Bureau of

already approaching

the Organising Committee the digital camera partner

measures independently from each system should be

the Network services partner and Technology Services

implemented in OTN network as well in order to raise

Bureau were to start working closely together tothe overall level of security

understand the requirements and to proceed design andverification

it was decided that common

Specifically as one of measures a firewall with an IPS
function was decided to be installed at the Internet

Rather our telecommunication team did work for andentrance and exit of OTN to monitor every network in it

coordinate with the CCTV system so that it could be

at all times and block certain packets if deemedthought as if one of “Network services” in terms of thenecessary The decision was made in May and theway the actual consideration and design proceeded

equipment was installed at the end of June when the

However the FA systems that were able to make suchathlete village was already opened and the Games‑timeSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202017

operation was started Thus this firewall was operated

new tasks from venue design to construction within aduring the Games while continued to be tuned

period of about six months In particular the biggest

While the introduction of this functionality andconcern was the underground redundancy requirements

equipment had the advantage of adding new security

for BCN that would transmit the broadcast video

functions from the perspective of network operation it

materials but we were able to overcome this withalso brought the disadvantages such as insufficient

minimal changes by utilizing the facilities used for thematurity of the equipment operation insufficient coordi-

Sapporo Dome and the likenation with the existing operations addition of operation-

Then the postponement of the Games was decided inal flows potential reduction of availability etc In the

March 2020 Since the venues to be used in summer of

end no major problems were encountered but the2021 had not yet been determined telecommunication

actual workload on the site was significant

work at each venue was to be suspended and from thispoint on our team had become busy with additional

5．Movements and Preparations Leading
up to the Games51

adjustments for extending each service for one year andresuming next year In principle the policy was toprovide the same level of services planned for the Games

Progress from the Time the Organization wason a one‑year sliding However it was not easy toEstablishedreview the technical conditions on the process of about

Soon after the Organising Committee was established“temporarily suspending or reducing the level of services

the back‑office network necessary for the operation ofthat had already been started or constructed and thenthe committee began operating in 2015 albeit on a small

resuming them one year after without significantly

scale As for the network for the Games after the Rio deincreasing costs” In addition it was hard to parallelly

Janeiro Games in the summer of 2016 the architecturechange the numerous contracts of multiple partner

was studied and designed in earnest and Games Data

suppliers in alignment with those conditions

Network began operation in March 2019 The back‑Fall in 2020

after the technology issues of theoffice network prior to the Games Data Network was a

postponement had been settled

network for staff use only with no concepts such as

requirements for “countermeasures against Coronavirus

the discussions on

CPN BON or OTN and connection restrictions based

disease 2019 (COVID‑19) infection” began Though

on the Deny‑list

responding to requests from FAs and others

In Games Data Network

only

we

necessary communication was allowed and the opera-

narrowed down requirements that were feasible withtion based on the “Allow‑list” was thoroughly imple-

minimal impact on Games Data Network ; as a result

mented including internal communication At the time

preparing small telecom facilities at some venues addingof the switchover interviews were conducted with thethe existing “Network services” and recommending the

FA staff in charge of each system their contractors andcommercial telecom services and so onother service providers but many settings were omitted

After this period in early spring of 2021 we restarted

due to misunderstanding or oblivion Conducting recon-

to expand and deploy Games Data Network to all

firmation we spent nearly two months to provide thevenues From this time several requirements that hadnecessary services in a stable manner After this we

not been communicated as network requirements andspent a year and a half as planned actually two and atherefore had not yet been implemented were discov-

half years due to the postponement of the Games so as

ered by the users who arrived at the venues For

to build up a strong network through daily operations

exampleand audits additional service installations and changes

redundancy we set new switches at several venues We

in the network configuration These two and a half years

had needed to work for this kind of “unknown”

also served as a period for accumulating the organization

requirements till the Game started We could overcomeknow‑how and training more than 1 000 persons who

such reviews/changes because of our “certain degree ofwere engaged in communication operations at TOC

flexibility ” which will be discussed later (Table 3)(Technology Operation Centre) and venues/facilities

due to missing requirement for switch

Incidentally

after the conclusion of the Games

Preparations proceeded relatively smoothly but a(October 2021 onward) the network configuration has

request from IOC led to a decision to change the venue tobeen simplified and the operations such as failure

Sapporo Odori Park in November 2019 which required

response time has been lowered back to the pre‑Games18

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 3

Major Events and Their Impact on Games Data Network

Telecom‑related major events

Preparation and operation of “Communication”

Initial stage
to Mar 2018

・Primary data centre & back office network operation started (Apr・The committee established FAs launched
2015)
・BCN requirements (fully redundant & under・Determined specifications and ordered constructions for broadcast
ground)conduits at each venue

Preparation
Apr 2018
to Mar 2020

・Venue Space Outline decided (Jun 2019)
・Decided to relocate Marathonʼs venue to
Sapporo Odori Park (Nov 2019)・Service quanties semi‑finalized (Feb 2020)・Games Data Network operation started (Mar 2019)
・Started designing telecom facilities for comp venues (Jun 2019)
・Finalized BCN conduit & venue design for Odori Park (Mar 2020)・Construction of telecom facilities at comp venues began (Jan 2020)

・Decided to postpone by one year (Mar 2020)
・Cost reduction request (Apr 2020)
・Additional study of COVID‑19 countermeasurerequirements (Dec 2020)
・Number of RTC advance orders of stakeholders
decided (Apr 2021)

・Construction at venues/facilities suspended (Apr 2020)and equipment partially removed & evacuated (‑Dec 2020)・Services/functions made degraded and interrupted (Jun 2020‑)
・Reviewed service quantities and venue designs (‑Dec 2020)・Second data centre operation and venue constructions resumed(Jan 2021‑)
・Realized additional requirements of COVID‑19 (Apr 2021‑)

Postponement
Apr 2020
to Mar 2021

Last minuteto Games
to Sep 2021

・Decided to strengthen FA network monitoring ・Infrastructure design change=FW (IPS) added (Jun 2021)
・Troubleshooting during installation (Jun ‑Jul 2021)(May 2021)
・FAʼs & Telecom services started (Jun 2021‑) ・Reviewed and started of operation (Jul 2021‑)
・Start of the Games (Jul 2021)

Periods in parentheses are for reminder purposes ; if deleted the text will be slightly larger

level

operation we also predetermined network equipment
such as those to be used as the core of the venue and52

Ensuring the Flexibility of the “Telecommunica-

those to be used at the edges and ordered and preparedtion Platform”─Its Importance and Limitation

in a tightrope walk based on the actual venue design

From the standpoint of those who create thewhile watching the leveling‑out of equipment produc-“Telecommunication platform” it is desirable to define

tions and deadlines of procurement

the business requirements including services andWhen the flexibility of the architecture did notvenues/facilities/offices and then determine the re-compensate for the additional requirement we some-quirements and design of the “Telecommunication

times customized services to some extent For example

platform” that handles them in an integrated manner In

the design was basically based on the premise ofreality however the only way was to construct andbusiness usage of the event stakeholders and theoperate the “Telecommunication platform” in parallelorganising committee and if it had been applied to thewhile studying or hearing the requirements for services

accommodation rooms in the athletesʼ village

office venue design and the like with reference to thebusiness‑use advanced Wi‑Fi access point (AP) would

past Gamestheand then to determine the detailed

have been used Naturally we decided not to do this but

requirements such as each service function Further-to procure and install APs for small offices from amore since the venues and the rooms to be used in the

Network services partner as “service” and have themvenues were not finalized until about a year before theoperate as part of Games Data Network

Games the quantity of services was not decided until the
final stage of the Games

It is impossible to complete a multi‑year project
which involves many parties and changes requirements

This meant that the “Telecommunication platform”

frequently only in a waterfall fashion So we treated

had to be flexible to a certain degree For example atsome changes or new requests with a certain‑level ofdesign phase we envisioned several patterns according

flexibility in the above‑mentioned fashion In most of

to the services and scales to provided according to thesuch cases these treatments led to a review of thecharacteristics of the venues and facilities ; the patterns

requirements and construction/operation

were applied for about 70 major locations After thequired coordination with the IOC technology partners

which re-pattern selection though the basic structure was notand other stakeholders

including those within thechanged the number of components and ports wereorganising committee to a greater or lesser degree

determined sequentially for each venue according to the

However the lack of time made such coordination

arrangement of rooms in the venue

insufficient The most symbolic example would be theFor ease ofSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202019

Figure 2

Overview Image of Operation and Monitoring

earlier‑mentioned implementation of the firewall in theing those not directly used by the organising committee

period just prior to the start of the Games (May‑June)and observed the impact of the progress of theconventions on Internet traffic (Figure 2) These are

6．Monitoring and Operation during the GamesThe monitoring and operation of Games Data Network
was basically based on the status and logs of the devices

also presented here in separate articles

7．Summaryconstituting the network (in a broad sense including

While maintaining the basic architecture of therelated servers other than network devices) and was“Telecommunication platform” we were able to respondconducted under the supervision of the TOCʼs Telecom

to the long‑term sequential determination of require-

and in cooperation with the venue teams

ments by providing several configuration patterns andHowever the total number of devices and their logs

other flexibility In addition the operational training

could be so large we could have fell into the status that

period of more than two years from the spring of 2018

we only watched each tree but did not see the woods

including a postponement period greatly contributed to

Therefore in addition to this kind of service layer andthe accumulation of organizational knowledge

fromdevice‑by‑device operation efforts were also made toprocess maturation with other organizations to human

get general correlations and overall user movements

resource development These were the main reasons

based on the whole information

why there were fewer problems than in past competi-

In addition to operation of the organising committee
the Internet usage of stakeholders was monitored andanalyzed on the Network services partner (ISP) side

tions and why we were able to respond quickly to any
problems that did occur
On the other hand problems tended to occur in FA

some public organizations and the Network

systems and a part of Network services immediately

services partner monitored Games‑related sites includ-

before and during the event as a result of inadequate

Also

20

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

testing and advance preparation in the production
environment

This is a proof of the importance of

preparation and testing especially for large‑scale andshort‑term competitions The flexible and sequential
decision‑making mechanism agreed upon with the
Network services partners was useful in the events of

SAITO Wataru
Graduate School of Engineering The University of Tokyo (M S 1993) Graduate School ofBusiness Carnegie Mellon University (MBA2001) Seconded by NTT to the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee since 2018 as the
Director of ICT solutions Department Technology Services Bureau (Executive Officer
Sogo Security Services Co Ltd )troubleEven with this preparation period and a certain degreeof flexibility there were still some things that could not
be handled The security enhancement of OTN that was
implemented immediately prior to the Games was a case

SHIGECHIKA Noriyuki
Ph D (Policy and Media) Telecom Advisor
Technology Services Bureau Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee from 2018 to the end of
the Games (Representative Director of RCA
Corporation )in point Although there are points to be regretted I
believe that it is a great achievement that the Games
were completed without any major problems based on
the agreement with the parties concerned(Received February 9 2022 ; Revised March 4 2022)㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202021

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑2Architecture of Data Network for the Tokyo
2020 GamesKUROMIYA Takayuki

In the Olympic and Paralympic Games it is essential to establish a highly reliable data network for the stakeholders torealize the safe and secure operation of the Games In the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 we revised theconfiguration of the past Games and constructed three logical networks divided by users and applications This article
summarizes the concepts and implementation methods for ensuring the efficiency reliability flexibility and scalability ofthe data network for the Games taking into account the service characteristics that are particular to the Games The
article also examines key architectural points for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
Keywords：Data Centre WAN LAN Security Remote Access VPN Wi‑Fi

1．Introduction

independent networks separately for each of the various
systems and services involved in Games operations It

When the Organising Committee developed the data

was also assumed that the requirements of the many

network that would serve as the operational infrastruc-stakeholders using the network would continue to be

ture for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

added and changed until just before the Games so we(Tokyo 2020 Games) it was required not only to provide

paid attention to the flexibility and scalability of therobust and stable services that would not interfere with

network to absorb these changes in requirements

Games operations but also to keep up with the highly

On the other hand because of its large scale the basic

uncertain Games planning and stakeholder usage

design had to be completed more than two years before

requirements until just before the actual event Follow-

the Games taking into account the lead time required foring these subjects the basic policy was to ensure thatits verification and construction The basic design of theconstruction and operation costs are appropriate (effi-

data network for the Games was completed in April 2018

ciency) availability and security are assured (reliabil-

actually but the requirements had not been completedity) and changes can be made flexibly (flexibility andat that time and the assumed parameters werescalability) The system was architected and built‑in

calculated based on information mainly from pastcooperation with the NTT Group the telecom serviceGames

partner of the GamesFirst from the standpoint of efficiency the system
was designed to be superimposed on a single large‑scaleThis article introduces the architecture of the data
network for the Games built on these backgrounds fromboth physical and logical perspectives

network which is highly reliable rather than providing

2．Physical Network
KUROMIYA Takayuki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 22‑31 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

22

21

Overall Configuration of the Infrastructure

In consideration of efficiency through improved
operability and standardized security policies external

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1 Overview of the Core Configuration of the Data Network for the Games
via DC (with exceptions)A star topology to connect the venues and the Internet

communications such as Internet connections were

width of 100 Gbit/s and we adopted a 20 Gbit/s Internet

routed through Data Centres (DC) in principle As aaccess service that was expandable to make it flexible

result the server system was centralized in the DC

and scalable enough to absorb a variety of userwhich was a hub to connect the various venues with arequirements (Figure 1)

star topology

However some telecom services on this communica-

The DCs themselves were also made redundant withtion network such as CATV (video distribution) Pressa Primary Data Centre (PDC) in Tokyo and a Secondary

Plus (photo data transmission) and CCTV (security

Data Centre (SDC) in Saitama to ensure the reliability ofsurveillance cameras)

the entire data network for the Games

communication data with specific venues other than the

The backbone had sufficient capacity with a band-required a large amount of

DC If that traffic was to go through the DC further
WAN access line bandwidth and consequent higher
performance equipment (i e■be required at the DC

Terminology

additional modules) shall
Therefore

these telecom

Dark fiber
Optical fibers laid by telecommunications
carriers and leased in fiber units The user (borrower) is
responsible for maintenance and management such as fault
detection
MPLS
Multi‑Protocol Label Switching A technologythat adds labels to packets to achieve high‑speed transmission over a network without referring to IP headers
IDS/IPS Custom Signatures
Intrusion Detection System/Intrusion Prevention System : A system that creates its
signatures to provide accuracy speed and coverage forattacks that cannot be detected or prevented by security
vendorsʼ signatures
UTM
Unified Threat Management Unified Threat
Management integrates and manages multiple security
countermeasures to protect the network from various threats
in web access and e‑mailservices were exceptionally designed in a star topology■

functions accommodated would not be divided up

with a specific venue as a hub for each service to reduce
equipment costs
22

Data Centre Configuration

The data centre (DC) had to integrate communications from all venues and to provide connectivity to theoutside of the Games network DC was one of theessential components for providing basic network
services (L2 authentication DHCP DNS etc ) to eachvenue requiring a robust and flexible design
As described in section 2 1 PDC and SDC were
established as a disaster countermeasure

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

but the23

Figure 2 PDC Configuration with All Equipment Redundant
To assure stable operation of the PDC independently the enclosures andpower supplies of all devices in the PDC are redundant to ensure reliability (The SDC is omitted in this figure )between the two DCs and the PDC shall be operated

redundancy and CPN (see 3 1 (independently under normal circumstances For thiswork) existed in the venue were mandatory or not) Competition Net-

reason all equipment in the PDC should be redundant(Table 1) IBC and MPC of the “main venues” in Table 1

and even within the equipment all line cards interfaces

refer to International Broadcast Centre and Main Press

and power supplies were redundant to ensure reliability

Centre respectively The venue patterns are described(Figure 2) We decided that redundancy within the SDC

in section 2 4

would not be required for cost‑effectiveness At the

Especially at important venues such as competition

Games time 45 racks for the PDC and 20 for the SDC

venues there were not only two WAN lines installed but

were working

also redundancy was thoroughly implemented at allaccess sections NTT receiving stations relay sections

23

Wide Area Network (WAN) between Venues

and receiving equipment to ensure network reliability

In the past Games WAN was sometimes built up from

Figure 3 shows an overview of the configuration ofscratch laying dark fiber (Terminology) to connect the venues

Pattern 1 (large‑scale venues such as IBC and MPC) as

For the Tokyo 2020 Games however high‑quality andan example

highly reliable network services provided by NTT East

In the case the distance between two venues was

and West were available and from the perspective of

sufficiently close and they could share the network

construction and operation costs we combined threedevices at the venues we defined it as a “precinct venue”

types of commercial line service ranging from 1 toand integrated WAN access lines and extended LAN for

100 Gbit/s to connect between venues and DCs

greater efficiency In some venues that had existing

For the connection to each venue the bandwidth was

Internet access available we used VPN technology toestimated according to the size and role of the venue

connect to the PDC by using those facilities without

based on the past Games experience and we used

installing an exclusive data network for the Games

different access line services considering whether the24

We adopted MPLS (Terminology) in the backbone of the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1
Pattern

Access Line
Bandwidth

WAN Circuits and Major Venue Patterns

WAN Redundancy

CPN

Number of
VenuesMajor venues

Data network for the Games (connected to DC)
1

100 Gbit/s

Yes different stations

Yes

3

IBC MPC2

10 Gbit/sYes different stations

Yes

34

Competition Venue

3

10 Gbit/s

Yes same station

No

3

IOC Hotel

4

1 Gbit/s

Yes different stations

Yes

4

Local Qualifying Venue

5

1 Gbit/s

Yes same station

No

4

Office6

1 Gbit/s

No

None

6

Bus depot

1 Gbit/s──

28

Vehicle waiting area

15

General hotel

Internet
7
8

Use existing facilities at the venue

Figure 3 Brief Overview of the Pattern 1 Venue
Important venues such as the Competition
Venue ensured reliability by making all WAN/LAN components redundant

WAN between the DC and the venues referring to its

simultaneously the key point is to standardize theoperational experience and scalability in past Games

design and operation

The WAN routers at each venue worked as MPLS‑VPN

rather than individual optimization for each venue

provider edges and used OSPF routing Priority control

Based on this concept as shown in Table 1 we created

was applied to the backbone while bandwidth control

several venue patterns selected device models for each

was not applied to the access section providing a circuit

pattern and utilized them as a reference design towith sufficient bandwidth

minimize the number of exceptional cases

aiming for total optimization

The effectiveness of this patterning and standardiza24

Venue Patterning

tion was developed as the Games approached Even

Connectivity to the event data network was required
not only at competition venues

when a change for the network configuration in one

but also at non‑venue was required due to a sudden additional require-competition venues such as operation centres training

ment from stakeholders just before the Games we didvenues and facility sites which were a mixture of large

not need too much time for re‑design because we should

and small venues

only expand the network to the other venue that had a

However in an environment such as the Olympic andsimilar pattern At the same time necessary equipment

Paralympic Games where multiple competitions are held

could be quickly deployed by converting spare equip-

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202025

ment from other nearby venues

and as a result no venues experienced schedule delays

The Technology Operation Centre (TOC) which

in installation

centrally managed trouble handling during the Games
time needed to know the configuration of each venue

3．Logical Network

and its status in real‑time and this patterning enabled
prompt and accurate restoration measures to be taken incooperation between the TOC and venues when trouble

31

Logical Partitioning of the Games Data Network

After discussions with Atos

the integrator

wedefined the data network for the Tokyo 2020 Games as

occurredconsisting of the following three logical networks
25

Construction of LAN within the Venue

Since many of the Tokyo 2020 venues used existing（） Competition Network (CPN)buildings and facilities we were required to carry out

This network is necessary for using the systems

the network installation after installing temporary

required for operating the Games and the competition

facilities (power supply fixtures etc ) at each venue

High availability and reliability are of utmost impor-resulting in a short construction period of one to twotance and logical isolation from other networks and themonths In particular the large venue such as MPC

Internet is mandatory Atos determined the communica-

where the actual length of tenancy was very limited wetion requirements and security measures and NTT

had to meet the tight time constraints by using free time

installed and operated the network based on theseon weekends and late at night to install cables little byrequirements

little in the backyard that could not be seen about six（

months before the GamesIn addition if we were required some changes in） Back Office Network (BON)

This is an office network for Tokyo 2020 Organising

service requirements or additional cabling after the startCommittee staff to use business applications Internet

of use there would be limited time to implement themaccess printers etc

before the Games

number of staff members continued to increase toward

Thereforein consideration of

to carry out their work As thea standard

the Games the BON needed to be flexible enough to

configuration was adopted as much as possible in the

expand its capacity accordingly Many servers providing

LAN as well as the pattern of the venue

business applications were installed and the communica-

availability

scalability

and operability

Table 2 shows the total amount of equipment andtion requirements between servers and clients werematerials installed in the LAN construction for all

implemented by the “Allowlist” method The system also

venues including the Athletes Village as the representa-

had a multi‑layered security defense system includingtive of large venues and the National Stadium which

endpoints to reduce and avoid various security risks

was the largest venue among the competition venues
To construct these facilities in a short period and at（） Olympic Technology Network (OTN)

multiple geographically separated venues simultane-

The OTN is a network that serves as the infrastruc-ously a total of approximately 2 000 workers worked

ture for accommodating various telecommunication

day and night until the last minute before the Games

services and systems provided by each FA (Functional
Area the organising committeeʼs internal event management function) for stakeholders other than spectators

Table 2

Amount of Equipment and Cables Installed

Since the number of users is large and various usage

Total ofall venues

Athletes
Village

National
Stadium

Racks

1 400

106

92

simple as possible And as the systems using this OTN

Routers150

2

2

are implemented individually they are grouped andFirewalls

150

2

2

logically divided by VRF (Virtual Routing and Forward-

L3 Switches

500

14

4

ing) to assure the independence of each systempatterns are possible the configuration should be kept as

L2 Switches

7 000

814

373

Wi‑Fi AP11 1005 080

270ptical fiber

1 400 km

46 km

134 kmBased on the security policy of the Tokyo 2020 GamesUTP cable

4 450 km

233 km

460 kmthe CPN/BON/OTN were each segmented into eight

26

32

Zone Design and Inter‑zone Communication

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

zones (Table 3) and inter‑zone communication was

on external networks and attacks from the inside basedstrictly managed by the Allowlist as shown in Table 4 In

on what is now known as a zero‑trust concept

the OTN

we integrated some zones (Shared and

All telecommunications equipment had been fortified

Unmanaged) in consideration of the characteristics ofwiththe services provided and redefined separately for theCommitteeʼs Configuration Standard and took counter-

Shared Internet and the Dedicated Internet

measures at Layer 2 and Layer 3 against malicious

unifiedhardening

using

the

Organisingattacks
33

Security Measures

The communication control was implemented based

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are particularly
vulnerable to cyber‑attacks

on the inter‑zone communication flow described in 3 2

and it was a massiveby the Allowlist which permitted only the minimum

challenge how to protect against cyber‑attacks There-

necessary communication As a result this list totaled

fore as shown in Table 5 security threats and their

400 000 lines

countermeasures were studied and designed and we

The management and operation of this list wereadopted a suitable solution for each In particular we

significantly complicated but we coped with this bypaid attention to avoid the reputational risks of thedevising process management and auditing methods

attackers like leakage of sensitive information attacks

For details please refer to 2‑3 of this special issue
The security measures taken for each logical network
are summarized below

Table 3

Security Zones Definition

Zone

Definition（） Security Measures for CPN/BON

DMZAn external zone for assets being exposed tozones hosting 3rd party devices

Edge

An external zone for assets requiring outboundconnectivity to 3rd party devices

TrustedThe “default” trusted zone most assets usedinternally in the network are in this zone

targeted attacks In addition we conducted a correlation

SecureThe most secure and isolated zone reserved forsensitive data storage

logs and implemented a detection function using flow

ManagedThe zone including all assets which owned by andoperated by Organising Committee staff orassimilated

tions between terminals to improve the detection

SharedThe zone including all assets which owned by
Organising Committee connected to ODN (including through a VPN see 2 3 6) but not
operated by Organising Committee and instead
used by 3rd parties

Unmanaged

The zone including all unmanaged (i e 3rd party
owned) end‑user devices

Untrusted

All other assets and 3rd party network includingInternet

We implemented a multi‑layered defense in the
network with multiple security measures including the
DNS layer application layer and endpoints to counter
analysis of security information and event management
information for Layer 2 repetitive malicious communicacapability of security threats In the BON used by theorganising committee staff a proxy was installed to SSL
traffic decryption to the Internet

providing audit

function by URL filtering anti‑virus and Sandbox NTT
had implemented a mechanism to create and apply its
IDS/IPS custom signatures (Terminology)

for threats that

could not be detected by the standard functions of
security equipment thereby enhancing detection and

Table 4 Security Zones Flow Design
Allowable/unallowable intercommunication between the segregated zones isdefined where “Yes” is allowed “No” is not allowed and “Avoid” indicates that IT services should be designed not to require
using the related traffic flow↗

SecureTrustedDMZ

EdgeManagedSharedUnmanaged

Untrusted

Secure

Yes

Yes

Avoid

Avoid

No

No

No

No

Trusted

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

DMZ

No

Yes

Yes

Avoid

Avoid

Avoid

Avoid

Avoid

Edge

No

Yes

Avoid

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Managed

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Avoid

No

No

Yes

Shared

No

No

Yes

No

No

Avoid

Yes

Yes

Unmanaged

No

No

Yes

No

No

No

Avoid

Yes

Untrusted

No

No

Yes

No

No

No

No

N/A

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202027

Table 5

Security Threats to Be Considered and Countermeasures
Security Countermeasures

SecurityThreats

Examples ofCyber Attack

Hijacking ofuser
privilegesetc

・Attacks exploiting vulnerabilities
Acquisition of
authorization/authentication
information
throughmalware infection

Use ofcloud/ISP services
・Cloud‑based
DNS
communication
control・Spoofing

Information
theft

All Internet
connectivity
disconnected
or delayed

・External
communication ofstolen information
after malware
infection

Security features
to be deployed on
the network

Considerations for Network
DesignConsiderations for Network
Operation

・ACL
・URL filter
・IPS/IDS(including custom
signatures)・Anti‑virus
Sandbox・SSL decryption
AD authentication

・NAPT/NAT uRPF
・Zone design IP address
design・Logical network
segregation by VRF/VLAN
・Communication control
within the same VLAN andbetween VLANs
・Server fortification Data
encryption

・SIEM security operations
・ID/password
management
・Visualization of communication inside the data network
・Vulnerability
management of servers/network
devices・Flow information analysis(Security detection)

─・Network log tracking
environment(Syslog internal DNS NTP
FW etc )・Terminal authentication
user authentication
・DHCP AD・SIEM security operations
・Two‑factor authentication
for remote access・ID/password
management

・ACL
・URL Filter
・IPS/IDS
・SSL decryption
AD authentication

─・SIEM security operation
・Flow information analysis(security detection)

・Wireless LAN
countermeasures(countermeasures againstrogue APs)
・Encryption of remote
access communication formaintenance──・Cloud‑based
DNS
communication
control・Sniffing packet
by man‑in‑the‑middle attacks
etc

─

─

・DoS attacks
exploiting
vulnerabilities

─・IPS/IDS─・Vulnerability
management of server/
network equipment

・DDoS attacks

・DDoS
countermeasures
by ISP・IPS─・ACL deployed when
mitigation bandwidth isexceeded・Bandwidth
shortage on
WAN circuit atvenues──・Logical network
segregation by VRF/VLAN
・Communication control
within the same VLAN andbetween VLANs
・Rate Limit/QoS
deployment

・Flow information analysis(Visualization ofcommunication inside thedata network)

・BGP routehijacking───・Operation handling by ISP(specific contract)

・Attacks on
external DNS

・Cloud migrationof authoritative
name server
・Cloud migrationof cache DNS──・Handling by authoritative
name server provider
・Handling by cache DNS
providerprotection capabilities

implemented to ensure the availability of the service In
addition to network access restrictions blocking mali-（） Security Measures in OTN

cious communications by DNS and security detection

The OTN had a wide variety of applications and it

using flow information were introduced among thewas necessary to select security measures to bemeasures applied in the BON It enabled the avoidance28

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 4 Deployment of Security Solutions
Multiple security solutions deployed in a multi‑layer and necessary blocking configuration
put in each time by analyzing detected security eventsof attacks from OTN‑connected terminals to external

promptly coped with all incidents on the Games data

networks and the detection of malicious communications

network

to internal servers and the Internet
In implementing each solution as shown in Figure 4① to ⑦

we adopted a multilayer defense and multi‑

We must perform these tasks continuously without
depending on the failure of a specific function of theGames data network

Considering cyber security

vendor approach and selected products from different

attacks which were assumed to be the greatest threat

manufacturers for multiple layers against DDoS attacks

the main components of the management network were

DoS attacks targeted attacks and so on In operation

closed with physically independent Furthermore since

the firewalls and UTM (Terminology) devices at the entrance

it is a significantly important network because it reaches

and exit of each network detected some security events

all communication devices in the Games network it has

and we analyzed flow information collected at multiple

implemented the same level of security measures as thepoints to minimize security risks by applying blocking

main body of the Games data network in terms ofconfiguration as Denylist to unauthorized flows

Allowlist control

These security measures through strict communica-

ment

log monitoringand internal control

endpoint manage-

As a result

we couldtion requirement management visualization and careful

perform remote configuration changes of communication

auditing were the cornerstones of a robust data network

devices and verification of the settings when responding

for the Games

to user requirements at the venue securely and smoothly
by network monitoring from the TOC

34

Management Network

In addition although not used during the whole GamesWe implemented the “management network” totime we also prepared a backup network to ensure that

efficiently perform a series of operation and maintenancethe event of a failure of the management network itself

tasks such as prompt issue detection and restoration by

would not disrupt the operation and maintenance work

monitoring the normality of its components so that we
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

29

35

Wireless LAN (Wi‑Fi)

network for the Games at each venue until just before

Wireless LANs (Wi‑Fi) are in greater demand thanthe Games (April‑May 2021) And implementation of

wired LANs and the provision of an adequate Wi‑Fi

remote access to the BON was necessary to conduct

environment for all parties involved was considered

preparatory work at each venue for test events which

essential for the success of the Tokyo 2020 Games

were to be held in the summer of 2019

We installed a Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) in the

For the security level enhancement

this remote

DC for integrated management of all Wi‑Fi access points

access VPN system required multi‑factor authentication(APs) and scalability in channel design when additional

combining SSL certificatespasswords

and phone

notifications to mobile terminals when connecting as

APs were needed
Because of the wireless nature of the Wi‑Fi network

well as quarantine based on how the OS patch antivirus

there was much concern about its availability andsoftware and pattern file were applied in the PC The

performance so we introduced an integrated manage-

system also performed quarantine based on the OS patch

ment system that could detect rogue APs and checkapplication

signal strength and heat maps

pattern file and disconnects the VPN or updates theantivirus software activationand theHowever since the Wi‑Fi in the Athletes Village wasclient terminal if necessary In addition the personal

predominantly used by athletes to connect only to thefirewall function installed on the terminals applied

Internet we incorporated the Wi‑Fi service for small

appropriate policies and we implemented an Always‑on

offices provided by NTT as part of the OTN rather thanfeature to force remote access when we ran the PC

central management by the WLC This enabled theoutside the office

reduction of equipment costs for APs (as shown in TableIn this way we had implemented a flexible and secure

2 the Athletes Village alone accounted for more thanremote access VPN as of the summer of 2019 when

40% of the total number of APs at all venues)

preparation activities for the Games were in full swing at

In some cases a higher‑than‑expected number of Wi‑

each venue As the number of teleworkers at home

Fi terminals were connected simultaneously in some

surged in 2020 with the spread of the COVID‑19

venues resulting in deficient performance and connec-

infection

tion difficulties

became the most critical to help us survive thewhich we manually adjusted andresolved eventually Please refer to 2‑4 of this special

this remote access service unintendedly

unprecedented postponement of the Games by a year
Due to the declaration of a state of emergency in April

issue for more details
Wi‑Fi technology is advancing rapidly We had to re‑2020

nearly all of the approximately 3 500 staff

examine the product version in cases where themembers were connected simultaneously (Figure 5)

connection method assumed in the design phase did notfrom their homes

match the specifications of the latest terminals brought

maximum number of simultaneous connections to be

while we initially expected thein at the venue and we could not absorb it by any
configuration changes Even for a temporary establishednetwork for an event it is critical to keep up with newtechnologies when the operation period gets longer
36

Remote Access VPN

In the organising committee

which was rapidly

expanding in preparation for the Games we introduced aremote access VPN so that staff members could connect
to the BON for their work even when they were out of
the office Terminal authentication was mandatory toconnect to the BON and L2 authentication was required
for the data network for the Games in offices and venues
while remote access VPN authentication from outside
the office
Due to operational cost and construction period
constraints we planned not to install an official data
30

Figure 5 Maximum Number of Simultaneous Remote Access
VPN Connections
The figures plotted for the day with thelargest number of simultaneous connections in each month In
April 2020 almost all staff were to use remote access so additional
licenses were procured quickly to accommodate this change

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSaround 2 500

We quickly established a telework

beginning it could be possible that the Games data

environment for the staff by procuring additional

network would have been designed and implemented

licenses and making capacity design changes including

with a different architecture However the postpone-

revising the split tunneling target to improve perform-

ment of the Games by one year did not result in fatal

ance Please refer to 2‑6 and 2‑9 of this special issue forflaws or significant design revisions and the network

details

was able to operate stably with the same architecture as
initially designed until after the postponement It was

4．Summary/Conclusion

only thanks to many engineers of the telecommunication
service and equipment partners of the Tokyo 2020

The most important aspect of the data network

Games who contributed their expertise and knowledge

developed for the Tokyo 2020 Games was to ensure

to design and deploy the network considering thereliability through stable operation while considering

flexibility and easy operations

efficiency For this reason we did not deliver the latest

The IOC initially warned us that “the Olympics istechnologies basically but were very conscious of

NOT a technology showcase ” and the data network for

implementing technologies with practical experience In

the Games and its design engineers who would play aaddition since various parties from around the world

fundamental role in the Games had faithfully adhered tobrought in a wide variety of terminals the architecturethat warning and provided the infrastructure to support

itself had to be flexible enough to meet their require-

the Games

ments and the engineers operating it had to be able toinvisibly

respond quickly and reliably

They had been working steadily andPlease refer to 2‑6 of this special issue for the actual

However when the postponement of the Games cameout we suddenly had to figure out the massive issue of

operations and performance of the data network during
the Tokyo 2020 Games time

how we should keep the data network for the Games that
had already started the operations toward the summerof 2020 for one more year We evaluated and analyzed
various risks which equipment and services becoming
obsolete and cyber‑attacks being higher developed andimplemented appropriate countermeasures after considering its cost and lead time As a result we could keep
operating the data network for the Games without any
problems until 2021 which contributed to the success of
the Games
If the Games had been scheduled for 2021 from the(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 15 2022)

KUROMIYA Takayuki
Mr Kuromiya received his M S in Information Science and Technology from Tohoku
University in 1998 and joined Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation (NTT) in the same
year Since then he has been engaged mainly in
the implementation and operation of a dedicated global network for manufacturing enterprises In January 2015 he was seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Director of Telecom Business Promotion
Technology Services Bureau㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202031

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑3

Tips of Allowlist Based Firewall Operation
for the Tokyo 2020 GamesOSAWA Yoshika

SASAKI Junichi

ASOU Takamichi

IWASA Isao

The data network for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 adopted the Allowlist firewall system as a
network‑level security measure After two and a half years of operating the access control lists (ACLs) on the firewalls
installed in the data network for the Games including the preparation period the total number of ACLs at the time of theGames was over 400 000 lines (up to 260 000 lines for a single FW) This article introduces the operations performed tokeep this huge number of ACLs consistent with the network policy without misconfiguration
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Allowlist Firewall ACL Security policy

1．Introduction

extremely rare to be adopted in enterprises
However in case of the data network for the Olympic

The Allowlist scheme clarifies necessary communica-

and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter re-tion information (IP addresses and port numbers) inferred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) we dared to take on

advance as communication requirements and blocks all

this challenge as the network infrastructure supporting acommunication that does not meet these requirements

mission‑critical international event and overcame a

While this method provides strong security it isnumber of problems through well designed workflow

complicated because the number of access control lists

operation and thorough auditing(ACLs) set in the firewall (FW : Firewall) is huge andThis article describes the efforts made for thethe FW settings must be added or deleted each time theoperation and management of FWs in the Games Data

communication requirements updated due to changes in

Network using the “Allowlist” method as described in

the environment

Section “2‑2 Architecture of Data Network for thesuch as installation of servers orconstruction of venues And complexity in operation canTokyo 2020 Games”

be prone to configuration errors So that this method is

2．ACL Management of FWs
OSAWA Yoshika
Technology Planning Department Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
E‑mail Yoshika osawa@ntt com
SASAKI Junichi
Network Business Headquarters Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East
Corporation
E‑mail j sasaki@east ntt co jp
ASOU Takamichi
New Business Development Headquarters Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
East Corporation
E‑mail Takamichi asou yv@east ntt co jp
IWASA Isao
Network Business Headquarters Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East
Corporation
E‑mail i iwasa@east ntt co jp

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 32‑37 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers32

FW is a device that increase security by controlling
network‑level connectivity and the configuration information for controlling them is called ACL
In the Games Data Network FWs were deployed in
the Data Centre where servers related to the Games
operation were deployed and in all the 57 venues where
the Games Data Network was available
The information to create ACLs for the FWs wasmanaged by the communication requirements tables
submitted by each of the 52 Functional Areas (FAs) of

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the Organising Committees using the Games Data
Network The total number of ACLs at the beginning of
the Tokyo 2020 Games exceeded 400 000 lines of all theFWs the one that set most ALCs was the FW installedin the Primary Data Centre (PDC) which had more than

3．Operation and Management of ACL
Configuration
31

Development of ACL Configuration Workflow

Requests for ACL configuration changes in FWs weremanaged in work units called Service Requests (SRs)260 000 lines (Table 1)

Each FA filled out the communication requirement
tables with the requested information registered it in
the Document Management System (DMS)andsubmitted the SR through the ticketing system (ITSM)
Table 1

Venue
1
2

The FW setup team was responsible for the ACL

Number of ACLs for Major Venues
Equipment
PDC‑OIN‑FW

PDC(Primary Data Centre)

Number ofACLs
263 290

settings Since SRs were expected to be submitted inlarge volumes an ITSM manager was assigned to
manage the progress of the tickets

PDC‑SVMGMT‑FW

6 311

After receiving a work request from the ITSM

3

PDC‑OTN‑FW

65 675manager the FW configuration team checked the work

4

SDC‑OIN‑FW

124 167

content

determined the target FW and the ACL

688

content

coordinated schedule for the work date

SDC
SDC‑SVMGMT‑FW(Secondary Data Centre)
6
SDC‑OTN‑FW
5

1 803

executed the work reviewed the results of the work

7

International
Broadcasting Centre

IBC‑OIN‑UTM

4 113

updated the communication requirements tables and

8Main Press Centre

MPC‑OIN‑UTM

2 284

reported the work completion in the SR ticket After

9

Olympic Stadium

OLS‑OIN‑UTM

1 921

confirming the completion of the work by ITSM each

10

Technology Operation
CentreTOC‑OIN‑UTM

2 645

FA confirmed the communication and closed the SR
ticket (Figure 1)

Figure 1 FW Setting Workflow
The workflow from the FA issues the configuration request to confirm theresult of the work and closes the ticket A responsible person was assigned to each of the requester FA ticket
manager and FW team to prevent omissions

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

33

32

Maintenance of Communication Requirement
Tables

The communication requirement tables contained theIDwork contents (setting request flag)

This process detected omissions in the configuration
request flags and prevented discrepancies between thesourcecommunication requirements tables and the configuration information to be applied to the equipment

information (name IP address protocol port number)and destination information (name IP address port

332

Extraction of Communication Requirements

number) for each requirement Listing the work targets

for Each FW

by both name and IP address was to make it easier for

As described in Section 2

the total number ofthe requesting FA and for the approver to identify thecommunication requirement tables submitted by FAs

targets The communication requirement tables wereamounted to 172 But the communication requirement

updated by overwriting the same files and the versions

tables did not contain information of FWs to be worked

were managed by using DMS

on so communication requirements for each FW wereadded (Figure 2)

33
331

Preparation for FW Setting
Extraction of Work Contents

If the impact of the settings on the Games Data
Network for the competition was significant

theAfter the SR ticket was submitted the ITSM manager

configuration information was applied to the FWs

instructed the FW setup team to start the preliminary

prepared for verification and the correctness of the

preparations by downloading the communication re-settings and the operational status of the FWs werequirements tables for the SR from the DMS confirming

confirmedthat there were no discrepancies between the contentsof the SR and the communication requirements tables

34

and then checking the differences with the versions of

The requirement tables compiled for each FW was

the communication requirements tables received in thebatch‑registered to the FW management server

most recent SR using a tool for requirements compari-through the API using an in‑house batch installation toolson

(Figure 3)

FW Configuration and Verification

Figure 2 Image of Extracting Requirements to Be Submitted to Each FW
The FWs to be worked on are allocated byeach requirement listed in the communication requirement table created by the requester FA and a requirement table foreach FW is created34

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 3 Image of using the Batch Installation Tool
The requirement list for each FW is registered in
the FW management server using the batch installation tool and then the configuration information isreflected in the individual FWs

Figure 4 Comparison of Differences Before and After Deployment
The configuration information
before and after reflecting ACL configuration information in FWs is compared and it is confirmed that theresult of the work is consistent with the desired result

The key to this process was to obtain the ACL settings

deployment the work was flagged as completed in theof the FW before deployment and to compare them with

communication requirement table and registered in thethe ACL settings after deployment in the post‑process-DMS A SR was issued to the ITSM indicating that theing step

work was completed
After receiving the SR from ITSM the requester FA

35

Post‑configuration Processing

confirmed the communication and closed the ticket

As a post‑processing check we created a tool tocheck the differences in ACLs before and after

4．ACL Audit

deployment and used it to confirm that the work
performed had the desired results (Figure 4)

The check processes described so far in the FW setup

After the post‑processing check was completed bywork are all procedures to correctly reflect thecomparing with the ACL settings before and after

communication requirements requested by the FA inSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202035

Figure 5 Image of Path Audit
The communication policy states that communication between Internal and Untrusted is
No If all of setting conform to policy all paths will be drawn in green However in this example communication path isopened for TCP/22 between Internal and Untrusted then the path in red indicates the existence of an offending paththe target device In order to be more flawlessly thefatal policy violations were detected during the Tokyo

audit was conducted to check the ACL settings from the2020 Games period we were able to point out that thefollowing two perspectives :management documents had not been updated for the
exceptionally permitted paths･

Comparison of the communication requirement･

Comparison of ACLs and routing informationtable and the ACLs of the FW
with communication policy (path auditing)

5．Conclusion
This article has described the process management
and auditing methods that enabled the operation of an

41

Comparison of Communication Requirement

Allowlist‑type FW with more than 400 000 lines ofTable and ACLs

ACLs which achieved consistent network segmentation

In the FW configuration work we constructed a flow

without omissions even though configuration change

to ensure that the differences in the communication

requests were made almost every week for about two

requirement tables are set but we cannot eliminate theand a half years starting in March 2019

possibility that human error may be occurred during

This article focuses on the completed workflow at thelong‑term operation Therefore we made an in‑housetime when the operation was established to start thetool to compare the communication requirement table

Tokyo 2020 Games but the road to operational maturity

and ACL configuration informationand conducted

was not an easy one For example in the beginning theperiodic audits to ensure that all the contents of theunderstanding of the communication requirements

communication requirement tables were surely config-

among the parties concerned including FAs varied

ured in the FWthen changes to the format were sometimes unavoidable Even when format changes were decided upon

42

Path Auditing

careful explanation and adequate time were needed toPath auditing is used to verify the reachability ofensure that the need for such changes was understood

application level between segments of the network based

The number and timing of servers and other equipmenton the ACLs of FWs and routing information of network

installed by each FA varied and when the requests

devices and to confirm whether there are communica-

were concentrated the workload was more than wetion paths that violate the communication policy

could have expected

specified at the time of design (Figure 5)

During the Tokyo 2020 Games we observed approxi-

The audit targeted routers and FWs of the BON andmately 450 million security events and were able to

CPN that were critical to the operation of the Tokyo 2020

properly handle and block all of them However the

Games (PDC : 21 units Venue : 258 units) Although no

Allowlist based micro‑segmentation we have created36

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

ensures that even if attackers who wanted to launch
cyberattacks on the Tokyo 2020 Games were topenetrate deep into the network bypassing the manylayers of security measures it would not be easy forthem to conduct their activities(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 23 2022)

OSAWA Yoshika
Completed his masterʼs degree at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering in2015 He joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation in the same year andhas been engaged in the design construction
and operation of the FW deployed in the data
network for the Tokyo 2020 Games since 2018
Currently he works at the Technology Planning Division of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

ASOU Takamichi
Completed his masterʼs degree at Gunma
University in 2007 He completed his masterʼscourse at the University of Information Security in 2013 He has been engaged in cybersecurity policy review and operation Currently he is the Manager in charge of Security
Services Business Development Division 3 at
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation
IWASA Isao
Completed his masterʼs degree at Saitama
University in 1989 He joined Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation in the same year
and has been with Nippon Telegraph andTelephone East Corporation since 2008 Since
then he has been engaged in service development and security‑related work for telecommunications services Currently he is the General
Manager of the Office of Network Security at
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation

SASAKI Junichi
Completed his masterʼs degree in informationengineering at Muroran Institute of Technology
in 2000 He joined Nippon Telegraph andTelephone East Corporation in the same year
Since then he has been engaged in telecommunication services development of security
infrastructure and promotion of security
business Currently he is a chief of the Office of
Network Security at Nippon Telegraph andTelephone East Corporation㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202037

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑4Services/Systems Provided over the Games
Data Network［Ⅰ］: Functional‑Area Networks
and Wi‑Fi for the Games Stakeholders
MUTO Kenji

SAITO Wataru

This article describes an overview of the Games management systems that the Functional Areas of the Organising
Committee used over the Games Data Network It also describes some of the difficulties preparing and operating such
event the Organising Committee faced in terms of systems and services other than communication service
Keywords：FA system/network Communication service Wi‑Fi connection service

1．Logical Separation of Services and Networks

the CPN there were many other systems/services
directly related to the operation of the Games : forAs already mentioned in another chapter the Games

example the system for press agencies distributing theData Network was divided into three categories : theresults of these events and moments of events such as

network for the system for distributing competition

the opening and closing ceremonies the system toresults (CPN) the network for back‑office operation

manage athlete medical information the system forused by the Organising Committee (BON) and otherpower monitoring the ticket sales and management

networks (OTN) The systems and services used bysystem the CATV service transmitting competition

each functional area (FA) were mainly provided by theimages to the related staff members in real time and thelast network OTN This article describes those systems

Internet service for stakeholders authenticated by theand services provided by OTN

accreditation cards for accessing the venues

The total number of information devices connected

These systems required network to have not only highsimultaneously to the Games Data Network throughreliability but also adequate bandwidth stability accessthese Functional Area (FA) systems and services were

controls

120 000 devices during the Olympic Games and 64 000

cyberattacks Furthermore in some cases FA required

devices during the Paralympic Games (Figure 1)

flexibly responding to changes occurred in theseand security measures to prevent from

In addition to the systems for athlete information

requirements It was not practical to build separate

competition records and judgment results handled by

networks to meet these requirements individuallyespecially from a cost point of view Therefore theGames Data Network for the Olympic and Paralympic

MUTO KenjiBusiness Innovation Headquarters Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East
Corporation
E‑mail kenji muto@east ntt co jp
SAITO Wataru
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games

Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 38‑44 August 2022

ing multiple independent routing tables on the same© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

38

2020 Games”) was constructed using VRF function in the
network devices (routers and L3 switches) a functionthat logically separated multiple networks by maintainphysical devices This allowed to superimpose virtual

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

Number of Terminals Connected to the Games Data Network

networks with different requirements from each sys-

the Venue Security Coordination Centre (VSCC) andtem onto the Games Data Network while keeping

250 installed at related organizations)(Figure 2)

equipment and telecom service costs low

Because of the scale of the network as well as the close

The major networks and services superimposed onrelationship between the operational requirements andthe Games Data Network for the Tokyo 2020 Games are

the system a task team was established at a very earlyshown in Table 1

stage of planning with members from the Security
Bureau Panasonic System Solutions Japan (PSSJ) the

2．Major Networks Provided to FA Systems
etcTechnology Bureau and NTT East so that the team
could closely coordinate the requirements and design ofthe network in details

This section describes the major virtual networks

Three main design issues described below were

provided to the FAs and other organizationʼs systems

discussed in the task team First issue was selection of

Hereinafter referred to as FA networks

multicast methods for sending images There were two
types of multicast methods : Any‑Source Multicast

21

Security Network(ASM) which did not require source information to be

The security network (hereinafter referred to asrecognized and Static‑Source Multicast (SSM) which

CCTV network/Closed Camera TV) is mainly arecognized source information and assigned addresses

network for security information systems such as

statically The ASM method was employed for Tokyo

surveillance cameras

security

2020 Games because of cost and burden required on the

network was designed and constructed separately fromsystem Second issue was the network configuration In

the Games Data Network but for Tokyo 2020 Gamesnormal operations the VSCC at each venue monitored

the Organising Committee decided to construct over thethe corresponding venue so video images were neces-Games Data Network for cost and efficiency reasonssary to first collect and send to the VSCC However

In the past GamesThe security network was a network that connected

since GSCC took command and function as a backup in

and transmitted images from surveillance cameras fromemergency situations the video images also needed

43 competition venues as well as from 53 non‑competi-

simultaneously distributed to GSCC from each venue astion venues including the Main Press Centre (MPC)/

well

International Broadcast Centre (IBC) athletesʼ village

network was designed with a star configuration placing

bus and fleet depots

GSCC at the top and connecting to each venueetc

to the Games Security

Coordination Centre (GSCC) serving as the Games
security command center

The network eventually

To achieve this requirement efficiently

theThe third issue was the bandwidth design of WideArea Network

WAN

which needed to consider

accommodated approximately 8 000 surveillance cam-instantaneous burst characteristics of the cameras to beeras including existing legacy cameras as well as 4 000

installed The WAN bandwidth was then designed based

sensors 28 public road cameras and 1 500 PCs foron the number of screens simultaneously need tomonitoring (approximately 150 at the GSCC and 1 100 atmonitor at GSCC In addition the selection and design ofSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202039

Table 1Type

OIN

Service System
Competition System(CPN)
Operation and business system (BON)

Major Services and Systems Superimposed on the Games Data Network

VRF name andconfiguration

Overview
Network used to send competition data and results to overseas data centres etc

OIN
Business network used by the organising committee staff

FA network (Note : FA stands for “Functional Area” Each department within the organising committee that performs eachfunctional area necessary for the operation of the GamesOTN

A network service surveillance camera and recording devices are connected Images
from the surveillance cameras are send with multicast to the GSCC monitoring centre
and the venue

Security network

CCTV

Internet accessnetwork for FA

FA‑INTERNET A network for connecting systems and terminals used by FAs to the Internet

For payment
terminals Internet

FA‑VISA

Payment network used by various businesses

VPN for MED‑FA

FA‑MED

VPN for medical systems (electronic medical records radiology pharmacy and clinicaldata systems)

FA‑NRG‑UPS

VPN for UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) monitoring system

VPN for NRG‑FA

FA‑NRG‑EMS

VPN for EMS (Energy Management System)

FA‑NRG‑IBC

VPN network service for monitoring power control systems installed in IBCs

VPN for LAN‑FA

FA‑LANVPN used by the system that remotely (from MPC) translates athlete interviews andpress conferences held at each venue

VPN for SPP‑FA

FA‑SPP

VPN connected by sports presentation systems (systems that record and distributedigest images of competitions)

VPN for TEC‑FA

FA‑TEC

VPN connected to the temperature monitoring system at the VDC (Venue Data Centre :a data centre within the venue where systems that handle competition data are
installed)

Network for OMEGAOMEGAVPN service for OMEGA to connect to the Internet at the venue

Network for IOC staff

IOC‑LAN

Network used by the IOC for IOC offices in the Olympic Family Hotel

Telecommunication services
For Games officials
INTERNETInternet

Internet service used by Games officials at competition venues related facilities and on
buses Multiple services are provided by changing SSIDs and authentication methods
depending on the location and users (athletes volunteers stakeholders etc )VPN for the press(Press Plus)

VPN service for major news agencies (10 companies) to connect between MPC and
Venues Logically separate networks by VRF setting to each agency (Other than the 10
major agencies they used the Internet for stakeholders )By 10 News
Agencies

Inter‑Venue CATV CATVA service that multicasts competition videos from each venue aggregated at the IBC toother venues Commercial channels are also distributed to some venues

In‑Venue CATV

CATV‑MGMT

A service that distributes competition video in real‑time basis within the venue where
the competition is held

Fixed‑line/FMC

TEL

IP fixed‑line telephone service Extension integrated with commercial extension cell
phone service

Video conferencing
systemGLOBAL‑IP

For GLOBAL‑
IP Internet
VLAN Access(VPN between/
within a Venue)

A network service for connecting videoconferencing systems for conference Global IP is
paid out to the conference terminal and videoconferencing system is connected over theInternet
Internet service that allows direct connection to the Internet with a global IP without
network address translation at the Internet Gateway─※

VPN service to connect between Venues (L3VPN/L2VPN) upon request of the Games
stakeholders VPN service to connect terminals within a Venue upon request of Games
officials※ Logically separate the networks by setting VRF each time an L3VPN application is received

the equipment installed in the Venue was made to
sufficiently handle the traffic flow feeds to the video

same time
Moreoverthe network also accommodated othermonitoring terminals (multiple 8‑split screens) andtraffic form that of the surveillance camera images such

feeds to the recording devices (single screen) at theas traffic from the security guard management system

40

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

Overview of Security (CCTV) Networkthat managed incidents and reported from security

Network other from CCTV The other FA networks

guards at the venue via wearable devices and traffic

were required to operate various systems such as MED‑

from the system that obtained SNS analysis information

FA the medical department that handled the electronic

by connecting to hosting servers on the Internet

medical records of athletes and NRG‑FA which moni-

Since many of the security cameras were installed
outdoors due to their characteristics a verification test

tored the electric power used for lighting and equipment
at the venues

was conducted for one month in August 2020 after the

The preparation of CCTV was started early by the

postponement of the Games was announced The test

SEC‑FA (Security Bureau) and the task team had been

was to confirm that the components such as the PoE‑SW

established in 2018 to clarify requirement However

and its power supply network equipment that con-planning of systems and network requirements i enected to the cameras were installed in the small box

functions and number of equipment connected to theand was able to operate properly even under the

network used by many other FAs delayed because it

scorching sun in the summer

only covered certain part of the Games operation where
less priority or overall operation had not been fixed

22

Other FA Networks

There was a concern that since these systems of FA

This section outlines the “FA networks” used in Tokyo

were considered critical for the Games operation it was2020 Games operation superimposed on the Games Dataobvious that various requests would be concentrated atSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202041

the last minutes Therefore the network team decided

installation

to launch a working group in May 2019 to gather

announced Some of the requirements were changed

the postponement of the Games was

requirements beforehand from the FAs Even so it tookafter the postponement such as the change of medical

about six months to complete all the hearings on systemsystem requirements by coronavirus disease (COVID‑

requirements and if the Games was held as scheduled

19) countermeasures Table 2 summarizes the networks

less than six months remained to design configure andprovided to FAs and their systems

implement physical network based on those requirements
Since physically constructing networks for each FA
system was time‑consuming and costly the Organising

3．Wi‑Fi Connection Services for Stakeholders
31

Stakeholders

Committee decided to logically superimpose those
networks over the Games Data Network as much as

Overview of Wi‑Fi Connections Provided for

The communication services

other than the FA

possible On top of this the requirements of each FA

network that TEC provided over the OTN will be

were considered individually The network was divided

described in detail later

into two types : “Internet access network for FA” which

provides overview of Wi‑Fi connections provided forcan be shared by multiple FAs and “VPN dedicated to

stakeholders(each) FA” which were customized for each system(CCTV is one of this type)
The “Internet access network for FA” is a virtual

howeverin this section

Rather than being an independent service Wi‑Fi
connectivity was defined as a function that allowed
devices to connect to various systems and the Internet

network that is suitable for connecting to specific Server

Due to this concept Tokyo 2020 Games as a result

or Cloud service through the Internet This network isprovided 14 different SSID Wi‑Fi connections according

further divided into two types : a type user needs to log‑

to the difference of requirements and the end user

in or a type that the network can be used by justgroupsconnecting devices

One of the main reasons to place different name SSID

On the other hand the medical system and the power

was to simplify the process of trouble shooting whenmonitoring system must avoid any information leakage

issue occurred For SSIDs that were used by generaland unauthorized access and network needed to be

stakeholders not Organising Committee staff members

separated from other FAs in the Organising Committee

the Organising Committee used Japanese names that

Therefore

the requirement for “VPN dedicated towere globally well known such as “Sakura2020” and(each) FA” was not be connected to the Internet and“Kabuki2020” to SSIDs to make it easier to search as wellconstructed in a closed network (VLAN) throughas feel “Japan” to athletes and stakeholders fromseparate VPN The network that met the requirements

overseasof each FA was made using closed L3‑VPN as a basis
and superimposed them on the OTN
In the process of designing and preparing for the

Table 3 lists the SSID names for Wi‑Fi connectivity
provided by each service superimposed on the Games
Data Network
In addition Table 4 shows the statistics of unique

Table 2

Two Types of Internet Connections and FA/Systems
Used

connections (per day) to the Games Data Network via
Wi‑Fi services The actual usage differs slightly due toInternet connection for FA system (FAs using the system andtheir system outline)

the different users

TKT‑FA

Ticket System

period (July)FNB‑FA

Ordering System/Employee Attendance Management System

LIC‑FAPOS terminal of official stores

SPT‑FA

Weather Information Centre (WIC)

but the maximum number ofconnections can be seen in the first half of the Olympic
It should also be noted that Wi‑Fi connectivity itself isa technology that has been around for a long time
Because of this reason even the systems that preferred

TEC‑FA

Radio Monitoring System

to use wired connectivity in the past Games are

RES‑FA

Info System (Match Result Information System)changing Wi‑Fi is started to be used as a default or as

Internet connection for payment terminal (FA to be used)

an additional function

FIN‑FA， LIC‑FA， MPS‑FA， PRC‑FA， PRS‑FA， TKT‑
FA，SPT/INS‑FA，VIL‑FA，FNB‑FA

function is coming larger

42

and the importance of thisTHE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 3Type
OIN

Wi‑Fi Accommodated by the Games Data Network

Service System
Games Operation andBusiness System (BON)

Internet for convention
officials
OTN

SSID Name

Users etc

TOKYO2020‑TLS

For Organising Committee staff PCs

Kimono2020

For Organising Committee staff smartphone

Omotenashi2020

For guests at the Organising Committeeʼs headquarters

Sakura2020

For accreditation holders(athletes and officials stakeholders)Onigiri2020

For volunteers

Sushi2020

For Guests

Wasabi2020

For Bus Depot

Katana2020

For Athletesʼ Village Residence Building

T2020̲Official̲Hospitality For VIP SpectatorsOBS

For OBSOBS Plus

For OBS (with terminal authentication)

VPN for Press (Press Plus)

Kabuki2020

For Press

Internet for FA system

Samurai2020

Dedicated to FAs of the Organising Committee

Network for IOC StaffIOC

For IOC

Table 4SSID Name

Number of Terminals Used (Identified by MAC Address)
Average per day

Maximum number(date)TOKYO2020‑TLS

3 751 6779 44 958（7/26）

Kimono2020

4 160 61 000 6

5 659（7/26）

Samurai2020

56 2

50 8

226（7/23）

Onigiri2020

1 561 3812 22 738（7/25）

Omotenashi2020（‑2）

1 700 6351 42 120（7/30）

Sakura2020（‑2）

23 514 515 189 547 170（7/28）

Sushi2020

1 888 5546 0

2 539（8/26）

Wasabi2020
Katana2020（‑2）
Kabuki2020

924 4

246 5

1 200（8/7 ）14 081 4

9 401 029 311（7/29）

89 2

76 7

232（7/24）

IOC

266 5

68 0

367（7/23）

OBS

1 524 7793 82 669（7/28）

1204

OBS Plus
T2020̲Official̲Hospitality

32

Standard deviation

2

─＊Planned but not used

Trouble Cases of Wi‑Fi Connections and Its

access On the other hand the wired ports installed at

Troubleshooting : Instability of Wi‑Fi for theeach press seat were only used about 30% of what had

Pressbeen installed The resolution of troubles was driven by

Prior to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games

a lot of joint work between IOC Tokyo 2020 and NTT

on July 23 2021 Wi‑Fi for press in the MPC thewith deployment of in depth reviews of Wi‑Fi services to

National Stadium and other locations had difficulty

different centres and tribunes in specific sites alongconnecting to Wi‑Fi Access Points (APs) There werewith specialists from NTT As a result the following

several causes : many press staff members broughtmeasures had been implemented and troubles resolved

terminals and connected to the Wi‑Fi made speed notin about one week:high enough ; the Wi‑Fi devices (router) brought into
the venue had interreference with the Wi‑Fi frequency①

Switched the Wi‑Fi AP channel and signal

the Organising Committee provided ; there were somestrength from automatic to manual settings andlocations where the signal strength was not strong to

optimized them according to the environment theySpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202043

were installed (184 APs in total)②

Relocated Wi‑Fi Aps at the press tribune and4．Summary and Discussion for the Next Article

media centre at each venue to higher and more

This article introduced the major systems andvisible locations and installed additional 43 APs inservices superimposed on the Games Data Network as

areas where the number of press agency exceeded

well as described about the Wi‑Fi connections used tofrom the original planconnect to FA systems③

Since the wired cable connection had been

The equipment for the FA systems installed over the

USB‑LANOTN was managed and operated by the end users

conversion adapters were quickly procured andincluding FAs Although certain guidelines were pro-

distributed to the press encouraging them to usedvided and system reviews were made beforehand there

wired connections

were limitations in managing overall operation For

sufficiently installed to each seatIn addition the wireless team monitored the use

example if the preparation and test were not sufficientlyof prohibited frequency bands in the venue andconducted beforehand issue such as designed usage

asked to stop using those devices when they were

were found different from actual usage in the earlyfoundedstages of implementation In such cases the network
also needed to diagnose its connection along with the

The main reason for this situation is thought to be theanalysis of the system The case of Wi‑Fi issue for thedramatic increase of using wireless LANs compared topress although it was not an FA system but access tothe past Games

the internet is an example of a trouble that occurred due

Initially primary requirement was wired connection
because stability was the priority Therefore wired port

to the difference between usage assumption and its
actual usage

had been installed at each press tribune seat while Wi‑

Providing network to FAs gave the technology teams

Fi connection was considered as a secondary purpose

an opportunity to recognize the difficulty of governanceHoweverthe number of press users using Wi‑Fi

assigning and sharing responsibilities with inside andoutnumbered those using wired connections in Tokyo

outside the Organising Committee The next section will2020 Games This is maybe due to the increase in thediscuss the major “communication services” in detailnumber of notebook PCs without LAN ports
In addition

from a marketing perspectivetheOlympic venues were designed to be “clean venues”
which meant that communication devices were notallowed to be installed where visible such as spectator
seats and seats around the press tribunes for televisionviewing Therefore APs were initially installed under
the seats or hidden in the walls with the top boards andwalls covering them This is thought to be another cause(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 24 2022)

MUTO Kenji
Graduated from Rikkyo University in 1997
with a degree in Economics He joined Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)in the same year and received his MBA from
Emory University in 2008 He joined the Tokyo
Olympic and Paralympic Games project since2015 and is currently working for Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation(NTT East)of instability of Wi‑Fi connection We should emphasizethat one lesson for the future Organising Committee willbe the high density Wi‑Fi solutions for MPC Venue
Media Centres and tribunes to meet the operational
needs of media should be studied on a priority basis inadvance

SAITO Wataru
Completed master degree at the Universityof Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering in
1993 He joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in the same year andreceived his MBA from Carnegie Mellon
University in 2001 Seconded to Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee from 2018 General
Manager of Information Infrastructure Department Technology Services Bureau㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

44

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑5Services/Systems Provided over the Games
Data Network [Ⅱ] : Telecom Services
Offered by the Organising Committee
MUTO Kenji

KAKUTA Yuki

WATAI Mutsumi

SAITO Wataru

This article provides an overview of the main “telecommunication services” provided by the Organising Committee of
the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games using the Games Data Network their achievements and results This
paper also discusses the problems encountered in the preparation and construction of these services and provides a
viewpoint for providing similar services at future events
Keywords：Communication service for the Games Press Plus (Press VLAN services) Local 5G CATV FMC service･

CATV (Community Access Television) service･

IP fixed‑line telephone and FMC services

the･

VLAN for TV conference service

network for FA systems housed in OCOG Technology･

IOC staff network (used at Olympic Family

1．Communication Service
An overview of the Games Data Network

Network (OTN) and the widely used basic functionalityof Wi‑Fi connectivity are described earlier In thissectionHotel)･

we will continue to introduce the design

construction

and provision of some of the main

VLAN Connect (VPN within and between
venues)･Internet with global IP address etc“communication services” used during the Games time
as described below

2．VLAN Service for the Press(Press Plus Service)

Main communication services･

Internet for the Stakeholders･

Special VLAN service for the press (Press Plus)

21

What is the Press Plus Service?

Major press agencies covering the Games send photos
taken by photographers at each venue to the Main Press
Centre (MPC)

MUTO KenjiBusiness Innovation Headquarters Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East
Corporation
E‑mail kenji muto@east ntt co jp
KAKUTA Yuki
Business Solution Division NTT Communications
E‑mail yuki kakuta@ntt com
WATAI Mutsumi
Business Solution Division NTT Communications
E‑mail m watai@ntt com
SAITO Wataru
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 45‑53 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

where they select the photos anddistribute to the media worldwide The network used tosend photos from the venues to the MPC was called“Press Plus ” a virtual private network (VPN) service
with secure bandwidth provided by the Organising
Committee (Figure 1) A total of ten agencies international press agencies accredited by IOC and official
domestic press agencies of the Olympic and Paralympic
Games Tokyo 2020 (hereafter referred to as “Tokyo
2020 Games”) used this service

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202045

Figure 1

22

Press Plus Service Image

Main Service Requirements

need to include the function to connect to the Internet

In the past Games a static VLAN (virtual LAN)but since security threats such as unauthorized accessenvironment was provided so that the terminals of eachare more serious some press agencies had said that thepress agency at the venue were able to communicate

Internet connection is unnecessary in consideration ofwith the terminals installed at their MPC desks

security and the Internet connection is finally excluded

However because it was static the location of switchesfrom the Press Plus specifications On the other handthat could be connected to the press VPN and the ports

there was a strong request from press agencies for Wi‑

that could be connected with the VPN were limited and

Fi connectivity so it was provided after joint verification

the press agencies needed to travel to those locations andby NTT East and Cisco In addition for fixed locations

use the specific ports to send data from venues to theeach company was able to statically connect to its own

MPC

VLAN by connecting to a predetermined cable ports

For greater convenience a new method of “dynamicSpecificallythe designated locations such as Photo

VLAN assignment based on MAC address (unique

Position/Press Tribune/Venue Media Centre were

physical address called Media Access Control) authenti-

connected to Press Plus VLAN via specific wired LAN

cation” was introduced for the Tokyo 2020 Games andcables while the Catwalk/Underwater locations were

this service was provided as a “closed L3‑VPN” and “Wi‑connected to Press Plus VLAN via specific L2 switch

Fi access” specifications The communication terminals

ports

such as cameras had unique MAC addresses assigned
and when a terminal was connected the MAC address

23

was recognized by the L3 switch which functioned as a

As this was the first time in the history of the Games

router and a switching hub By managing and register-that a dynamic allocation function was introduced thising which terminals were used by which agencies theservice was tested beforehand with the press agencies

Operational Testing and Operation

moment a terminal (precisely a wired cable connected tothree times in June 2018 October 2019 and May 2021 :the terminal) was plugged into an open port on an L3

the first was to confirm “dynamic VLAN allocation based

switch at various locations in the venue

it wason MAC address authentication” and the second was torecognized and authenticated which agencyʼs terminal it

confirm registration and overall functionality using thewas and was dynamically and securely connected to the“portal for MAC address registration” and the third was

VLAN configured by each agency This was called ato test the final operation using the actual environment“closed L3‑VPN” specification

between venues In June 2021 nine of the press agencies

This closed L3‑VPN service was initially considered to46

participated in the third test along with the IOC the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Organising Committee Cisco NEC and camera manu-

technology and service were in the phase of expansion at

facturers (Canon Nikon and Sony) The service was

the time of the Gameslaunched on the same day of the MPC soft opening July

expectation on the speed for distributing visual contents

1 2021in the current media is increasing and transferring

On the other handtheDuring the Games time an engineer dedicated forphoto data reliably and quickly is significant for thePress Plus was assigned as a support staff in MPC enable

events that draw large attentions such as global sports

each agency to inquire about the service directly without

eventsgoing through the service desk Thanks to such careful

With this background a telecommunications service

preparation and organization there were no network

partner NTT East provided local 5G as one of Press Plus

problems or trouble reports The system also performed

connectivity functions to agencies at Tokyo 2020 Games

well during the opening ceremony and track and fieldin order to gain practical knowledge of the use of local 5G

events such as menʼs and womenʼs 100 m finals which

for news coverage of large‑scale eventswere reportedly expected to be the most heavily used

NTT East installed local 5G at the Olympic Stadium

events during the Games The total number of devices

Unlike spectator seating the stadium field where theused during the Olympics was 2 253 and the maximum

Games were held often lacked sufficient cellular cover-communication bandwidth to the MPC was 1 8 Gbit/s

age so a local 5G environment was built to cover thosespaces Six media agencies that wished to use the24

Local 5G Demonstration

system connected their devices through Local 5G to theirTechnological innovation and institutional develop-

Press Plus VLANs This system enabled photographers

ment of the next‑generation communication systemfrom each agency to upload large‑volume photo data

Local 5G (see Figure 2) has been progressing rapidly

taken in the field during the opening and closing

including institutional revisions related to the expansion

ceremonies as well as Track and Field competitions in aof the frequency band used for Local 5G ; Sub6 of 4 6 tostable environment in real time Each company was

4 9 GHz and Millimeter wave of 28 3 to 29 1 GHz were

provided five terminals

newly available in December 2020 In addition the NSA

volume during the Games was 475 GByte ; assuming that

(Non‑Stand Alone) system using Sub6 which will beeach file was about 10 M this means that nearly 50 000

the mainstream system became available and thishigh‑resolution photos were uploaded Three antennas

and the total transmission

were designed and built to cover the field the photo
positions where wired LAN ports were not located andthe competition field During the competition there wasonce a situation in which connection was difficult due tointerference between some cells so the antennas were
adjusted and recovered to provide an optimal signal
environment during the competition There were no
major complaints from users and all companies seemedsatisfied with the quality of the system Local 5G is atechnology that offers the advantage of high‑quality
wireless access in an environment where Wi‑Fi andpublic networks are unstable due to interference andcongestion and it can be said that the characteristics ofthis technology were fully demonstrated at the Games
Some of the press agencies expressed their hope that thesystem would be used for the FIFA World Cup Qatar
2022 and the next Olympic Games
Figure 2 5G Demonstration Image
Local 5G is a dedicated 5G
network that a company or municipality builds within a certain
area or site A radio station license is required for each case andthis time a license was obtained at the Olympic Stadium during theGames and the service was provided to the press in the area thatpublic services or the Organising Committee services were difficult
to reachSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202047

Figure 3 Inter‑Venue CATV System Configuration
Games video and commercial TV channels
provided by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) system were distributed to 56 venues/
locationsFigure 4 In‑Venue CATV System Configuration
The figure shows the system in the form of
RF signal transmission In addition HD‑SDI signals from the OBS system and Real Time Data
System (RTDS) are transmitted as they are The competition video and RTDS video werereceived via DIVA network a video and audio network within the competition venues anddistributed to the TVs within the venues･

3．CATV Service
31

basis
･

What is CATV?

Community Access Television (CATV) was a video
distribution service dedicated to the Games thattion venue and commercial TV channels (national TV
broadcasts from foreign countries) to MPCs competiathletesʼ villages

Sustainability will be realized by utilizing existing
facilities and reusing them after the convention･

distributed images of the competitions at each competi-tion venues

Proven services and equipment will be used as theInter‑Venue CATV distribution shall be provided
as a service embedded on the Games Data Network･

In‑Venue CATV transmits images with low
latencyand other locations

Viewers included stakeholders (IOCInternational

32

Inter‑Venue CATV Requirements and Functions

Sports Federations Games management staff etc )Inter‑Venue CATV was a form of multi‑channel

athletes media representatives national Olympic com-

distribution of competition videos (48 channels) col-mittees who had applied for rate cards (a paid menu

lected at the IBC

provided by the Organising Committee)

channels) and program list for one week of competition

There were two CATV services : “Inter‑Venue

commercial TV channels (15videos The service was provided from each competition

CATV” and “In‑Venue CATV” The system configura-site through the Games Data Network to MPCs

tions of the two services are shown in Figures 3 and 4competition venues athletesʼ villages Olympic family

The design is based on the following assumptions :hotels and individual locations where rate cards were48

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

applied for (Figure 5) This was a large‑scale 24‑hourGames Data Network that extended over a wide area

IP multicast distribution of 630 Mbit/s (approximately

between venues we used the technology of “Hikari TV”

10 Mbit/s per channel) to approximately 3 500 STBs

provided by NTT Plala Inc “Hikari TV” is a multi‑(Set Top Boxes video receivers) In superimposing thischannel IP broadcasting service that provides services

on OTN of the Games data network Layer 3 processing

equivalent to broadcast quality

equipment was configured to be independent in order toindustry standard specifications in Japan including the

avoid mutual influence with the closed‑circuit television

standards of Association of Radio Industries and(CCTV) security network which also used IP multicast

Business in Japan and IPTV Forum Japan This system

Figure 6 shows the number of Inter‑Venue CATV

and conforms to

had the following processing functions () to () and

STBs in daily use and the cumulative number of STBs

satisfied the requirements of Inter‑Venue CATV forthat had started to be used up to that datesafe

To superimpose and distribute the data over thehigh‑quality video distribution of competition

videos (HD‑SDI signal) provided by OBS through theGames Data Network①

Real‑time encoding of SDI signals provided by the
program provider(video format : 1080/59 94i encoding method : H 264)②

Superimposition of program information③

Encryption of encoded video and program information

IP packetizationand error correction

processing (FEC Forward Error Correction)④

IPv6 multicast stream distribution

In addition the following customizations ⑤ and ⑥
were made to take advantage of these processing
functions ① 〜 ④ and adapted them to the special
environment of the conventions
Figure 5

STB Screen Image of Inter‑Venue CATV (Home andProgram List Pages) (©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved)⑤

IPv4 compatibility with the Games Data Network
protocol (customization of the distribution function

Figure 6 Inter‑Venue CATV STB Usage Trends
July 21 st was the day when the qualifying
matches started The number of STBs in use on a daily basis and the cumulative total of STBs that
had been put into use by that time or the Organising Committee services Almost all the STBs in
the planed locations were activated by the end of July

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202049and STB)

Therefore the problem did not occur in the verification⑥

UI development of STB for conventions

33

Problems Discovered When Providing Inter‑

commercial service to a special environment

Venue CATV and Their Solutions

necessary to take countermeasures such as conducting

environment or in most of the venues delaying thediscovery of the problem When converting an existing

Although the operation of Games Data Network wasverified using the verification environment before

it issufficient pre‑verification in an environment close to the
production conditions

construction a major problem occurred during test
operation in the athletesʼ village (where approximately

34

1 400 STBs were installed) just before the start of

In‑Venue CATV was a form of real‑time distribution

In‑Venue CATV Requirements and Functionsof video images shot by OBS at each competition venue

operation
Hikari TV STBs are equipped with many functions

limited to the competition venue at which the video

that are not used during the Olympic Games such as theimages were taken and provided to the press (Press

ability to watch programs recorded or broadcast on the

Tribune etc ) athlete‑related rooms (Warm‑up Area

STBs with Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)etc ) and other locations

compatible recorders smartphones and tablets in the

The transmission latency requirement was 300 milli

home Therefore it was necessary to customize theseconds or lesssystem by deactivating unused functions and theachieved by preparing transmission paths for SDI signals

processing affected by such deactivation This problem

provided by OBS as they were or by converting SDI

was a failure of communication between the STBs andsignals to RF signals 3 200 terminals were deployed in

the head end (distribution facility) and was caused by

In‑Venue CATV In some venues TVs STBs andthe presence of an unusual number of STBs on the sameother terminals had to be installed in outdoor spaces(Press Tribune

network
At startup the STBs of Hikari TV searched forso low latency transmission was

Press Mixed Zoneetc )so thefollowing measures were taken

DLNA‑compatible devices (recorders tablets etc ) on
the network and the DLNA‑compatible devices re-･

devices to protect them from rainfall

sponded to the search and link up with the STBs This
process was also executed in the athletesʼ village and allother STBs responded to one STBʼs search at startup as

Prepared protective cases for STBs and other･Installation of sunshades to make the TV screeneasier to see

a DLNA‑enabled device Because of the large number of
STBs that responded a large number of ARP packets

However during the actual event the heat from the

Because thesunlight caused the TV casing to deform and we had tonumber of ARP packets exceeded the “incoming ARPtake measures such as putting the TV monitors underpacket rate limit” of the ARP Inspection function set in

the feet when they were not in use

were generated during this process

the access switch of the Games Data Network theaccess switch automatically set the port connecting the

4．Fixed Telephone Service and FMC

STB that was about to be activated to the errdisable
state and started operating to prevent the STB from

A fixed‑line telephone service centered on IP telephone service was provided for the Olympic andcommunicating
Because there were venues other than the athletesʼ

Paralympic Games stakeholders In addition extension

village where this problem could occur and because it

services between cell phones and IP phones were

was just before the start of the Games operations theprovided for staff members and regular analog phones

problem was handled by blocking DLNA‑related

were provided in areas where fax machines and IP

communications on the access switch side

networks could not be installed

where

settings could be changed remotely and at once rather
than stopping the relevant functions of the STBs

41

Requirements for Provision

In a network environment with a small number of

The phone system of the Olympic and Paralympic

STBs (several dozen) this problem does not occur

Games had the characteristic of being used by a large

because the number of ARP packets generated is small

number of stakeholders and staff members just before

50

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Figure 7

Composition of Landline and FMC (Fixed Mobile Calling Service)

the Games start after being used by a small number of()

FMC Service

staff members for a long preparation period Many staff

An environment that enabled to connect approxi-

members moved around without a fixed location somately 15 000 cell phones and fixed‑line phones to ancoordination between fixed and cell phones was alsointernal line was established using NTT DoCoMoʼsimportant In addition it was difficult to hear the detail“Office Link” service

requirements in advance so the key requirements were
to complete the delivery in a short period of time and to(respond quickly to the frequently changed requests

The terminals of cloud‑based IP phones and on‑)

Games Data Network

premise PBXs were connected to the LAN for the42

Configuration of the Conference Telephone

conference via a PoE switch The network provided

Environment

priority control and firewall functions to integrate voice

The conference call environment consisted of theand data

following services (Figure 7)
43()

Cloud‑based IP Phone Service

Migration in Preparation for the Games

During the preparation period before the Games cell

“Arcstar UCaaS” a cloud‑based IP phone service

phones were deployed for staff members IP fixed‑line

provided by NTT Communications was used to control

phones were provided for each department and an

approximately 2 600 IP phones and integrate on‑premiseenvironment was prepared to link extensions using FMC

PBX and cell phone extension services The service wasservicehighly compatible with short‑term intensive use because

Since the scale and reliability of the existing on‑

it was able to be used for a monthly fee without assets it

premise PBX were not sufficient and since the number

enabled to flexibly respond to fluctuations in demand beof phones required increased rapidly only around theeasily kitted and configured via a portal

Games time and would be drastically reduced in a few

and beconfigured for several hundred phones per hourmonths it was decided to introduce cloud‑based IP
telephones The deployment of cloud‑based IP teleph-()

On‑premise PBX

ony began three months prior to the Games and was

A fixed telephone environment for staff members had

quickly deployed at competition venues media centres

been required for five years prior to the Games and an

and other locations where reliability was required

IP telephone environment for approximately 300 units(Figure 8) The on‑premise PBX and mobile extension

was continuously provided using a small PBX

services used during the preparation period were also
linkedSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202051

Figure 8

Table 1

Changes in the Number of Cloud Fixed‑line Phones Installed

Number of Calls during the Games (Comparison with London 2012 Games)
London2012
2012 7 27〜2012 9 9Tokyo20202021 7 23〜2021 9 5Outgoing Calls

380k Call

41 1%

268k Call

23 0%

fixed to overseas
fixed to Domestic fixed
fixed to Domestic Moblie
mobile to all outside

47k Call
88k Call245k Call
─

5 1%
9 5%
26 5%

1k Call
16k Call
11k Call
240k Call

0 1%
1 4%
0 9%
20 6%

Incoming Calls

492k Call

53 1%

289k Call

24 8%

to fixed phone
to mobile492k Call─

53 1%

52k Call237k Call

4 5%
20 3%

Extension Calls

54k Call

5 8%609k Call

52 2%

fixed to fixedmobile from/to fixedmobile to mobile

54k Call──

5 8%

18k Call
6k Call
585k Call

1 5%
0 5%
50 2%

Total

926k Call

100 0%

1166k Call

100 0%(Note) In the Tokyo 2020 Games all staff members were given cell phones (smartphones) as extension terminals
Information on extensions and outgoing calls to and from staff membersʼ cell phones is also necessary to compare incoming
and outgoing calls from the Organising Committeeʼs terminals with those from London So the figures are listed in this
above table Although extension service was managed by a cloud‑based IP service the extension calls between cell phones
and the number of outgoing calls to/from cell phones do not go through the Games Data Network ; i e strictly speaking
they do not go through the Games Data Network (In other words it is not strictly a closed service in the Games Data
Network )44

Operational Results

functions) were used more than fixed‑line phones but

Table 1 shows the results of the use of the system

fixed‑line phones were used as “a phone that can be usedduring the Games time (the information for the London

reliably for emergency or official communications” to2012 Games is based on interviews with people who had

ensure the reliability required by the Organisingexperienced the London 2012 Games in the past )Committee while cell phones were used as “a phone that

The decrease in incoming and outgoing calls to outside

can be used easily at any time” It is assumed that celllines and the large increase in incoming calls to insidephones were used more frequently in terms of traffic In

lines could be attributed to the mobile extension service

addition it is thought that the use of web conferencing

which was provided to all staff members for the firstbusiness chat and other tools on the smartphones

time at the Tokyo 2020 Games

distributed to the staff members and stakeholders was

In terms of cost

reduction in addition to the introduction of this service

more active than in the past Gamesmigration to a hybrid configuration (FMC service)centered on a cloud PBX was effective when demand
increased and reliability was required
The data also shows that cell phones (with extension
52

5．Final Remarks
The communication services described in this section

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

are the basic services that had been used by the
stakeholders and staff members in the past Games forconfirming and communicating with the management
and for reporting on the competitions though there
were some additions and changes in functions We areproud that we were able to provide these services
without any major problems at this yearʼs event
The VLANs provided to the press will change
according to user requests like the “dynamic allocation”
function of this time and it is expected that inter‑Venue
CATV which does not have strict latency condition
may shift to streaming In addition as a communication
tool we have described here mainly the telephone

MUTO Kenji
Graduated from Rikkyo University in 1997
with a degree in Economics He has participated in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games project since 2015 Currently heworks for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
East Corporation
KAKUTA Yuki
Yuki Kakuta received his masterʼs degreefrom the Graduate School of Hokkaido Instituteof Technology (now Hokkaido University of
Science) in 1996 He joined Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation (NTT) in the same
year Since then he has been engaged insystem development and construction forcorporate clients and national projects in thefields of ICT and broadcasting Currently heworks for NTT Communications Corporation

service operated and managed by the Organising
Committee However it is clear after the postponementof the Games that the use of data communication fromsmartphones and web conferencing using PCs has
increased significantly At the Tokyo 2020 Games theInternet services used by the participants were primarily routed through the Organising Committeeʼs data
centre but because it can be the bottleneck in the
future one option will be to promote the use of the public
network with some control on the application/terminalside In this case how to respond to such changes inusage/provisioning patterns and resulting changes intraffic while ensuring quality and information security
will be an issue for the future(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 7 2022)

WATAI Mutsumi
Mutsumi Watai received his masterʼs degreefrom Kyushu Institute of Technology (nowKyushu University) in 1990 He joined Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)in the same year Since then he has been
engaged in switching system maintenance andconstruction ATM/VoIP equipment and VoIP
solution development He is currently a section
manager at NTT Communications Corporation Formerly Chief of the LAN Interconnection Liaison Committee of the HATS Promotion
Council
SAITO Wataru
Mr Saito received his M E from the
Graduate School of Engineering University ofTokyo in 1993 He had been seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2018
and is the Director of Information Infrastructure Department Technology Services Bureau Executive Officer SOGO SECURITYSERVICES CO LTD㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202053

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑6Operation and Performance of the Games
Data Network
KUROMIYA Takayuki

SAITO Wataru

SHIGECHIKA Noriyuki

The data network for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 is one of the most critical infrastructures and its
stable operation is essential for the smooth conduct of the Games as the infrastructure supporting the Games This article
introduces the specific challenges and framework organized for the stability of the Games data network analyzes theperformance and operation outcomes and discusses and summarizes the singularity and success factors of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 derived from these results
Keywords：Data network Operation TOC Operation framework Incident

1．Introduction

framework that could flexibly change settings according
to user conditions and requirements

For the smooth conduct of the Olympic and Paraly-

Furthermore the characteristics of the Games in

mpic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to aswhich multiple events take place simultaneously in many

“Tokyo 2020 Games”) it is very significant not only tovenuesdevelop and provide an appropriate network but also toframework because the stable operation should be broad

maintain and operate it stably at all times The scoringin geographical and temporal scope But the growth ofsystems and other systems for the competitions also

the framework must not decrease the quality of thework on this communications infrastructure and any

operation performanceincidents could have a critical impact on the competitions

inevitably require a large‑scale operation

To cope with this challenge

we prepared thethemselves and the management of the Games It wasmaintenance and operation framework of the datanecessary to enhance availability by monitoring the

network for the Games in anticipation of the actual

normality of the network and responding quickly andGames for the test events more than a year before theaccurately to any incidents to ensure the stable operation

Games and made the operation process and procedureof the data network for the Games And it was also

mature through some training and knowledge sharing

required to have complete maintenance and operation

among the members
Although some problems occurred during the Games
time there were no critical incidents and the maintenance and operation team and the members involved

KUROMIYA Takayuki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesSAITO Wataru
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesSHIGECHIKA Noriyuki
RCA Co Ltd (Telecom Advisor of Technology Services)E‑mail nazo@rca co jp

secured stable operation This section describes themaintenance and operation framework and analyzes itfrom the viewpoints of the actual performance andoperation results of the data network for the GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 54‑62 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

54

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1 Transition of Maintenance and Operation Framework (conceptual diagram)
The size of the maintenance andoperations framework changed accordingly for the test events and the technology rehearsals

2．Maintenance and Operation Framework of
the Data Network for the Games
21

site (venue) support

and coordinating with otheroperation centres The TOC consists of several teamstaff who are in charge of each technology service area

Establishment of the Framework and its Transi-

and work closely with technology partners such as Atostion

for IT integration and OMEGA for the clock timing andIn October 2018 while carrying on the maintenanceand operation services of the existing office network forscoring systems
The TOC structure was organized following the start

staff work we began to consider specific operationsof the test event i eabout the data network for the Games toward the actual

number of venues to be maintained and operated andGames time Then in March 2019 as starting to use theeventually the TOC Telecom Team had 35 positions andthrough the increase in thedata network for the Games we launched a full‑fledged

49 seats at the Games time A total of more than 200

maintenance and operation framework to aim to improve

members worked 24‑hour shifts during the Games

proficiency and accumulate experience

supporting the overall technical operations related to the

However especially in terms of cost it must not bepractical to allocate and continue the resources needed

event by collaborating with other teams within the TOC
and the venue telecom team (Figure 2)

for the actual Games time more than one year in

The shift formation requires numerous operation

advance So we expanded or downscaled the framework

members and the challenge is to equalize and enhanceas per the test events and the technology rehearsals

the operational skills among those members For thisheldreason we made 83 PnPs (Policies and Procedures) in

As there was a new factor that was the

postponement for one year we promoted the prepara-

totaltion of the Games time operation by keeping changing

manuals and operation flow documents regarding theincluding design information

business rules

the size of the framework as shown in Figure 1

data network for the Games The knowledge required

There are two teams for the Games operation one isfor the operation of the data network for the Games was

the TOC Telecom Team which is in the Technology

extensive and members in major positions at the TOC

Operations Centre (TOC) and the other is the Venue

and competition venues needed to be familiar with about

Telecom Team which is in each venue

20 to 30 of these documents We reviewed and updated
these PnPs based on the experience from test events and

22

TOC Telecom TeamThe TOC is responsible for all the operation oftechnologies provided by the Organising Committee for
the Games by monitoring its normality providing on‑technology rehearsals and periodically deployed those toeach member at study sessions and other events toefficiently share appropriate knowledge
In the TOC room a dashboard was projected on theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

55

56

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

TOC Telecom Team Structure

Assigned thirty‑five positions and worked closely with the venue telecom team and other teams within TOC

front wall of the room so that all members who started
their shifts could overview the operation status of eachvenue (Figure 3) macro traffic trends (Figure 4) andthe number of client connections by network or by venue(Figure 5)
In addition NTT supported the TOC by preparing aparticular formation from their office for emergency
response in case of a large‑scale circuit failure caused bynatural disasters
23

Venue Telecom Teams

At each venue
Figure 3 Dashboard (panel) in Front of the TOC
The panelindicating each venue changes to green during competition yellow
for incidents that do not affect services and red for incidents that
do affect services (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All
Rights Reserved)

Figure 4

Dashboard (traffic) on the Front of TOC

the Venue TeleCom Manager(VTCM) headed the Venue Telecom Team andconducted on‑site operations with technical support
from the TOC as needed The Venue Telecom Teams
were responsible for communicating with users on‑site

Visualize macro traffic trends and understand daily changes

Figure 5 Dashboard in Front of TOC (Number of Connected Devices)
number of client connections by network/venue

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

Intuitively grasp the57

Figure 6 Venue Telecom Team Structurefeature of the venue

The venue telecom team headed by the VTCM was flexibly organized depending on theand quickly responded to inquiries such as Wi‑Fi device

Table 1

Number of Telecom‑related Incidents and Tickets
Sev 1 Sev 2 Sev 3 Sev 4

properties and requests for cabling changes

SR

Total

In a typical competition venue we defined the number

June 2021

0

0

151

369

315

835

of positions and seats for a venue telecom team would be

July 2021

0

3

219

1 201

762

2 185

five and about 20 headcounts were assigned to the teamAugust 2021

0

2

74

388

265

729

September 2021

0

0

14

57

60

131

June‑September
Total

0

5

458

2 015

1 402

3 880

to respond during the competition by working shifts
according to the competition hours As shown in Figure
6

the number of seats and shift members wereincreased depending on the size of the venue tostrengthen the operation performance On the other
hand the same member was assigned to multiple sites to

Severity 1 : Critical services are disconnected
Severity 2 : Redundancy is lost
Severity 3 : Some services are unavailable
Severity 4 : One user is affected
SR : Service request configuration change etc

reduce the total number of permanent staff for
improving the efficiency of operations In the end a totalof approximately 900 members covered all venues

3．Network Operation Performance

Although we organized the venue telecom team ofeach venue only for test events technology rehearsals

31

Incidents and Service Requests Handled

and the actual Games time we assigned the members

We managed all information of all technology‑related

who installed the data network for the Games at theincidents centrally by issuing incident tickets on the IT

venue to the operation and maintenance team of theService Management Tool (ITSM) which conformed tosame venue in principle It should enable an efficient andthe ITIL international operating standard

flexible operation and maintenance service to beshows the number of incident tickets handled by the

Table 1provided by members who had an accurate grasp of thetelecom team at the TOC and each venue Sev and SR in

installation status and who had fostered a trusting

the table indicates Severity and Service Request

relationship with the other people engaged in therespectively

construction at that venue

There were no Severity 1 incidents related to

The venue telecom team organized a comprehensive

telecommunications that could have had a significant

venue installation document and it enabled the TOC

impact on the competitions However there were someteam members to understand the venue installation

Severity 2 incidents during the Games time such as

status and physical constraints without having to visit

power failures of communication equipment due tothe venue and enabled the TOC to provide prompt

power supply troubles There also were incidents ofsupport when an incident or a new service request arose

insufficient performance and connection difficulties ofat the venue

Wi‑Fi for press agencies due to a greater than expected
number of Wi‑Fi terminals connected at the same time58

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

One lesson for the future Organising Committee will bethat year It would be one of the indications that wethe high density Wi‑Fi solutions for Venue Media

provided a stable data network for the Tokyo 2020

Centres and Tribunes to meet the operational needs ofGames with few troubles and also provided appropriate

media should be studied in advance Please refer to 2‑4

telecom services to meet stakeholdersʼ requirementsof the special issue for more details

before they started to use

SR cases include specification changes and the
addition of Wi‑Fi APs (access points) which occurred

32

after the Games stakeholders arrived at the venue to

Figure 7 plots the number of clients connected to eachcheck the operation of their devices

Usage of the Data Network for the Games

These SRs

network from one week before the Olympic Games toaccounted for more than one‑third of the total number ofthe end of the Paralympic Games July 28 was theticketsheaviest day with a total of approximately 114 000

indicating that new requests and changes

occurred routinely during our operations

connections to the Back Office Network (BON) for the

According to the record of the Rio de Janeiro 2016business use of the Organising Committee staff theGames approximately 7 000 telecom‑related tickets had

Competition Network (CPN) for the competition

been issued the sum of between June and September ofsystem and the Olympic Technology Network (OTN)

Figure 7 Number of Devices Connected to the Data Network for the GamesOn July 28 97 384
devices connected to the OTN 2 672 to the CPN and 13 661 to the BON reaching the maximum number ofconnections throughout the Games followed by a rapid decline toward the closing ceremony

Figure 8 Internet Traffic during the Conference
The upper panel shows the uplink traffic and the lower panel
shows the downlink traffic In the latter half of the Olympic period the decrease in uplink traffic was smaller thanthat in downlink traffic

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202059

Figure 9 Internet Access Congestion from July 28 to 31
The red area indicates the occurrence of packet drop
especially just before the menʼs 10 000 m final on July 30 though it did not affect the operation of the competitions

to provide the various services to the stakeholders

the wide variety of backgrounds of the users involved in

In the figure we can also see a rapid decline in the

the Tokyo 2020 Games and because the purpose timenumber of users from the peak compared to past Gamesand way of use will vary significantly from user to user

because many foreign athletes and stakeholders who

In 2‑7 of this special issue we analyze the trends ofused the data network returned home immediately after

communication ports and destinations based on thetheir competitions due to the coronavirus disease 2019traffic logs observed during the Games(the COVID‑19) countermeasures It is precisely acharacteristic of the Tokyo 2020 Games33

As shown in the graph in Figure 8 peak Internet

Operational Results from a Security Perspective

The stakeholders usually arrive at the venue justaccess traffic was 13 66 Gbit/s for downlink on July 27

before the Games and begin using the data network but

and 6 19 Gbit/s for uplink on July 28 After this peak thefor the Tokyo 2020 Games their arrival in Japan has

pitch of decrease in uplink was smaller than that incommonly been delayed until the very last minute due todownlink toward the closing ceremony

probably

the COVID‑19 countermeasures Therefore the secur-

because the remaining users were continuously upload-

ity sensors could not have enough time to learn network

ing data using something like SNS applications Thereusage trends and adjust their detection specifications

were two peaks in a day one during the daytime and thebefore the Games As a result we often observed someother at night And even during the late‑night period

false positives but proactively used flow information andthere constantly generated 3 to 4 Gbit/s of a sum ofvisualization tools to complement those and handled the

upstream and downstream traffic

status by the configuration of blocking or disconnecting

During the Olympic period We took a 20 Gbit/s

as appropriate

access line for the Internet access and we saw heavy

Table 2 lists the major security events detected andtraffic and downlink congested in a short time on July 30

handled during the Games with their detail and theas shown in Figure 9 We were ready to expand thenumber of eachbandwidth promptly but since there observed no user

As for vulnerabilities in response to starting to use

impacts on the operation of the Games we judged it was

the data network for the Games we established ano need for the expansion Consequently the Internet

scheme under which the unified expert team managed

access had the proper bandwidth estimated from thethe exploratory collection of vulnerability information

design phaserisk assessment and formulation of countermeasures

The Internet traffic on the entire data network for the
Games has signature traffic characteristics because of60

and actions to deal with them

By continuing thisscheme including the one‑year postponement period

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 2

Security‑related Operation Performance (7/21/2021‑9/5/2021)

Security‑related operations on the data network for the Games
Detection

Actions Taken

Number of cases

Security‑related events (including false positives)

1 848

Detection of large number of connections to the web
authentication page

69

Rogue Wi‑Fi access points detected

11

Vulnerabilities found risk assessed and worked around7

Deployment of blocking

Internet backbone

38

PDC Router8

Firewall/UTM

7External IP addresses blocked

2 603

Isolated unauthorized devices

5

this team was able to respond to vulnerability threats on

So we supposed that we could detect problems acrosstime Seven cases of vulnerability information weresystems and teams at an early stage by grasping thereceived and responded to during the Gamesstatus of the overall picture both in a steady‑state and in

The following are actual examples of events that wean emergency state However it has great difficulty inhave blocked It had been occurring several cases thatdefining “an emergency” on a particular network that iscould result in security threats in the OTN in whichas large as the Olympic or Paralympic Games installedusers brought in a variety of devices

in such a short period and the usage conditions change
drastically every day Hence neither manually setting()

Attack from External to Internal

We found an illegal file (Trojan horse) injected into an

thresholds in advance nor tuning by machine learning
would be an effective way of detecting problems

IP address assigned to a specific user in the OTN via

In the Tokyo 2020 Games we captured the changes in

FTP transmission We identified the source IP address

network usage by monitoring the total amount of logs

and blocked that with a firewall

from each communication device Please refer to 2‑8 ofthis special issue for details()

External→Internal→External attack

An IP address assigned to a specific user in the OTN

35Dealing with the Postponement of the Gameswas relaying suspicious communications by opening a

In March 2019 that was when we implemented the

TCP port of an open proxy for the Internet We asked

data network for the Games and started to use andthe user to stop the service on the device while we

operate it we were planning to keep the operation byblocked the session by applying an anti‑virus/anti‑bot

absorbing various possible service requests reflecting

policy to that IP address in a firewall

the experience of the test event and considering that the
number of users (staff and contractors) would gradually()

Attack from Internal to External

increase toward the GamesAn external organization pointed out that they

However the plan was disrupted by the unforeseen

observed our global IP address which is the source of

postponement of the Games by one year due to theconnection from OTN to the Internet scanning for

COVID‑19 Firstly since the staff in the Organisingvulnerabilities in SMB communications toward theCommittee would have to keep working even during theInternet We identified the device blocked the connec-

postponed one year

tion port and asked to clean up that

additional resources (personnel and costs) to maintainit was necessary to secure

the data network for the Games
34

Analysis of Network Operations

Secondlythepossibility of discovering bugs and vulnerabilities in

As described in 2 2 the data network for the Games

implemented products and solutions would increase andcombined various technologies and solutions Therefore

those could reach the end of the product lifecycle (EOL)

it was principal not only to operate each segmented

as well we had to take some measures for those cases

telecom service but also to catch and analyze the overall

There had already been procured an enormous

trend of the network

number of L2/L3 switches (7 500 units) and Wi‑Fi APs

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202061

(11 000 units) and it would have a significant impact onment plan of the data network for the Games had been

us if those needed firmware changes So we carefully

based on information from previous Games and it should

conducted technical verification version and security

not be clear whether it would be optimal until users

patch control

and continued to take appropriate

entered the venue and started using it We had to bemeasures Eventually we had no fatal impacts on the

prepared for more changes than anticipated because the

EOL issue and we were able to keep the operating level

IOC had advised us that “Too many changes but change

as initially planned until the Games with some productswith a smile” from the beginning and we know there

receiving special extended maintenance services fromshould be high expectations for the IT environment in

partner companies

Japan/Tokyo from the stakeholders

Another massive impact of the postponement was theIt was very effective to make the telecom teamsudden increase in the number of remote access VPN

members aware of this situation and building up theirusers due to the encouragement of telework at home

tolerance for sudden changes in requirements andSince we had already implemented the remote access

additional requests The postponement of the Games bysystem at the time we were able to keep up with theone year should also be one of the “changes” They could

sudden change in needs by adding licenses andhandle various SRs that occurred even at the last minuteredesigning the system to improve performance The

as quickly and flexibly as possible in response to eachusage trends of this remote access VPN are described inuser requirement without critical disruption

detail in 2‑9 of this special issue

The stable operation of the data network for the

However “the management network” was a com-

Games was made possible by diligent preparation andpletely closed network that could only be connected on‑high awareness of all members of the telecom team I

site and we could not perform the maintenance andwould like to express my sincere applause to all of theoperation work remotely The lack of consideration ofteam for their efforts

secure alternatives for operations during a pandemic
would be one of the points to be regretted

4．Conclusion
The data network for the Tokyo 2020 Games had been
supported by the dedication of many members of themaintenance and operation team
As well as considering operability at the Games timein designing the network we implemented the data
network more than one year before the Games so thatthe telecom team started their maintenance andoperation activities from then assuming their respective
positions in TOC and Venues in the future It enabled theteams to gain operational proficiency and improve theirskills through long‑term preparation As a result the(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 4 2022)

KUROMIYA Takayuki
Mr Kuromiya received his M S in Information Science and Technology from Tohoku
University in 1998 and joined Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation (NTT) in the same
year Since then he has been engaged mainly in
the implementation and operation of a dedicated global network for manufacturing enterprises In January 2015 he was seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Director of Telecom Business Promotion
Technology Services Bureau
SAITO Wataru
Wataru SAITO received his masterʼs degree
in engineering from the University of Tokyo in
1993 He joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in the same year andreceived an MBA from Carnegie Mellon
University in 2001

postponement of the Games gave us more than two
years to make it mature and we could refine theoperation document and improve the operation levelbased on various experiences
On the other hand the capacity design and deploy-

SHIGECHIKA Noriyuki
Ph D (Policy and Media) Telecom Advisor
Technology Services Bureau Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee from 2018 to the end of
the Games (Representative Director of RCA
Corporation)㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

62

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑7Features of Traffic Generated in the Large‑scale
Events and Its Impact to the Security Operation
SUDOH Toshiaki

Large‑scale international events generate a variety of traffic including communications related to event operations
communications generated by spectators at the event and media‑related communications such as news coverage andstreaming which have different characteristics from those generated by general organizations and companies Therefore
in security operations it is necessary to consider policy definitions baseline concepts for analysis and singularity detection
methods in accordance with the characteristics of the traffic This article analyzes the traffic observed during the security
operations of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and discusses its impact on security operations during
international events
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Network Management Security Operation Traffic Analysis DNS

1．Introduction

drawn about four days after the start of the event with apeak on the sixth day and a gradual decrease within the

We analyze the characteristics of Internet traffic

estimated traffic range As shown in Figures 3 thegenerated from the network related to the Olympic andaverage daily traffic peaked at around 15 : 30 and theParalympic Games Tokyo 2020 We also analyze DNS

second and third highest amounts were recorded at 12 :traffic and discuss the impact of these characteristics on

00 and 22 : 00 p m This is due to the concentration of

security measures

media‑related information and content transmission andreception during these hours The singularity at around2．Traffic Characteristics Analysis
21

Time Series Characteristics

2 : 00 and the reversal of uplink and downlink traffic
amount between 3 : 30 and 5 : 00 are also partiallyattributable to media‑related communications

Figures 1 and 2 show the traffic volume during the
Olympic and Paralympic GamesIn many events the peak traffic is observed at the22

Destination Country

Table 1 shows the percentage of traffic by country

timing of the opening and closing ceremonies but the

The U S and Japan account for 84 9% and 71 3% of

Olympic and Paralympic Games do not show any

the traffic as a source and destination respectively due

remarkable characteristics and a saturation curve isto the influence of major SNS CDN and cloud services
Other common trends were seen in international events

SUDOH Toshiaki
Information Security NTT Communications Corporation
E‑mail t sudou@ntt com

where communication with CDNs media‑related andsecurity service providers etc were common

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 63‑66 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202063Figures 1

Figures 2

Traffic during the Olympic Games

Traffic during the Paralympics Games

Figures 3

Table 1

23

Average Traffic by Time Period

Traffic Volume by Country

Source%Destination%

UnitedStates

45 16%

Japan

49 00%

Japan

39 74%

UnitedStates

22 31%

Singapore

1 89%

Mexico2 69%

UnitedKingdom

1 65%

UnitedKingdom

2 50%

Netherlands

1 16%

Spain

2 43%

Australia

1 10%SouthKorea

2 07%

Germany

0 90%

Netherlands

2 06%

Spain

0 82%

Malaysia

1 38%

Russia0 74%

Singapore

1 36%

France0 65%

Germany

1 23%

Other

6 17%

Other

12 99%

Transport Protocol Analysis

Table 2 shows the ratio of send/receive transport
protocols

sending and receiving and the use of other protocols for
closed connections

such as GRE and ESP

wasnegligible

The ratios of TCP and UDP were very high for both
64

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 2

Transport Protocol Ratio

Received

Transmit

Protocol6%
63 5060%

6

17

UDP

36 1982%

1ICMP

0 2910%

47

GRE

50
─

No

Receiving Port Number%

TCP

52 84489%

17

UDP

46 74986%

1

ICMP

0 40227%

0 0033%50

ESP

0 00255%

ESP

0 0011%47

GRE

0 00042%

Other

0 0004%

─

Other

0 00001%

Table 324

ProtocolTCP

Communication Port Ratio%

No

Outgoing Port Number

%

1

TCP

443

55 93%

1

TCP

443

49 55%

2

UDP

443

20 77%

2

UDP

443

10 42%

3

TCP

80

5 98%

3

UDP

4500

2 02%

4

UDP

3480

1 54%

4

UDP

2088

1 60%

5

UDP

4500

1 22%

5

UDP

3480

1 55%

6

UDP

3481

0 88%

6

UDP

16393

1 40%

7

UDP

16393

0 59%

7

UDP

40000

1 11%

8

UDP

33001

0 56%

8

TCP

80

1 06%

9

UDP

53

0 41%

9

UCP

6000

0 71%

10

UDP

3478

0 27%

10

─

50

0 64%

Table 4

DNS Resolvers

Communication Protocol Analysis

Table 3 shows the top 10 traffic by receiving andNo

DNS Resolver

Percentage of Total Queries

sending port number with TCP443 being the most1

Designated DNS

99 55%

common accounting for 55 93% of incoming traffic and2

Public DNS

0 31%

49 55% of outgoing traffic UDP443 was next accounting

3

Secure DNS

0 02%

4

VPN/Proxy

0 02%

5

Other

0 10%

for 20 77% of incoming traffic and 10 42% of outgoingtraffic
SSL communication using TCP443 is used for various
purposes such as Web access and VPN communicationand is one of the factors that increase the percentage Inof malicious DNS use due to the execution of undesirable

addition voice and video distribution several types ofprograms as well as queries sent to specific DNS

VPNs that use different port numbers and remoteresolvers for the purpose of amplification

collaboration tools were frequently observed

We also observed a large number of DoH (DNS over
HTTPS) name resolution cases which also increased

3．Analysis of DNS Communication
31

TCP443 traffic and may have circumvented normal DNS
protection

Analysis of DNS Resolvers Used

The number of DNS resolvers used during the period

4．Summarywas 5315 IPs and their classification is summarized inTable 4 In this environment the use of designated DNS

The traffic characteristics were less peculiar and moreis the basic policy which means that 99 55% of all

stable than for normal international events However

queries were protected by appropriate DNS security

there were some unexpected traffic due to changes inmeasures In addition original security measures suchthe implementation of DoH and other new communica-

as the use of public DNS paid Secure DNS VPN andtions VPNs and enhanced endpoint security features

Proxy were also observed We also observed a few casessuch as encryption Such traffic may circumvent existingSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202065

security countermeasures and analysis techniques andtherefore

security operations that combine traffic

analysis techniques are required to detect and respond
immediately to unexpected traffic(Received February 28 2022 Revised March 7 2022)

SUDOH Toshiaki
SUDOH Toshiaki graduated from Ehime
University in 1995 with a bachelorʼs degree inelectrical and electronic engineering He joined
NTT in the same year He currently engages insecurity service development operation consulting etc at NTT Communications Corporation㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

66

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑8Flow Rate Analysis of Syslog Collectedin the Tokyo 2020 GamesHIROSE Masato

KANAI Akira

In a network for events in which multiple vendor network devices are integrated it is hard to analyze the semantics oflogs or detect anomalies by keywords We collected device logs from some operational organizations during the Olympic
and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 We focused on the file size of the logs to follow the scale of the network of the games
And we categorized the logs by device type and installation site contributing to real‑time analysis and discovery ofmultiple problems
Keywords：Network monitoring Log analysis Tokyo 2020 Games

network We decided to conduct a logging analysis using

1．Introduction
For network operators

this method and tried to apply it to the environment ofdefining the anomaly or

the Tokyo 2020 Games However it was not possible tonormal state and having the monitoring system notify

prepare the necessary and sufficient compute resources

operators in the event of anomaly states contribute toin a short time to implement this method in real‑time A

the early detection of problems

To determine anparticular challenge was the amount of memory required

anomaly or normal state from device logs it is necessary

to count the number of log lines In the Tokyo 2020

to define anomaly string patterns according to theenvironment nearly 1 GB of logs were collected in thecontents of the target device logs before the operational

monitoring environment every minute Reading theseterm These preparations are time‑consuming tasks forlogs into memory and counting the number of lines in

network operators In addition considering the scale ofreal‑time required much memory

the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020”) network the

2．Log Analysis Environment for Tokyo
2020 Games

ever‑changing nature of the events and the building andoperation period of each venue it is very difficult todefine anomaly or normal states in advance (1) proposed

To solve this problem the total size of the log file

to perform log analysis in such an environment This

every few minutes was used in the analysis instead of themethod uses a Bollinger band graph to analyze thenumber of lines in the log To obtain the log file size wenumber of lines in the logs of devices in an event

checked the file size every five minutes on a log storage
server and took the records In Linux such as CentOS it
is possible to obtain the target file size by getting the

HIROSE Masato
Innovation Center NTT Communications Corporation
E‑mail masato hirose@ntt com
KANAI Akira
Innovation Center NTT Communications Corporation
E‑mail a kanai@ntt com

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 67‑70 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

inode information managed by the file system Therefore

obtaining the file size requires much fewer

computing resources than counting the number of lines
in the log file
While performing the operations a Bollinger bandSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202067Figure 1

Bollinger Band Graph Generated from Log Flow

Table 1graph is generated The moving average and standard
deviation were calculated using data from 12 intervals

Category

Examples of Categorization
Example of division

ago i e from one hour ago
Figure 1 shows a Bollinger band graph generated
based on the log file size increase data for one day during
the Tokyo 2020 Games The blue line shows the moving
average the orange line shows the standard deviation

Number ofdivision

Type ofdeviceRouter Switch UTM etc

40

By DC andBy Venue

Primary DC Secondary DC National
Stadium etc

64＋3σ and the green line shows the standard deviation−3σ This figure shows that the log flow rate gradually
increases from 06 : 00 and progressively decreases from18 : 00

we categorized the logs of devices by device type DC

The section between 03 : 00 and 05 : 00 isand venue and generated a graph for each Table 1

characterized as shown in the figure by an increase inshows the actual categorization This categorization

logs generated when logging into the device for periodic

enabled the operators to notice anomalies even in

backup of settings The rapid growth in log flow fromdevices with a low log flow and quickly narrow down the

06 : 00 was due to the sudden increase in network usage

list of devices suspected of having problems

because of the entry of staff and press into each venue
Then we confirmed that the log flow rate of loadbalancers and proxies increased rapidly From around3．Results Obtained from the Analysis

18 : 00 network usage and the log flow rate decreased

The analysis of the Tokyo 2020 Games was conducted

On the other hand the flow rate increases in bursts

using the method described in Section 2 3 The first isaround 22 : 00 When analyzing this graph the operator

external scanning activity and the second is missing

was notified when the moving average exceeded the

security appliance logs

standard deviation of ＋3σ or when it fell below the

The first event is related to external scanning activity

standard deviation of ‑3σ Upon receiving a notification

We found that the moving average of the log flow on thethe operator manually searched the logs for the device

Unified Threat Management (UTM) log flow graphthat had significantly increased or decreased log flow

(Figure 2) exceeded the standard deviation of 3σ The

during the relevant period and escalated the situation if a

UTM logs contain many filtered logs of scanned packets

problem was suspectedduring the time in question and the system detected thisAs mentioned above when a single Bollinger graph is

event by capturing changes in the log flow rate

generated for all logs collected the logs of devices that

The second event was the log loss of the security

generally have a higher log flow than those of otherappliance On the graph of the collected logs (Figure 3)

devices occupy most of the total graph and the log flow

the log flow rate decreased by approximately 1 GB The

of different devices is not visible as a trend Therefore

moving average of the log flow fell below the standard

68

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

Figure 3

Graph of External Scanning Activity Detected

Graph of Missing Security Appliance Logs

deviation of ‑3σ which led to the discovery of this event
After a detailed investigation by the team operating the

4．Conclusion

device it was found that the logs were not being

This article describes our analysis of the overall logs

transmitted to the outside world for a certain period due

data collected from devices across the Tokyo 2020

to the performance limitations of the device Fortu-

Games To keep up with the scale of the network for thenately the logs for that period were stored inside theGames we focused on the file size of the logs to realize

device and there was no impact on business operations

real‑time analysis In addition categorizing the logs by

However it was only by focusing on the logsʼ flow rate

device type and installation site made it possible forthat we could detect and discover anomalies in theoperators to identify suspected problems quickly The

logging system of the device

system contributed to the detection of multiple issues
and increased the speed of response

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202069

References()

H. Abe, M. Shikida, and Y. Shinoda,“The anomaly detection method
analyzing syslog data using bollinger bands algorithm on event
network,” the Information Processing Society of Japan, vol. 59, no. 3,
pp. 1006-1015, 2018.

KANAI Akira
KANAI Akira completed the Graduate
School of Media and Governance at Keio
University in 2009 He joined NTT Communications Corporation in the same year He is a
CISSP CISA CISM and a Professional Engineer (Information Technology)(Received 28 February 2022 ; Revised 16 March 2022)

HIROSE Masato
Completed the masterʼs program in the
Graduate School of Information Science andTechnology at JAIST in 2017 He joined NTT
Communications Corporation in the same year
Since then he has been researching anddeveloping Internet technologies and services㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

70

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑9Study of Usage Tendencies of the Remote
Access Service
KANAI Akira

HIROSE Masato

Remote access environments support various ways of working In the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) most users used remote access daily after the new coronavirus
pandemic By analyzing these session logs it is possible to understand attendance records and the operational status of theorganization for use in operations This article shows a calendar‑style heat map of the logs focusing on overall andindividuals and discusses the characteristics of remote access usage related to the stage of the event the day of the week
and national holidays
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Remote access Trend analysis Visualization

1．Introduction

article describes two topics
The data we analyzed covered approximately 20

Remote access provides various environments and amonths from January 1 2020 to September 14 2021

location‑independent work style is becoming realized

and included 1 215 753 logs of successful remote accessHowever remote access environments are convenientconnections The total number of users was 7 077 notand have the inherent risk of being at the border ofincluding the logs of failed authentication attempts

intrusion which should be monitored intensively inoperations In a large‑scale event such as the Tokyo
2020 Gamesthe number of staff members and2．Usage Trends during the Tokyo 2020 Games

connection sources may rapidly increase or decrease

Figure 1 shows the number of remote access users per

depending on the preparation stage It is hard to findday expressed in color depth From left to right theanomalies mechanically by trend analysis

figures show the number of users for each day in 2020

In addition the new coronavirus pandemic caused aand 2021 such as the calendar‑like figure From top to

significant increase in the number of remote accessbottom each row indicates the weeks of the year andusers After the surge of the new coronavirus pandemic

each column indicates the days of the weekThe

most users routinely use remote access We attempted

leftmost cell indicates Sunday and the rightmost cellto investigate remote access logs by group or by theindicates Saturday Each cell represents the number ofindividual to understand attendance records and theusers on a corresponding day as a color depth In theoperation status of the organization for operational This

figure white is zero and the darkest red indicates 3 529
users The calendar‑like display is adequate to visualize
usage trends by day of the week such as many staff

KANAI Akira
Innovation Center NTT Communications Corporation
HIROSE Masato
Innovation Center NTT Communications Corporation

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 71‑75 August 2022

members do not work on Saturdays

Sundaysornational holidays The following are the trends provided
by this chart© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202071

Figure 1(()

Until March 2020 the number of users wasusers/day in June 2020

about 200 users/day It always exceeded 2 000()

The decreasing trend continued

users/day from the end of the same month()

In January 2021)

72

Number of Users per Day

On April 28 2020 the maximum number ofthe number of accesses

increased again to about 2 200 users/day andusers was 3 529 users/day The number of users

continued until March 2021

exceeded 3 000 users/day on weekdays in May

creased to about 1 400 users/day from March 222020 and gradually decreased to about 2 500

2021

It gradually de-

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

Total Daily Connection Time of Staff Member (A)()

decreased to about 1 200 users/day

low For example on January 11 2021 (second()

The color depth at both ends of each column is

row from the top second cell from the left) thelight except during the Tokyo 2020 Games period

number of users was about 200 users/day about)

90% less than the 2 000 users/day for the previous(

Around July 20 2021 the number of users

The number of users is about the same every

day from Monday to Friday of the same week

are occasional days when the number of users is

Friday and following Monday

throughout the entire period Nevertheless there
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202073

3．Overall Usage Trendʼs Consideration
and Individual Usage Trends
We think the reasons for each of these events shown in
Section 2 are due to the following factors()

On April 7 2020 the government declared a(ｄ)

We interviewed (A) about the reasons for thesetrends The summary of the interview is as follows(ａ)(ｂ)

employees to work at home))

Tuesdays and Fridays as remote work days to
avoid being caught in proximity

On January 8 2021 the government declared astate of emergency for Tokyo((ｃ)

From June 2021

On March 21 2021 the government lifted arequired him to go to the office every day inpreparation for the Tokyo 2020 Games (reducing

Tokyo 2020 Games increased from April 2021(

(A) started tasks thatstate of emergency for Tokyo Then the number)

his working from home opportunities)of staff members involved in preparations for the((A) made a weekly work schedule for eachsection under his management and designatedOn May 28 2020 the government lifted a stateof emergency for Tokyo((A) started working from home in preparation
for the declaration of a state of emergency

state of emergency for Tokyo and encouraged(

From July 10 2021 dark red was observed
every 6 days(ｄ)

From July 10 2021 (A) began a six‑day work

In July 2021 the opening ceremony was held

cycle that includes four consecutive days of officeand many staff members mainly gathered in thework (A) used remote access for a long period

office during the Tokyo 2020 Gameson the day before his office workday to assess the)situation)

Few staff members work because it is Saturdays or Sundays()

Few staff members work because it is a

The analysis for remote access focused on individuals
shows similar characteristics to the overall trend It also

national holiday

shows changes in the work from home cycle according toThis calendar‑style figure can easily explain theevents () and (

) caused by days of the week andthe setting of remote work days and the event phase foreach individual

national holidays This method also effectively analyzes
individual and group logs to clarify the organizationʼs

4．Conclusion

attendance record and operation status Figure 2 shows
the daily remote work time for a specific staff member

IT infrastructures are being used more and more(A) as a sample of focusing on an individual He had

closely in our daily lives after the surge of the new

belonged to the operation team (A) was an administra-

coronavirus pandemic This article presented remote

tor who organized the group and sometimes used remote

access session logs in a calendar‑style heat map foraccess on weekends due to his duties

overall and individuals Furthermore we also showed

Figure 2 differs from Figure 1 Each cell represents

and explained the characteristics and considerations(A)ʼs total daily connection time as color depth The

related to event phases days of the week and holidays

white on the cell figure is a 0‑second connection and theThis method can also investigate the characteristics ofdarkest red indicates a 24‑hour connection The trends

each group by focusing on attributes such as teams We

provided by Figure 2 are following

believe that in the future in addition to commonly used
monitoring methods that combine multiple products it

Until March 2020 the frequency of access had

will be essential to use information that analyzes

been about 4 times/month and then increased toorganizational objectives and staff utilization informa-

15 times/month in April 2020

tion

(ａ)

(ｂ)

From September 2020

darker colors had

observed on Tuesdays (3rd cell from the left) and(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 28 2022)

Fridays (6th cell from the left) than on other daysof the week This trend continued until May 2021
(ｃ)
74

From June 2021 trend (b) disappeared
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

KANAI Akira
Akira Kanai got a Master of Media andGovernance Keio University in 2009 He joined
NTT Communications Corporation in the same
year He has been engaged in developing andoperating services related to IX and IP
network CISSP CISA CISM Professional
Engineer (Information Engineering)

HIROSE Masato
Masato Hirose completed his masterʼs degree
at School of Information Science and Technology Japan Advanced Institute of Science andTechnology (JAIST) in 2017 He joined NTT
Communications Corporation in the same year
Since then he has been engaged in researchand development of Internet technologies andservices㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202075

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑10

4K IP Production and Virtual Production
SUZUKI Takashi

ITO Takahito

NHK has taken various technological initiatives for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 This article
introduces our 4K IP production for the Olympic Games connecting the NHK Broadcasting Center in Shibuya competition
venues and production sites via IP and the state‑of‑the‑art virtual CG contents conducted in the NHK dedicated studio
temporarily set up at the Olympic Stadium
Keywords：NHK 4K IP production Virtual CG

1．4K IP Production
11

System Overview

equipmentsuch as switchers

mixersproduction

servers and virtual machines All signals were converted to IP and connected to each site Program feeds

For the Tokyo 2020 Games NHK conducted 4K IP

were converted from IP to SDI (Serial Digital Interface)

production using IP (Internet Protocol) (the same

signals then connected to the system in the NHK

system was operated in 2K for the Tokyo 2020

Broadcasting Center and finally delivered to all over

Paralympics) The remote production for 4K IP wasJapan At the CT450 studio adjustment of the signals

conducted by connecting the CT450 studio in the NHK

and cameras at the competition venues and monitoring

Broadcasting Center which was the core of the system

the IP circuits were done

and remote locations such as NHK dedicated studio at
the Olympic Stadium

10 competition venues and112

NHK Dedicated Studio at Olympic Stadium

production sites in the Nippon Seinenkan via IP network

A 150 m 2 studio (Figure 2) was temporarily set up on(Figure 1) Sony was selected for the system integration

the southeast side of the Olympic Stadium for theas a result of a procurement process NMI (Networked

exclusive use of NHK The studio floor was equipped

Media Interface) which is a proven IP live transmission

with cameras

technology with low latency

microphones

lighting equipmentaand all other systemcamera tracking system and green background neces-including video audio control signal and communication

sary for virtual operation All video and audio signals

system were designed to be IP‑compatible

camera tracking data

camera and lighting control

signals and communication devices were converted to
NHK Broadcasting Center CT450 Studio

IP for transmission The program production functions

The CT450 studio was equipped with IP equipmentof the studio such as camera switching and control

such as network switches that serve as the core of theaudio mixing lighting control and virtual operations at

entire system as well as main program production

the Olympic Stadium were performed remotely at the111

production site which is described later This enabled
the studio operation with fewer technical personnel on‑
SUZUKI Takashi
Broadcast Engineering Department Japan Broadcasting Corporation
ITO Takahito
Broadcast Engineering Department Japan Broadcasting Corporation

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 76‑81 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

76

site
113

Competition Venue

In addition to the dedicated studio NHK deployed IP

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

Figure 2

Overview of 4K IP Production (©2021 NHK)NHK Dedicated Studio at the Olympic Stadium(©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights
Reserved)

Figure 3

IP Facilities Installed at the Competition Venue (©2021
NHK)

facilities for remote production at 10 competition venues(Figure 3) These venues have designated areas called“announce positions” where reporters make presenta■

Terminology

tions and “mixed zones” where athletes are interviewed

Chroma Key System
A system that generates key
signals based on color components using a keyer andcombines the extracted video with another video
Keyer
Software or hardware containing algorithms forgenerating key signals
KeyingGenerating key signals from color and light/
dark components and extracting a portion of the video
nit
Unit of brightness per unit area equivalent to cd/
m2

directly Cameras and microphones were installed in■

Two sub‑control rooms were temporarily set up in thethese areas

and these signals from venues wereconnected to the CT450 studio via IP for remote
production at the production site Camera adjustments
were made at the CT450 studio as described above
114

Production Site

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202077

jitter on the circuits PTP was operated in a closed stateat each site not transmitted between each other All the
network switches were compatible with boundary
clocks13

Transmission Circuits

In order to transmit 4K ultra‑high‑definition video
the circuits capable of large capacity and high speedtransmission are required It is challenging to use theconventional live broadcast system in SDI whentransmitting extremely high data rate 4K signals over along distance However by using IP technology it
Figure 4

Sub‑control Room at the Nippon Seinenkan (©2021
NHK)

enables to handle multiple signals within the bandwidth
It is fully compatible with 4K production This time thebandwidth was secured as follows : from the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) to the NHK Broadcasting

Nippon Seinenkan near the Olympic Stadium as aCenter was 170 Gbit/s and from the NHK Broadcastingproduction site : one was for integrated production ofCenter to the production sites was 160 Gbit/s

television channels General TV and BS4K (Figure 4)

Since each competition venue including the Olympic

and the other was for Educational TV At the sub‑Stadium

control rooms operators remotely controlled the pro-

Broadcasting Services) all signals were centralized at

was under the control of OBS (Olympic

gram production equipment installed in the CT450 studiothe IBC located at Tokyo Big Sight which serves as theto switch video signals and mix audio The production

OBS primary base of the broadcast operation The

site had access to all the resources in the NHK dedicatedcircuits from the IBC to the outside world was connectedstudio and competition venues necessary for 4K IP

to a POP (Point of Presence) designated by OBS andproduction and also performed lighting and camera

signals were exchanged at the POP between OBS andadjustments and virtual operations for the dedicatedKDDI a telecom provider selected by NHK and finallystudio as mentioned above In the sub‑control room ofconnected to the NHK Broadcasting Center The circuits

the General TV and BS4K operators inserted the feeds

between the NHK Broadcasting Center and the produc-from the dedicated studio and the announce position attion site were also established by KDDIthe venues into the international live feeds and enabled
the guests and commentators on‑site to interact each

14

Monitoring System

other

LEO (Live Element Orchestrator) is a system
optimized based on Skyline Communicationsʼ DataMiner

12

Clock Supply by PTPConventional broadcasting systems use the Blackby Sony in order to manage IP Live production systemefficiently

This is a centralized monitoring system

Burst Signal (BB Signal) as a synchronization signal

which enables to centralize configuration and monitoring

The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) specified in SMPTE

of all hardware and production resources provided by

ST 2059 is a method to achieve the same synchronization

Sony and other vendors (Figure 5) It is essential toin IP GPS antennas were installed in the dedicatedhave a monitoring and controlling system with excellent

studio competition venues and the production site andvisibility and operability for 4K IP production which

PTP was generated from the PTP‑Grand Master using

requires high‑capacity and high‑speed transmission in

the GPS signal as the synchronization source For thereal time By introducing LEO in the system NHK has

equipment that requires BB PTP‑derived BB weresucceeded in operating the largest system ever in stable

generated from the PTP‑Grand Master so that the PTP
and BB of the entire system to be synchronized In the15

From SDI to IP

CT450 studio PTP was generated from the PTP‑GrandNHK was able to realize complex production require-

Master based on the GPS‑RF signal from the NHK

ments and succeed in large‑scale 4K IP production

Broadcasting Center In order to avoid the effects ofThrough a number of Proof of Concept (PoC) and small‑78

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 5

LEO Monitoring Screen (©2021 NHK)scale live broadcast trials we have steadily built up a
track record and knowledge of IP and we believe that
we have demonstrated the power and potential of IP
production We also introduced the concept of resource
sharing such as the ability to share resources with eachother in the two sub‑control rooms at the production
site For the Paralympics where international signals
were provided in 2K the system was changed from 4K
to 2K during the two‑week transition period andoperated through the Games The advantage of using IP
was that physical changes were kept to a minimum such

Figure 6

Image of a Virtual Set (©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Figure 7

Virtual Set On‑air Screen (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

as replacing the infrastructure and connecting cables
Eight years after the decision in Buenos Aires in
September 2013

to host the Tokyo Gamesthebroadcasting world has undoubtedly evolved from SDI toIP

2．Virtual Computer Graphics Content
21

Design Concept

The design concept is “a visual world where live‑
action and computer graphics (CG) are seamlessly
integrated” The NHK dedicated studio at the Olympic
Stadium was designed to create a space where theperformers can move seamlessly between virtual andphysical world without being aware of the boundary
between these two worlds The physical world was

floor monitors and cameras being appeared on screen so

designed to take advantage of a 5‑meter‑high windowthat it would not distract the concentration of viewers

with a view of the Olympic Stadium The left wall facing(Figure 6 and Figure 7)

the window was set up with a green background to allow
CG to be rendered behind and in front of the performers

22

In addition the studio was designed efficiently to avoid

By introducing Zero Densityʼs Reality that support 4K

System Overview

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

79HDR (High Dynamic Range) which was the first inmaterial exchange and data servers for development andJapan for TV broadcasting we have realized photo‑transmission (Figure 8)

realistic CG content that fully performs the rendering
power of the game engine Unreal Engine 4

23

Reality enables everything from CG rendering tochroma key processing on a single machine

4K HDR Support

The Olympic Games coverage was produced in 4K

It is

HDR format The virtual system had two inputs : one

characterized by a high‑performance chroma key

video wall input (4 split screens each resource in 2K)

system (Terminology)

uniqueand one camera image As for the output one main line

significantly expands the range of video

plus PC screen to check chroma key were sent to theexpression In addition to the conventional method of

Nippon Seinenkan The load to simultaneously handle

keyer(Terminology)(Terminology)

calledCyclorama

Reality Keyer

three 4K HDR input/output systems was higher thanemploys an algorithm that extracts and keys the

expected The machine specs planned in 2020 could not

difference between the color components of each pixel

handle the rendering load so the specs were signifi-

against the original green background Furthermore

cantly upgraded in 2021

Reality accurately reproduces the green background in

For the Olympics

keyingby specifying colors

Its

2K programs were produced

three‑dimensional space tracks it and performs keying

simultaneously while handling 4K HDR 4K HDR were

only within that range

by placing andconverted to 2K SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) using

Moreoverprojecting live‑action images in 3D space the shadows

the batch conversion LUT (Look Up Table) provided byand reflections of the live‑action images were accurately

OBS For the Paralympics only 2K SDR production wasreflected on the CG object

conducted We created a system and established rules toresulting in a realistic

composite image
The virtual system also supports remote production

facilitate content production for these two environmentsthat connects the CT450 studio the NHK dedicated

The SDR environment (sRGB) was chosen as thestudio and the production site via IP Four cameras

working environment because it facilitates ① collabora-

were set up for virtual production in the NHK dedicatedtion with external artists and ② the use of existingstudio Mo‑Sysʼs Star Tracker was used for the camera

know‑how After the artists adjusted the look on the

tracking sensors Then the camera tracking data was

SDR production environment the final look was checked

sent to a rendering PC in the CT450 studio All theand adjusted on the master monitor environment

operations were conducted in the broadcasting site andprepared by the team

two types of network were used : one was the network

The basic policy of the 4K HDR/2K SDR conversion isfor remote control for PC and the other was virtualas follows The white reference level is 100 nits (Terminology)

network that all the PCs and the servers related to(100%) for SDR compared to the peak luminance of 100

Reality Engine were connected The CT450 studio wasnits (term) for SDR and approximately 200 nits (20%)

equipped with all PCs as well as PCs and servers forfor HDR compared to the peak luminance of 1 000 nitsfor HDR It is necessary to multiply the output of Reality
Engine by 0 2 to make the same white color in an HDR
environment as in an SDR environment This adjustment was performed in the Post Process section the
final processing stage of Reality Engine which is a two‑
dimensional video processing section after CG renderingand can perform the equivalent of grading (Figure 9)
The color gamut of the video output was specified in
the Reality Engine environment settings The color
gamut was set to Rec 2020 for the Olympics and Rec
709 for the Paralympics at the output stage of CG
created under sRGB environment to output the mostappropriate color gamut for each program need

Figure 8

80

Imaging Main Unit Installed in CT450 Studio (©2021
NHK)

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

function which is indispensable for production has
significantly contributed to the programʼs excitement
We believe that our accumulated knowledge of virtual
sports and studios has been fully utilized

3．Conclusion
The 4K IP production and the virtual system perfectly
delivered the passion of the Olympic and Paralympic
Figure 9

Monitor Environment Compatible with HDR/SDR(©2021 NHK)Games to viewers without significant problems during
the approximately two months of operation We want toexpress our gratitude to everyone involved in broadcasting the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202024

From AR to MR

This was the first long‑term operation of Reality at
NHK Although the technical hurdles were not low asremote production and 4K HDR production wererequired

we were able to broadcast without any

machine or software problems
We believe that our initial goal “a visual world where
live‑action and CG are seamlessly integrated” has beenachieved through this operation Many people expressedon Twitter and other media that they cannot tell thedifference between CG and live shots It was also wellreceived that the studio that has 12 m on each side
actually presented as a much more dynamic space The
conventional Augmented Reality (AR) framework of“adding information to the physical world” has advanced
to Mixed Reality (MR) a world in which “CG and live‑
action are equally fused” In addition to this pursuit of(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised April 1 2022)

SUZUKI Takashi
He graduated from Yokohama National
University in 1995 He joined NHK in the same
year and has been in charge of Tokyo 2020
operations in the Tokyo Olympics and theParalympics Technical Promotion Division of
the Broadcasting Engineering Bureau since2017 Currently in the General Affairs Department Broadcasting Engineering Bureau
ITO Takahito
He graduated from the Graduate School ofInformation Science and Technology the
University of Tokyo in 2007 From 2016 to2017 he researched VR as a visiting researcher
at MIT Media Lab He was in charge ofdeveloping the AR system and contents for the
Tokyo 2020 Games at the National Stadium
Studio Currently in the Production Promotion
Department Production Technology Center
Broadcasting Technology Bureau

visual expression the enhanced sports commentary㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202081

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑11

Universal Service Utilizing Real‑time Sports
Data Feeds
KUMANO Tadashi

UCHIDA Tsubasa

KANEKO Hiroyuki

We developed a technology to automatically generate play‑by‑play text using competition data broadcast from OBS andprovide them with synthesized speech and subtitles as well as sign language CG for the Olympic and Paralympic GamesTokyo 2020 The technology was implemented as a universal service to add to live streaming video The live sporting
updates were provided on a special Internet site in a format that was easy to understand and tailored to usersʼ
requirements such as for people with visual or hearing impairments people who cannot view a screen while driving a caror people on a train who cannot hear the sound This article describes the automated generation technology used for voice
play‑by‑play with subtitles and sign language CG play‑by‑play
Keywords：Visual impairment Hearing impairment Information accessibility Sign language Automated play‑by‑playSpeech generation Speech synthesis Sign language CG

1．Introduction

abandoned providing speech and subtitles due to humanresource limitations which was a problem from the

A widely used practice in program production is forperspective of allowing more people to enjoy the content

announcers to add audio descriptions such as play‑by‑

In addition even programs that include play‑by‑play

play and narration to video content This is useful forand narration are mainly intended for viewers without

conveying information that cannot be understoodvisual impairment and are often inadequate for visually‑

without viewing the video and enables the same

impaired viewers Broadcasting with live commentary is

information to be conveyed to all viewers irrespective ofan audio‑added service to compensate for this How-any impairments they might have (this is calledever in live broadcast programs in particular the“information accessibility”)

The information is alsoburden on the person providing the commentary tohelpful for many viewers in that it helps them better

judge the information to be commented on and speak atunderstand the content that is difficult to understandthe right time while listening to the broadcast audio iseven by viewing the video In the past non‑broadcast-high and this service has not yet become a continuous

ing services such as live‑streaming services sometimes

service
Although subtitles are available as a means ofproviding information to people with hearing impair-

KUMANO Tadashi
Science & Technology Research Laboratories Japan Broadcasting Corporation
E‑mail kumano t‑eq@nhk or jp
UCHIDA Tsubasa (IEICE Member)
Science & Technology Research Laboratories Japan Broadcasting Corporation
E‑mail uchida t‑fi@nhk or jp
KANEKO Hiroyuki (IEICE Member)
Science & Technology Research Laboratories Japan Broadcasting Corporation
E‑mail kaneko h‑dk@nhk or jp

ments for those who are deaf from birth or have lost

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 82‑88 August 2022

There is a need to develop technologies for solving© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers82

their hearing at an early age sign language is theirnative language and understanding information provided in Japanese and viewing it for long periods can be asignificant burdensuch problems that can automatically generate speech

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

subtitles and sign language CG (Computer Graphics)

Games

that provide appropriate explanations of the situation

distributes real‑time data called ODF (Olympic Data

instead of people especially for live broadcast content

Feed) (1) for all events Based on this data broadcasters

In response to this NHK has been conducting research

produce various contents such as superimposed text andand development on the automatic generation of play‑graphs on the broadcast screen Web content etc

the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS)by‑play commentary Sports content generally contains

In ODF “messages” are delivered each time there is aa large amount of video information and play‑by‑playchange in message content which is organized into acommentary is also indispensable for those who can view

single XML (eXtensible Markup Language) document

the video to understand the gameʼs content Therefore

for each type of information such as “participating

we developed a technology to automatically generate

athletes” and “game status” including current score andplay‑by‑play scripts from available real‑time competi-stats and a “list of events” that occurred during thetion data synchronized with the gameʼs progress andgame Although the types of messages delivered and theconvey them vocally using a speech synthesizer or by

specific information in the messages differ depending on

sign language using CG animation technology
This article describes the “robot play‑by‑play service

the competition specifications are defined so that they
can be handled in a unified format

with subtitles” and the “sign language CG play‑by‑playservice” implemented by NHK as universal services at
the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”)

3．Mechanism for Generating Play‑by‑play
Scripts
Figure 1 shows the overview of our system that

2．Real‑time Competition Data

automatically generates voice play‑by‑play from competition data broadcast in real‑time Real‑time data is in a

Data such as team or athlete names scores penalties

predefined format updated at the venue as the gameand each athleteʼs movements have been generated andprogresses and distributed with every update The

distributed in real‑time especially in large‑scale sport-

play‑by‑play generation system receives the data

ing events In the case of the Olympic and Paralympic

sequentially and always maintains the latest status of the

Figure 1

Mechanism of the Robot Play‑by‑play System

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202083

game In addition the system maintains the gameʼs

special condition such as “when a certain time has

status which the listeners who have heard the previous

elapsed since a certain information has been conveyed

play‑by‑play comments should know to find thewithout any change”

differences between the previous and current gameconvey the same information periodically such as a

status Specifically the following steps are repeatedcompetitorʼs name or current score that has not changed

from the gameʼs start to end (2)for a long time This is useful for those who cannot

which enables the system tocontinuously check the information on the screen or who①

Compare the latest status with the game statushave started watching a game from the middle

already known to the listeners and check whether
there is anything new that needs to be conveyed②

If there is anything new to be conveyed as a result

4．Production and Distribution for Each Serviceof step ① select one from the collection of preparedThis section describes the method of producing andincomplete play‑by‑play scripts according to the

distributing service contents for each robot play‑by‑result of the comparison and complete it by filling inplay and sign language CG play‑by‑play from generated

the latest game status If nothing is to be conveyed

scripts by the method described in Section 3 Figure 2

return to step ①

shows an overview of the entire universal service③

Convert the completed script into voices using asystemspeech synthesizer and send it out together with thevideo and audio from the venue④

Reflect the conveyed information in the gamestatus known to the listeners⑤

Return to step ①

41

Robot Play‑by‑play with Subtitles

The generated play‑by‑play scripts were synthesized
into voice speech for our audio play‑by‑play service
named “robot play‑by‑play” The synthesized voice wassuperimposed on the video and audio content from theWe call a collection of incomplete (some information

venue and provided via the Internet In addition theneeds to be filled) play‑by‑play scripts required in step

textual scripts to be read by the speech synthesizer are② a template The templates must be prepared for eachalso delivered to enable viewing with subtitles on a Web

sort of target event for each voice and sign language CG

browserplay‑by‑playcannot hear Figure 3 shows an image of the delivered

Each script in a template has someconditions to be selected according to the type ofdifference detected in step ① They can also have a

Figure 284

thereby improving service for those who

content of the robot play‑by‑play with subtitles
We developed a dedicated speech synthesizer suited

Overview of Universal Service System (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

for sports play‑by‑play This is achieved by preparing

Figure 4 (3)many voice samples that include expressions used in

Each sign language script is described as a sequence ofplay‑by‑play by recording the human voice reading andsign language unit IDs Every ID represents a different

having the DNN (Deep Neural Network) learn them In

sign language expression that could be used in play‑by‑addition we achieved a more realistic and understand-playable speech play‑by‑play by implementing a mechanism

expressions competition terms such as “defensive fouls”

for the speech synthesizer which can recognize specialand “traveling” athlete names and other proper nouns

symbols embedded in speech scripts indicating where toincluded in the competition data

place emphasis and pause

including words

common phrases

numerical

The sign language CG generator converts the ID
sequences mentioned above into CG representing a42

Sign Language CG Play‑by‑play

As in the case of robot play‑by‑playseries of actions It consists of a sign language motion
the sign

database that stores the motion data of CG characters

language CG play‑by‑play production system firstcorresponding to each ID CG model data such as CG

generates textual sign language scripts by filling thecharacters and studio sets and a rendering engine that

latest status of a game into an incomplete script selected

generates sign language CG animations using these datafrom a template then converts them into sign language

Optical motion capture was used to record the motion

CG animations The system configuration is shown indata for the sign language motion database Markers
were attached to the head and joints of limbs etc andtheir movements were captured by more than 40
infrared cameras recording and storing the data Figure
5 shows how the recording was done in the motion
capture studio and hand with markers attachedThe generated sign language CG animation was laidout with the score and subtitle information generated
together with the speech text from the competition data
It was output with the competition video in the upper left
corner of the image blank
The video synthesizer combined the competition video
and the animation output from the sign language CG
generator through a delay device to produce a single
video stream The final composite screen consisted of
the competition video in the center with the generated
sign language CG animation on its right the score
display using the distribution data on the bottom andFigure 3

Screenshot of the Robot Play‑by‑play Service with
Subtitles (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑
All Rights Reserved)

Figure 4

subtitles generated from the distribution data on thelower right On the left side of the competition video a

Structure of the Sign Language CG Play‑by‑play System (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202085

graph visualizing the strength of the audio included intext at the bottom of the composite video When the user

the competition video is displayed enabling viewers toclicks on the text another male character appears on theobtain comprehensive informationsuch as visuallyright side and explains the foul in sign language This

capturing the excitement of the spectators at the venue

feature was developed in response to many requests

The composite video generated by this system wasfrom users with hearing‑impaired in a preliminary

provided as though streaming a video on a website Anquestionnaire survey such as “I cannot understand what

example of the website screen is shown in Figure 6 The

happens when a foul occurs just by looking at the video”

fouls during the game are immediately displayed in theand “I understand that an athlete stops playing and the( a ) Studio recording( a ) Animated character( b ) Natural (photorealistic) character( b ) Attaching markers to the hand
Figure 786Comparison of Animated CG and Photorealistic CG
Representing 3 to 0

Figure 5

Motion Capture Recording

Figure 6

Example of the Sign Language CG Play‑by‑play Service Screen (©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

game is suspended but I want to know the details of
why they were suspended”

Sign language CG play‑by‑play was used for basketball at the Olympics and 14 videos of 28 hours wereA new CG character was developed for the sports
play‑by‑play which is more natural (photorealistic)

distributed It was implemented in two sports for the
Paralympics

wheelchair basketball and wheelchairlike a live‑action character (Figure 7) instead of therugby and 13 videos of 26 hours were distributed Thispreviously developed weather sign language CG (4)was NHKʼs first attempt to add sign language CG to live

developed by NHK for weather information which wassports broadcasts and the service received positive

an animated character with large caricature eyes In

comments from a wide range of viewers not just thosesign language not only are the shape and movement ofwith hearing impairments The naturalness of the sign

the hands but also the lifting and lowering of thelanguage expression using high‑quality CG characterseyebrows the widening of the eyes the shape of thewas highly evaluated on social networking services withmouth and the expression and posture of the entire facecomments such as “The sign language is quite easy to

are used as grammar to convey information For theunderstand” and “The fine facial expressions that arephotorealistic character of this project various initia-

important for sign language have been studied and thetives were implemented to express natural facial

soft hand movements are amazing !” In general sign

expressions in response to local changes in the motion

language interpreters usually take turns every 15

data

minutes but in extended programs such as sports there
is a significant burden on the interpreters In additioninterpreters with specialized knowledge must be found

5．Service Achievements

for sign language in sports

which is infrequently

For the Tokyo 2020 Games we provided the “Robot

expressed in daily life making it challenging to provide

Play‑by‑play Service with Subtitles” and “Sign Lan-sports play‑by‑play using sign language However thisguage CG Play‑by‑play Service” via the Internet on

technology has made it possible to provide fully‑NHKʼs special website

automated sign language CG play‑by‑play

The information in the real‑time data differs significantly from competition to competition

making it

6．Conclusion

challenging to provide meaningful play‑by‑play forcompetitions with little helpful information and inputThis article describes the robot play‑by‑play withdelays significantly impact the quality of the actual

subtitles and sign language CG play‑by‑play for thesituation as most of the data is input manually The

Tokyo 2020 Games as an approach to universal service

selection of competitions was made based on a compre-

utilizing real‑time data feeds We developed a technol-

hensive consideration of these factors

ogy to automatically generate play‑by‑play scripts fromthe robot play‑by‑playsports data transmitted in real‑time during competitions

service with subtitles was provided in 10 competitions

and convert them into synthesized speech and sign

(weightlifting canoeing swimming table tennis tennis

language CG animations We also reported implement-

beach volleyball basketball badminton volleyball anding a universal service that adds them to live streaming

rowing) and 175 videos of 518 hours were distributed

video

At the Olympic GamesAt the Paralympics 110 videos of 506 hours wereThis technology will automate the production of audio

distributed in seven competitions : swimming wheel-play‑by‑play

subtitles

and sign language for live

chair tennis wheelchair basketball wheelchair rugby

content which has been challenging to provide due tositting volleyball table tennis and badminton The

human resource issues and will enable the increase ofservice was especially popular for rowing and canoeing

universal content that more people can enjoy Public

and we believe it helped people watch live streaming ofbroadcasting aims to provide all people with therarely broadcasted sports The site was well‑received

necessary information quickly and accurately We willon social media with users commenting that it wascontinue to focus on research and development of“simple and easy to understand” and “follows the flow ofuniversal services in cooperation with the parties

the sport and explains the situation with fairly quick

concerned

responses” and the system was used not just by people
with disabilities but also by a wide range of people
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202087

References()

International Olympic Committee, “Olympic data feed.”
http://odf.olympictech.org/( ) T. Kumano, M. Ichiki, K. Kurihara, H. Kaneko, T. Komori, T. Shimizu,
N. Seiyama, A. Imai, H. Sumiyoshi, and T. Takagi, “Generation of
automated sports commentary from live sports data,” Proc. IEEE Int.
Symp. Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting, June 2019.
( ) T. Uchida, H. Sumiyoshi, H. Kaneko, and M. Sano, “Delay reduction
and usability improvement of automatic sign language CG generation
system for sports program,” ITE Winter Annual Convention, 15B-2,
Dec. 2019.
( ) M. Azuma, N. Hiruma, H. Sumiyoshi, T. Uchida, T. Miyazaki, S.
Umeda, N. Kato, and Y. Yamanouchi, “Development and evaluation ofa system for automatically generating sign-language CG animation
using the meteorological information,” Proc. 16th Int. Conf. Computers
Helping People with Special Needs, July 2018.
(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 18 2022)

KUMANO Tadashi
He graduated from the Tokyo Institute ofTechnology in 1993 with a degree in Computer
Science He completed his Masterʼs in Computer Science from the Graduate School of
Science and Technology Tokyo Institute ofTechnology in 1995 He joined NHK in thesame year He has been engaged in researchand development of natural language processing machine translation sports play‑by‑playgeneration and speech synthesis at the Scienceand Technology Research Laboratories since
the same year From 2000 to 2004 he wasseconded to ATR Spoken Language Communication Research Laboratories Currently he isa senior researcher in the Smart Production
Research Department

UCHIDA Tsubasa (IEICE Member)
He graduated from Ibaraki University in 2008
with a Bachelorʼs degree in Media and Telecommunication Engineering He completed his
Masterʼs course in Media and Telecommunication Engineering at the Graduate School of
Science and Technology Ibaraki University in2011 He joined NHK in the same year After
working at Sendai Broadcasting Station he has
been engaged in the research and developmentof sign language CG at the Science andTechnology Research Laboratories since 2014
Currently belongs to the Smart Production
Research Department
KANEKO Hiroyuki (IEICE Member)
He graduated from Sophia University in 2000
with a B E in Electrical and Electronic
Engineering He completed his M E in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Graduate
School of Science and Technology Sophia
University in 2002 He joined NHK in the same
year After working at Sendai BroadcastingStation he has been engaged in research on
content description production and sign
language CG generation technology at the
Science and Technology Research Laboratories
since 2006㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

88

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑12Operation of Radio Equipment andCoordination of Frequency Usageat the Tokyo 2020 GamesISHIDA Eiji

At the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) radio equipment
was used for a wide variety of purposes including worldwide broadcasting news gathering Games operations such as
timing and judging communication within each countryʼs athlete squad and communication among staff at the Games
Planning and prior coordination of the use of radio equipment is essential when users use radio equipment The Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee with the cooperation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications made frequency
coordination to avoid harmful interference and approved the bringing of radio equipment into venues This article reviews
procedures from frequency applications to the bringing of radio equipment into venues and results of radio equipment
operation and also reports on spectrum monitoring that was conducted throughout the Games
Keywords：Olympic Paralympic Radio Frequency Spectrum monitoring Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

ferred to as “MIC”) the competent authority responsible

1．Introduction
11

for managing the radio spectrum

Necessity of Frequency Coordination

At the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

Planning and prior coordination of the use of radio
equipment is essential when users use radio equipment(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) radio

Therefore

equipment was used for a wide variety of purposes

decided to approve the bringing of radio equipment into

including worldwide broadcastingnews gatheringvenues after making frequency coordination to avoid

Games operations such as timing and judging communi-

harmful interference based on the assumption thatcation within each countryʼs athlete squad and commu-

frequencies would be used only temporarily and in

nication among staff at the Games The Host City

limited locations

the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee

Contract stipulated that Japan should be responsible for

The Tokyo 2020 Games were extremely difficult toallocation management and monitoring of spectrum

allocate frequencies with 55 events (33 Olympic and 22

required for the Tokyo 2020 Games free of charge andParalympic) taking place over a 30‑day period Many of

we addressed it in cooperation with the Ministry ofthese events were held in close proximity to each other

Internal Affairs and Communications (hereinafter re-in Tokyoincluding the Odaiba and Ariake areas

making it often impossible to reuse the same frequency
at different venues In addition the host city Tokyo is
ISHIDA Eiji
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 89‑96 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

the economic epicentre of Japan

where industrial

activities are concentrated and a large number of radio
frequencies are used Furthermore its location on the
Kanto Plain and facing Tokyo Bay makes it easy forSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202089

radio waves to propagate over a wide area and these()

geographical factors made it difficult to allocate frequen-Spectrum Management Plan (published in July
2018)

cies Due to this situation unprecedented frequency

The spectrum management policy in the Tokyo 2020

allocation was required in the Tokyo 2020 Games inGames was drawn up and specific conditions for use ofparticular

the frequencies announced in the “Basic Spectrum Plan”

for wireless microphones and wirelesscameras with high needs
12

Operational Framework

were presented(

It was anticipated that an enormous number of)Spectrum Monitoring Plan (published in September 2018)

frequency applications would be received and prelimi-

From the perspective of ensuring a secure and reliable

nary surveys were required to allocate frequencies tospectrum use environment free of interference andeach venue The scope and volume of such work could

jamming the plan for spectrum monitoring in the Tokyo

not be handled by the Organising Committee staff alone2020 Games was presented

and it also required considerable expertise
For this reason the Organising Committee began to

At the Tokyo 2020 Games we constructed a portal

outsource in 2016 to a company with know‑how andsite to accept frequency applications from users andoperational experience the work to receive frequency

started accepting applications in February 2019 Ini-

applications notify the results and provide user support

tially we set up three application periods including theat venues for the use of frequencies required for the

Games times However we eventually set up fourTokyo 2020 Games It also began to outsource in 2015 toapplication periods in response to the one‑year postpone-

another company with know‑how and operational

ment of the Games decided in March 2020

experience the work to collect basic data on aspects ofsequentially gave responses as to whether the allocation

frequency bands at each venue in order to understandwas possible or notfrequencies available at the venue and consider theconditions of use

andIn the past Games there were many applications for
wireless microphones and other equipment making it
difficult to coordinate frequencies For this reason we

2．Frequency Application and Coordination
21

Frequency Application

made efforts to repeatedly inform applicants so that theywould not submit excessive applications For example
there were many cases where applicants with a large

In frequency coordination close consultation withnumber of applications were asked to reduce the number

users is essential from the viewpoint of avoidingof applications or where applicants that made a request

interference between radio equipment brought in fromwith ambiguous plan of use such as using the sameoverseas and used in Japan In addition since the locallyfrequency at all venues were asked to clarify venues

available frequencies are different from overseas it is

and withdrew their applications at some venues

necessary to fully inform users of the rules for using
frequencies in JapanWe published the following three basic documents

Excluding such applications withdrawn by applicants
the number of applications we received by the end of theGames was approximately 85 000 the largest in thefrom the viewpoint of making them known to users In

history of the Games of which approximately 1 100 wereaddition we also published nine newsletters on thereceived during the Games times

frequency application procedures and rules for the use ofwireless devices such as wireless LANs

22

Allocation and Notification of Results

The Organising Committee as the licensee received()

Basic Spectrum Plan (published in November

frequency allocation from the MIC for radio equipment

2017)

requiring a radio station licensesuch as wirelessThe basic plan for the spectrum use in the Tokyo 2020

microphones and wireless cameras and decided to allow

Games was drawn up based on experience of spectrum

them to be brought into venues provided that theyuse in the past Games and state of spectrum use inpassed the test (MIC inspection) at the venues and haveJapan

the prescribed tag affixed
The Organising Committee also decided that it would

90

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

allocate frequencies for wireless LAN and other wirelesstion wireless cameras (bandwidth＞10 MHz) 214 appli-

devices that did not require a radio station license

cations were received for the Tokyo 2020 Games
compared to 48 for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games()

Frequency Coordination Method

Around May 2021 when specific plans for the use of

The MIC examined spectrum sharing between radio

broadcasting equipment were clarified and transporta-

equipment used in the Games and local radio stations

tion began requests for frequency changes due to thewhile the Organising Committee examined spectrum

changes of equipment came in rapid succession

sharing and operational coordination among radio

requiring considerable operations to coordinate with theequipment used in the Games and between venues

MIC and local licensees as need arises

It was conceivable that as many as or more than the

In addition to the aforementioned restrictions on thenumbers of frequencies in the past Games would be usedfrequencies that could be allocated and the increasingin the Tokyo 2020 Games

trend of bandwidth per application

In order to allocate

the number of

frequencies so that wireless devices used at the same

applications was the largest in the history of the Gamesvenue and those used at different venues would not

making the frequency allocation process extremelyinterfere with each other the Organising Committee

difficult As a result of repeated coordination with local

worked from FY2017 to FY2019 on a frequency

licensees such as Telcos and broadcasters through theallocation plan We studied the allocation of frequencies

MIC until just before the Games we were finally able toconsidering interference with a primary carrier andapprove all frequencies that were essential for thethird‑order intermodulation for wireless microphones

operation of the Games All in all it was a difficult task

and wireless cameras spectrum sharing operationalthat could not have been accomplished without thecoordination and calculation of a required separationcooperation of the local licensees and other parties

distance

concerned

Based on these results we first conducted a simulation to determine whether the frequencies applied for

23

Electric Field Strength Survey

the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games could be allocated for the

In the frequency coordination it is necessary to grasp

Tokyo 2020 Games and were able to identify the radio

the frequencies that can be used at each venue and toequipment and frequency bands where more efficientconsider the conditions of use For this purpose theuse of frequencies was assumed to be necessary

Organising Committee measured and collected from2015 the shielding loss caused by structures at a venue()

Frequency Allocation and Notification of Re-

and the latent (incoming) electric field arriving at a

sultsvenue for the purpose of collecting basic data on the

The number of applications approved by the end of thefrequency band characteristics of each venue targeting

Games was the largest in the history of the Gamesvenues that had already been constructed and could be(approximately 64 000) of which approximately 1 000

surveyedapplications were received and approved during the

The measured data on the shielding loss was used toGames times Applicants were notified of approval or

calculate the frequency reuse distance to enable thedenial for each application

utmost reuse at contiguous venues The latent electric

The Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) which

field measurement data was also used to check whether

filmed the Games and broadcast footage to rights‑

there were non‑negligible noise components at individu-

holding broadcasters worldwide needed to be allocatedal frequency points It should be noted that the latentnecessary frequencies with the highest priority We

electric field could be affected by various factors such asreceived more applications from OBS than at any pasturban noise unique noise sources in and around theGamesvenue etc and might change after the measurement

requiring a wider bandwidth to meet thedemand for higher definition images (transition fromhigh definition to 4K/8K) including the use of wireless24

cameras utilizing advanced technologies such as Ultra

241

High Definition (UHD) and High Dynamic Range(HDR) for higher value‑added Games production
Comparing the number of approvals for high‑defini-Individual Issues
Broadcasting of Outside Races

OBS used the same dedicated radio equipment that
had been used in the past Games for broadcastingoutside races and the Organising Committee made theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202091

necessary frequency coordination for this The outsidewhich in principle had not required a radio station

races covered were cycling (road race time trial)

license were not always well managed often causing

marathon race walk and triathlon (race walk was only

problems for those involved in competition management

for the Olympics)

broadcasting and media use

Although the number of wireless devices used varied

For this reason the Tokyo 2020 Games should in

depending on the competition the maximum number ofprinciple manage the frequencies in the 2 4 GHz anddevices used was six motorbikes one RF vehicle and

5 GHz bands used for wireless LANs according to thethree helicopters and the coverage were transmitted byfollowing policy In addition we decided not to approve

two fixed‑wing aircraft to receiving points located at thefrequency applications submitted during the Games

International Broadcasting Centre Fuji Speedway andtimes as we anticipated difficulty in the frequency

Sapporo The live coverage aired for rights‑holding

coordination

broadcasters worldwide
In addition the live coverage of the opening and()

Of the 5 GHz band channels 52 to 64 and 100 to

football and

124 are allocated to access points brought in bycycling (mountain bike) were transmitted by up to threeusers etc and other frequencies are allocated toclosing ceremonies

sailing

athletics

the Games network etc (Figure 1)

helicopters to the International Broadcasting Centre andreceiving points set up inside and outside the venues()

Frequencies are designated and approved on

and aired for rights‑holding broadcasters worldwide

the condition that power is kept to a minimum and(football only at the Yokohama International Stadium)

interference is tolerated However radio equip-

Since wireless cameras required a particularly wide

ment of OMEGA responsible for timing International Federations and OBS is protectedbandwidth there were many local radio stations thatneeded to be considered for spectrum sharing We did a

(

)

(

)

specific places in a venue (e g private offices)

study of spectrum sharing operational coordination andthe condition of spectrum use at venues from 2018 with

Access points are approved only at venues or at
Mobile Wi‑Fi routers wireless cameras andthe cooperation of local licensees RF vendors academic

still cameras (master units) are not approved If aexperts and other parties During the study we asked

user need the bringing into venue the Organising

OBS to provide us with information necessary for theCommittee attaches a “DO NOT USE” tag on the

study such as detailed specifications of radio equipment

condition of pledging not to use it

and the roaming range After the study in Japan wascompleted preliminary RF tests were conducted several

3．Activities at Venues

times by OBS The Organising Committee was present
during the tests and confirmed that there were no31

problems by having local licensees check the impact on

Spectrum Desks were set up at 23 venues for users totheir radio stations in real time

Spectrum Desks

have their wireless devices tested and tagged (Figure2) At six of these sites in Tokyo including the Olympic

242

Wireless LAN

In the past Games the frequencies of wireless LANs

Stadium and the International Broadcasting Centre
tests were conducted every day from two weeks before

Figure 1 Frequency Plan for Wireless LAN
Blue‑coloured quadrangles denote frequencies allocated to the Games network
etc and red‑coloured quadrangles denote frequencies allocated to the access points etc brought in by users

92

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

with their wireless devices to the reserved Spectrum
Desk on the test day
In order to prevent infection with COVID‑19 inprinciple all users were required to make an appointment to have their wireless devices inspected In cases
Figure 2 Sample Tags Attached to Wireless Devices
The tagon the left was attached to wireless devices that passed the test
and the tag on the right was attached to wireless devices whose use
was banned in venues

where wireless devices could not be brought into theSpectrum Desk due to reasons such as a large number ofthe devices and the devices being already installed atvenues testing & tagging staff visited a place of theuserʼs choice to conduct the test

the Games until the closing ceremony of the Paralympic

33

Restrictions on Bringing Wireless Devices into

Games Users that came to nearby venues were guided

the Venue

in testing at the six sites In addition tests were carried

During the lockdown period (when people andout at 17 venues far from these six sites only during thevehicles are restricted from entering the venue) thecompetition period

venue must be free of wireless devices that were not

The venues where tests wereconducted the service hours and other information were
described in the “Guide for the Use of Wireless Devices”
published in July 2021 to build usersʼ awarenessapproved by the Organising Committee
From this perspective
wireless devices

as rules for bringing in

it was decided to stipulate that

Since there were many venues where wireless devices

untagged wireless devices would not be allowed to bewere used from the userʼs point of view Spectrum Desks

brought in and that A “DO NOT USE” tag must be

were allocated and adjusted with user convenience thelabelled if staff at the Games brought in a mobile Wi‑Fi

cost of setting up and operating the sites and therouter without an application

mitigation of the burden on site staffs (in other words

reminder document

testing efficiency) in mind

and to distribute a

To inform the general users that untagged wirelessIn the past Games Spectrum Desks were set up in thedevices except for some wireless devices such as cell

security perimeters of venues (an area where only

phones could not be brought into the venues this waspeople and vehicles related to the Games are allowed tostated in the “Guide for the Use of Wireless Devices”

enter)

but this meant that wireless devices were

published on the Organising Committee website andbrought into the venues and then inspected For thisposted at various locations at the venues In addition thereason the Tokyo 2020 Games placed emphasis on “notTokyo 2020 Ticket Purchase and Use Agreement

allowing untagged wireless devices to be brought into

specified wireless devices other than cell phones asvenues” and in principle set up the Spectrum Desks

restricted items and also specified the use of mobile Wi‑

outside the security perimeters of venues except in

Fi routers in the venue as prohibited activities

cases where the conditions of venues made it unavoid-

If an untagged wireless device was found at thebaggage checkpoint it was directed to the Spectrum

able

Desk or a “DO NOT USE” tag was attached
Test Schedule Adjustment and Notification

In addition the following measures were requested to

In order to have users who completed the frequency

the Security Bureau of Tokyo 2020 Organising Commit-

coordination and were notified of approval receive tests

tee and implemented during screening at the baggageof their radio equipment both inside and outside venues

checkpoint upon entry to the venue

32

in a planned manner the test schedule was adjusted bysequentially confirming the desired test dates and()

locations with each user starting in February 2021 At()

Attach a tag prohibiting the use of mobile Wi‑
Fi routers brought in by staff at the Games

that time we also confirmed contact details in Japan
during the Games times so that we could respond to any

Prohibit untagged wireless devices()

Distribute reminder documentschanges in the reserved test dates and times
Users who had completed booking for their test weresent a provisional approval letter and asked to bring it

34

Spectrum Monitoring

Given the strict frequency usage requirements for theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202093

Tokyo 2020 Games we requested spectrum monitoring

the venues specified in the manual radio staff werefrom the MIC and conducted the spectrum monitoring

deployed to 27 of the test events conducted from 2019

both inside and outside the venues in preparation for the

including the modern pentathlon sailing and athletics

unexpected occurrence of interference The following iswhich required tests of radio equipment and spectrum

an overview of the activities conducted by the Organis-monitoring Since OMEGA planned to use many of theing Committee and the MIC

radio devices at the Games we used the opportunity ofthe test events to test and tag eliminating the need for()

Roles of Organising Committee and MIC

tests during the Games times

Since the Organising Committee was the licensee of all

Since there were many cases in which the specifica-

radio equipment used in the Games the Organisingtions of approved radio equipment did not match thoseCommittee was responsible for stopping transmission

actually brought to the Games we took such cases intofrom the interference source

account and improved the testing procedures by making

and the MIC was

responsible for identifying the interference source
Several MIC and Organising Committee staff mem-them more flexible and simplified

In addition

weattempted to monitor wireless LAN using multiple
andbers were assigned to each venue for the spectrum

methods

monitoring within venues The MIC staff members werereflected the results in the methods and procedures forin charge of overall spectrum monitoring technology

monitoring activities during the Games

which was expected to be difficult

while the Organising Committee staff members were in
charge of user management as representatives of radio()

Technology Rehearsal

Twelve staff members that would work at venues

users

during the Games times were assigned to 11 venues for()

Spectrum Monitoring Activities

the technology rehearsal held in June 2021 Based on 30

The spectrum monitoring staff worked in the spec-

scenarios (problems that could be anticipated during thetrum monitoring room and proactively walked around

Games and the procedures for solving them) prepared in

the venue to check for the use of unapproved frequen-

advance

cies Since it was known from the past Games that

handled well

we verified whether the problems were

eyeing untagged wireless devices was effective in

The foreign users who played the role of a wirelesspreventing interference staff members commissioned

device user commented that more proactive communica-

by the Organising Committee also proactively rovingtion was needed to understand user requests and thataround the venues and took measures such as stopping

the staff members should be more familiar with the IT

the use of such devices or having them apply forservice management system to manage the status of

frequencies as soon as they were foundproblems that might occur

After the technology

The Tokyo 2020 Games also included full‑scalerehearsal all staff members that would work at venues

monitoring of wireless LANs which had not been done

were encouraged to share findings and lessons learnedin the past Games

Specificallyunapproved accesspoints and mobile Wi‑Fi routers were probed and shut

36

down

During the Games times

Personnel Regime during the Games Times
three positions (three

For the monitoring of wireless LANs we used Wi‑Fi

people) were assigned to the Technology Operation

analysers specialized for monitoring wireless LANs In

Centre (TOC) and two to four positions (two to six

addition to frequency information related information

people) were assigned to each venue to be in charge ofsuch as SSIDs and MAC addresses could also be

frequency coordination testing & tagging and spectrum

acquired allowing detailed investigation of the use ofmonitoring and they were supervised by the Radio Duty

Wi‑Fi frequencies not applied for in the place and theManager (Figure 3) The positions other than the Radio

impact on SSIDs used by the Organising Committee andDuty Manager were assigned to approximately 370

competitions

personnel from the contractor In principle the TOC
worked round‑the‑clock shifts during the Olympic

35
(

)

Test Event Technology Rehearsal

Games and 19‑hour shifts during the Paralympic Games

Test Event

while the venues were staffed for several hours before

In order to verify operations and gain experience at94

and after competition time

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 3 Positions Related to Frequency Coordination
Engineer were not assigned at some of the venues

37

Interpreter and Test & Tagging

Table 1

Incidents that Occurred during the Games

Comparison of the Number of Incidents with Past GamesThe number of incidents (problems such as interfer-

All Incidents

Wireless LAN‑
related incidents

London 2012 Games177

─

Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games

63

9

Paralympic) For each of these incidents a severity

Tokyo 2020 Games

16

4level (defining the decision‑making process※ The number of wireless LAN‑related incidents at London 2012
Games is unknown

ence that occurred and were registered in the IT service
management system) during the Games was 16
excluding wireless LAN‑related incidents which numbered 12 (all for the Olympic and none for theallowed for resolutiontimeetc ) was determined andaddressed
As an example there was a report of interferencewith the rugby referee radio (wireless microphone) at()

A frequency allocation system and procedures

the Tokyo Stadium (resolved by changing the fre-in Japan that were managed in a very strict

quency) There were also cases of interference between

manner even internationallywireless devices for the Games at multiple venues()

Detailed prior coordination and deliberation(resolved by changing the frequency) and a case inwith the MIC and local licensees including Telcos

which the use of an unapproved mobile Wi‑Fi routerand broadcasters in order to meet the uniqueaffected the wireless LAN for the Games operations

requirements of the Games which required use of(resolved by shutting down the mobile Wi‑Fi router ina large amount of frequencies in a short period ofquestion)time

There were 63 and 177 interference incidents during()

Planning for construction of the Spectrum

Rio de Janeiro 2016 and London 2012 respectively Even

Desks and the strict equipment inspection andtaking into account the fact that some of on‑site issues

labelling regime to prevent unapproved radio

were not registered as incidents because they were

equipment from being brought into the venue

detected and handled before becoming incidents the()

Thorough spectrum monitoring system during

number of incidents during the Tokyo 2020 Games was

the Games and requests for cooperation from staff

extremely small (Table 1) This is the result of theat the Games

following unique efforts in Japan which have kept the
number of incidents to a lower level than in the past
Games
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202095

4．Conclusion

broadcasters and all other local licensees for theirunderstanding and cooperation in the frequency coordi-

The Tokyo 2020 Games which was the second Tokyo

nation Last but not least I would like to take thisGames following the 1964 Games were forced to operate

opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciationa very large scale multi‑sport event in a bubble systemagain

under difficulties amid COVID‑19 In addition compared to the past Games it can be said that a wide
variety of radio equipment was brought into the Tokyo
2020 GamesIt was a great challenge to use the largest number ofradio equipment brought into Japan in the history of theGames without affecting local radio stations I believethat I was able to fulfil my mission to support the Games
from the aspect of radio communications and lead themto success I would like to thank the MIC for theirtremendous support and cooperation in the use of(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 17 2022)

ISHIDA Eiji
ISHIDA Eiji joined the Ministry of Posts andTelecommunications (now the Ministry ofInternal Affairs and Communications) in 2000
where he has primarily focused on ICTdevelopment in developing countries He
moved to Tokyo Organising Committee for the
Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2018
working for Technology Service Bureau as
Senior Project Director for Frequency Coordination He served as Radio Duty Manager at
the TOC at the Games times

frequencies at the Tokyo 2020 Games as well as Telcos㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

96

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑13Personal Mobile Radio :Supporting Massive Sports Event
ISHIDA Eiji

KUNIMATSU Makoto KONISHI Hirohito
KATSUYAMA Sakae

At the past Olympic and Paralympic Games a personal mobile radio system was installed and operated as a means of
instantaneous voice communication for event staff Throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 three
personal mobile radio types including Type 1 the first‑ever business radio on a PS‑LTE system basis and Type 2 using
dedicated frequencies were deployed according to communication purpose and venue aspects This article describes thedevelopment and operation of the unprecedented personal mobile radio system the process of formulating a prerequisite
service policy and fleet map and the background of selecting the PS‑LTE system
Keywords：Olympic Games Paralympics Business radio/personal mobile radio

1．Construction of Business Radio Services
The Olympic and Paralympic Games are one of theof games
The development of the business radio service for the
Games began in 2015 with a survey of specific past cases

largest sporting events in the world The operation ofetc

the Games is carried out by staff members who

ments taking into account the radio propagation aspects

specialize in around 50 areas subdivided according tothat depend on each venueʼs geographical layout andtheir functions

building structure and the unique staffing and calland then defined the high‑level service require-

Business radio is a means of communication that plays

timing characteristics of the Olympic and Paralympic

a different role from the cell phone which provides aGames We then made progress on the selection of afunction to instantaneously transmit voice messages

radio system that could be realized at a lower costfrom the sender to the pre‑grouped staff members andsystem design implementation and construction test-

is a key tool for staff command and control A businessing selection of positions where radio equipment would

radio service that provides a smooth communication

be deployed planning of maintenance and operation

environment is indispensable for the smooth operations

during the Games conduction of test events and staff
training This chapter introduces the main points

ISHIDA Eiji
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesKUNIMATSU Makoto
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesKONISHI Hirohito
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesKATSUYAMA Sakae
City Infrastructure Solution Division NEC Corporation
Email s‑katsuyama@nec com

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 97‑103 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

Business radios are called Personal Mobile Radio(PMR) in the Olympic and Paralympic Games
11

Service Requirements and System Selection

Based on the past Olympic and Paralympic Games
operation records and the plans for the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred toas “Tokyo 2020 Games”) conditions such as communication area call capacity the acceptable range of voice

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 202097

delay and the confidentiality were identified and defined
as service requirements A plan was formulated toprovide a highly robust radio system designed andfacilities on loan from specialized service providers
PS‑LTE (Public Safety LTE) is an LTE‑based radio
network for public use

constructed to meet these requirements for the main
operations at the venue (operations management

12

refereeing and other Games operations medical opera-

This section introduces the PS‑LTE system (Type 1)

tions

broadcasting

securityetc )as well as for

System Development

including a selection process

the direct device‑to‑communication between leaders across the businessdevice communication system (Type 2) and the systemdomains

for cycling road races

The total number of PMR handsets provided wasapproximately 14 500 Three types (Type 1 to Type 3)

121

Type 1 (PS‑LTE System)

were deployed and classified according to their configu-

The basic service area was defined as a radius ofration methods The main reason for combining multiple

10 km (Figure 2) around the athletesʼ village which

Types was their suitability for each usage and costencompasses most of the venues in Tokyo and theminimization

triathlon and marathon competition area We selected

The three business radio types deployed for the main

the PS‑LTE system proposed by NEC Corporation

operations are shown below Figure 1 shows photos of(hereinafter referred to as “NEC”) that met thethe handsets

requirements and considered the best benefits in its
operational framework･

Type 1 : PS‑LTE system Use a dedicated control

Advantages of using the PS‑LTE system included

server relay stations communication infrastruc-

capacity management without external factors by using

ture and frequencies (900 MHz band) Approx

infrastructure and frequencies dedicated to the Games

6 300 handsets

efficient spectrum use when events and calls are･

Type 2 : Direct communication between devices

concentrated simultaneously

and high flexibility in

Use a frequency (351 MHz band) dedicated to thecreating talk groups

Tokyo 2020 Games Approx 2 800 handsets

potential for legacy use of the equipment and operational･

Type 3 : IP radio Use the infrastructure of mobile
telcos and dedicated resource‑occupying servers

Another advantage was theknowledge after the Games
Since this was the first full‑scale introduction of PS‑
LTE radio system in the history of the summer Olympic

Approx 5 400 handsets

and Paralympic Games the adoption of this system was
An airborne radio relay system was deployed for thedecided after extensive feasibility verification and risk

cycling road race apart from the above In additionassessment For example the system was tested underbusiness radio services were provided within the airport

the loads expected during the Games While systemcomponents such as base stations and handsets were
evaluated for actual past operation in addition to
procurement risks

Furthermore

the Tokyo 2020

Organising Committee received a report from a radio
expert with whom the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee signed a consulting contract on the PS‑LTE
technology that no risks that could affect the Games had
become evident in light of the unique requirements of theGames Moreover it was confirmed that the readinessfor legacy use was positive
We assumed the system went along with technicalrequirements including frequencies provided that the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)
consulted the Information and Communications Council（a）Type 1 PMR（b）Type 2 PMR
Figure 198

PMR Handsets（c）Type 3 PMR

on the technical requirements for upgrading 900 MHz
band independent mobile communication systems (Con-THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

Type 1 Service Area (10 km Radius Around the Athletesʼ Village)

sultation No 2041 dated September 27 2017) and set up
relevant regulations after a recommendation was issued

123Radio System for Cycling Road Race

The cycling road race course started at Musashinonomori Park (Tokyo) passed through Kanagawa and122

Type 2 (Direct Device‑to‑Device Communi-

Yamanashi and finished at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka)

cation System)

Around 240 km race route (men) included areas along

We developed a system with enhanced call confiden-

mountain valleys and at the foot of Mt The main racetiality based on the digital simplex radio system

convoy where athletes and support vehicles ahead of

Dedicated frequencies were allocated for Tokyo 2020and behind them are includedGames

20 km moving from the starting point to the finish line at

We did communication tests at all venues clarifying

high speed

stretches for about

Radio communications essential to theavailable service areas considering test results thecompetition such as those for race status announce-

staffʼs roaming range and timing of use We createdments judging and rescuing must allow simultaneous

combination frequency reuse patterns to operate theconversations within the convoy and at the racesystem through efficient resource management

headquarters set up in a location separate from the race
courseSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

99

An IP communication system using the infrastructureof a cell phone operator was considered due to the wide

must be coordinated and agreed on･This does not apply to usage that requires a voice
delay of 200 ms or lessservice area required However a risk peculiar to the IPcommunication system became apparent : a significant
voice delay in some low‑field areas in mountainous(

areas Since the speed of athletes there could be as high①)Service Area

as 90 km/h the risk of voice delay was judged to besignificant and this system was applied only to usages･

Type 1 : All talkgroups (except when Type 3
allocation is applicable)

where the delay effect was minimal
For the conversation system where a delay is･Type 3 : Talkgroups that need to communicate
outside the Type 1 service area

unacceptable a radio relay system which was used inpast Olympic Games was loaded on an aircraft to②

Principle of Type Allocation outside Type 1
Service Area

provide wide‑area coverage An analog system wasused to ensure continuity of communication and theType Assignment
Principle of Type Allocation within Type 1･Type 2 : Talkgroups for operation management

aircraft circled at around 3 km altitude during the Games

competition management time and scoring rescu-

to ensure coverage Before the Games an aircraft with a

ing and OBS or talk groups that require a voiceradio relay system was operated and vehicles withdelay of less than 300 ms

actual radio equipment installed ran on the ground totest coverage･Type 3 : Talkgroups Type 2 is not allocated(including talkgroups that need to communicate
with places exceeding Type 2 propagation distance)

13

Selection of Positions for Deploying PMR
Handset132

Fleet Map

In addition to accurately defining the technicalIn the Olympic and Paralympic Games a document

specifications the key to smooth communication is todescribing the composition of talkgroups radio types

ensure that the overall quantity of handsets is appropri-

availability of accessories distribution and collection

ately controlled and deployed to staff positions that

dates etc for PMR is called a “fleet map” which will be

require radio communication The Technology Service

created to manage the system of conversation We

Bureau coordinated the deployment and quantity ofcreated over 100 fleet maps for each venue and event athandsets and provided technical support

the Tokyo 2020 Games Creating fleet maps is a criticaltask as it is an effort to determine which staff positions

131

Service Policy

We created a service policy that prescribes awill be equipped with handsets It also has the aspect ofdeciding on an operational framework

deployment principle for coordination of deployment

The first version of the fleet map was defined in

The service policy to sort out requests was defined to

January 2017 after interviews with the functional areas

limit usage narrow down staff positions and facilitate(FAs) involved At that time specific plans for venue

understanding of deployed handset types The main

operations and the number of operators at each FA wereitems of the service policy are as follows :not yet determined The optimization of operational
methods and the number of deployed PMR were not

(

)

･

Coordination of Usage and Deployment Targets
Deployment targets must be staff positions thatindispensably need group talks or those that need torequests for more than 30 000 handsets
Since then based on the proven talkgroup structure

continue conversations even when voice communi-

and budget constraints the talkgroups and their usages

cation with a cell phone is difficult due to congestion

were carefully examined and adjustments were madeor other reasons Furthermore it is limited to caseswith each FAs repeatedly By the end of June 2021

where there are no other alternatives such as cellwhen the final version for the Games was formulated

phone email IT tools or verbal communication

countless minor updates and eight major version･

All PMR provided must be defined in the fleet
map ＊

＊

examined so this version was a provisional list of

The process ofcoordination and agreement was very strenuous We

This means the fleet map described in section 1 3 2
100

upgrades had been implemented

were able to enhance mutual understanding and reach

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

an agreement through repeated discussions on subjects

operation and user support during the test events andsuch as explanations of service policies

talkgroup

Games and maintenance and monitoring of systems

compositions used in the past Games and explanations ofSince then we have developed the service throughthe characteristics of radio communications

collaboration based on the above responsibilities

The most common gap in the coordination was due to

For the radio system for the cycling road race thethe demand to switch freely between many talkgroups

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee established theand to join multiple talkgroups with the idea of using arequirements

system like a cell phone This demand came from users

aircraft operations was outsourced to a company with a

who were not accustomed to the differences between

proven track record

radios and cell phones and those who had experience
with radios and event management but were accus-

and the provision of equipment andThe operation framework specialized for the Games is
described below

tomed to a form in which one person had a specificauthority and could join all the talkgroups involved

2．Operation of PMR Service

From the standpoint of close examination of the numberof handsets we must avoid deploying excess handsets
and avoid a situation in which it was unclear who wascalling in which talkgroup

Furthermore

This section introduces the test events and operations
during the Gamesit wasnecessary to create an environment in which each21

person could always focus on the talkgroup for which

In the test events held sequentially from the summer

Test Events

they were responsible for communicating without delayof 2019 we provided the PMR service for a total of 18

across the segmented business functions unique to theeventsOlympic and Paralympic Games Hence such a demandathletics to evaluate fleet maps and gain operational

including cycling road races

sailing andwas unacceptable As a measure the roles of liaisonsexperience In all the events conducted handsets were(bridges) between talkgroups were carefully examined

deployed based on the fleet map for the actualand only those positions in charge of liaison were allowed

competition Conversation traffic was analyzed in detailto belong to each talkgroup with a limit of two in

to determine if the deployment was excessive or

principle thereby establishing a contact frameworkinsufficient if there were any system malfunctions orContinued communication with venue management

dead zones

staff regarding the fleet map helped prevent operational

appropriately

and if users were using the systemproblems during the Games On the other hand someExperience of the test events was very useful ininternational federations could not establish a clear line

improving their problem‑finding and solving skills inof communication with the competition management

addition to improving their management skills

departments in advance and some events had to request

addition operating the fleet map based on the assump-changes to the fleet map during the Games times

tion of the actual Games led to a common understanding

However these were few in total and did not causewith the users and discussions on fleet map coordination

significant problems

have become much richer since thenIn

The most challenging part of the test events was user
14

Business Structure

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee had four staff(Note 1)

education There were many more users than expected
who thought that radios could be used as cell phones orin the Technology Services Bureau in

who although they said they had experience in handlingcharge of developing requirements for the Games

radios at events actually had only experience with IP

designing the talkgroups conducting a thorough review

radios and had no experience of direct device‑to‑device

and user consulting to create fleet maps operational

communication methods As a result many users did notdesign quality evaluation and coordination with users

understand that a dead zone was generated in shadowsand related domestic organizationsetc

members

and used the system inappropriately leading to

In the fall of 2016 we signed a basic outsourcing

complaints that they could not speak The user manualcontract with NEC covering the provision of equipment

was revised and expanded to include tips and otherinformation on frequently occurring problems and(Note 1)

As of March 2021

measures and explanations were repeatedly provided toSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020101

users until the Games

Games and 19 hours a day during the Paralympic
Games excluding late nights In venues support was

22

Technology Rehearsal

provided during the Games and for several hours around

In June 2021 a technology rehearsal (training to solve

the Games times

problems (scenarios) that may occur during the Games)
was conducted The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee()

staff members who would be in charge of operations
during the Games also participated This opportunity

Distribution and Collection of Equipment toUsers

Equipment (including accessories) was delivered to

was used to gain knowledge of the processes necessaryusers by a representative of the FAs who distributedfor problem‑solving (including determining the neces-and collected all the equipment used by the FAs The

sity of escalation) the ability to respond in English andorganization providing the equipment was defined andthe procedures for changing the fleet map

agreed upon in advanceand users managed theequipment including recharging while they had the23(

During the Games Times)

equipment in possession

Staff Positions

Figure 3 shows the composition of staff members at()

Change Requests Incidents etc

the Technology Operations Centre (TOC) and the

The main request for change during the Games was tovenues during the Games TOC had a Radio Dutychange the fleet map due to staffing modifications thatManager in charge of overall radio operations PMR

occurred during the Games Fleet map changes were

Provider Expert PMR Operations Manager and PMR

handled promptly and with the utmost care during theAnalyst (onerespectively)

Games Minor requests such as a change of users within

under the Radio Duty Manager to provide support forthe same talkgroup were handled by on‑site mainte-

two

and two persons

the PMR services across all venues A Venue Radionance staff

Manager was assigned to each venue to oversee radio

creating a new talkgroup or changing the composition of

Howevercomplex requests

such asoperations at the venues and a PMR Engineer (onea talkgroup required a report to TOC and a decision by

person) was assigned under the Venue Radio Manager

the Radio Duty Manager These change flows wereto support the PMR services at the venues More thandefined in advance and announced to users and support

300 NEC staff took care of the staff positions except for

staff was trained to handle them on a case‑by‑casethe Radio Duty Manager In principle the TOC workedbasis

24 hours a day seven days a week during the Olympic

Major incidents included two base station equipment
failures during the Games However redundant equipment helped the service not to be interrupted and theequipment was quickly replaced and restored to normal
operation

3．Conclusion
The Tokyo 2020 Games operated the unprecedented
PMR service
propagation

In addition to knowledge of radio
knowledge of IP communications andabove all knowledge of the Games management andcompetition‑specific requirements

and open‑minded

communication with relevant people were extremely
important for completing the service
Finally we take this opportunity to thank the IOC
TEC members and express our appreciation to sports
federations event organizers and venue owners for theircooperation in observing the events from the planning
Figure 3

102

Positions Related to PMRphase of the Games We also would like to express our

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

gratitude to NEC and all other operators the Ministry ofInternal Affairs and Communications and other relatedorganizations for their cooperation in the operation of thepersonal mobile radio(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 17 2022)

ISHIDA Eiji
He joined the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (now the Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications) in 2000 andprimarily focused on ICT development indeveloping countries He moved to Tokyo
Organising Committee for the Olympic andParalympic Games in 2018 working for Technology Service Bureau as Senior Project
Director for Frequency Coordination He
served as Radio Duty Manager at the TOC at
the Games times
KUNIMATSU Makoto
He graduated from the University of Electro‑
Communications in 1998 and completed themasterʼs course at the University of Electro‑
Communications in 2000 From 2015 to 2021 he
was in charge of Head of PMR services at theTechnology Service Bureau of the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee and was in charge ofRadio Duty Manager at TOC at Games time

KONISHI Hirohito
He graduated from Hosei University in 2003
and has been a member of the Technology
Service Bureau of the Tokyo 2020 Organising
Committee since 2017 He is mainly in charge ofoverseeing the construction of the PMR systemand developing the fleet map During theGames he will be engaged in managing radio
and frequency operations at the TOC as Radio
Duty Manager
KATSUYAMA Sakae
He graduated from Nagoya University in1994 with a bachelorʼs degree in engineeringand information technology completed the firsthalf of a doctoral course at the same university
in 1996 and joined NEC in the same year He
has been engaged in the design development
and maintenance of defense communication
networks since then He has been engaged in
the maintenance of the business radio service
for the Tokyo 2020 Games Currently managerof the Urban Infrastructure Solutions Division 1of NEC Corporation㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020103

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑14Technology of Personal Mobile Radio
Introduction of PS‑LTE and its Challenges
KATSUYAMA Sakae

At the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 PS‑LTE was introduced for the first time in the history of the
Olympic and Paralympic Games as one of the technologies for providing Personal Mobile Radio (PMR) service used forcommunication among the Games management personnel and PS‑significantly contributed to the smooth operation of theGames This article outlines the structure of the PS‑LTE system and its construction process for the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020 It provides an overview of the use of PS‑LTE during the Olympic and Paralympic GamesTokyo 2020 including the preparation period The post‑Games utilization of the PS‑LTE system is also discussed
Keywords：Personal Mobile Radio (PMR) First time in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games PS‑LTE
Post‑Games utilization

1．Introduction
Personal Mobile Radio (PMR) service is a “communication service to support the smooth operation of thenies were provided at Haneda and Narita airports
This article describes PS‑LTE introduced as a PMR
service for the first time in the history of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games

Games” used for communication among the parties
involved in managing the Games to support venue
management competition management medical caresecurity and other event support PMR service provides
an immediate communication means by radio devices totarget devices within a defined area

2．PS‑LTE in the Tokyo 2020 Games
PS‑LTE is a wireless network built on an LTE system
intended for public use
NEC proposed PS‑LTE as a technology for providing

NEC provided PMR service for the Olympic and

PMR service and after evaluation by the Tokyo 2020

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred toOrganising Committee it was decided to introduce PS‑

as Tokyo 2020 Games) using three technologies : PS‑

LTE as a PMR service

LTE (Terminology) direct communication radio and IP radio

This section describes the PS‑LTE system for the

The areas where PMR service was provided are shownin Table 1
In addition to these three technologies airport MCA
radios serviced by the respective airport radio compa-

Table 1
Technology
PS‑LTEPMR Service Coverage Area
Service area
Tokyo area (within a 10‑km radius of the
Olympic and Paralympic Villages) Musashino Forest Sports Plaza Tokyo Stadium

KATSUYAMA Sakae
City Infrastructure Solution Division NEC Corporation
E‑mail s‑katsuyama@nec com

Direct Communica- Venues outside and surrounding the PS‑tion RadioLTE coverage area

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 104‑109 August 2022

IP Radio© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

104

Venues outside and surrounding the PS‑
LTE coverage area

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Tokyo 2020 Games

interfere with the operations of the GamesThe equipment making up the PS‑LTE system for the21

System Overview

Tokyo 2020 Games was the same as that provided to

The PS‑LTE system constructed for the Tokyo 2020
Games consisted of a control station base stations

customers who require continued communication evenduring a disaster

mobile stations and a supervisory and control centre asshown in Figure 1 There were two types of base211

stations : wide‑area stations that covered the area

The control station consists of core network equip-

outside the venues and venue stations that covered thement called EPC (Evolved Packet Core) which has thearea in and around the venues Seven wide‑area stations

function of managing communications for the entire PS‑

and 22 venue stations were installed

LTE system and controls LTE‑based communications a

A redundant backhaul connected the control station
and base stations

Control Station

PTT (Push To Talk) server which controls the PTT
function in which a call is made by pressing a button on

The equipment used to configure the control stationa mobile station ; and routers to control communication

and base stations was duplicated to provide sufficientwith the base stations All of these devices have a

redundancy Even if a failure occurred the PS‑LTE

redundant configuration of active and standby systems

system would continue to operate and would not

The control station was located in a data centre
managed by NEC had its independent power supply andwas connected to a commercial power supply ensuring
24‑hour operation 365 days a year
212

Base Station

The base station has the function of capturing radio
signals and connecting them to the control station thatmanages communications The base station consists of aBase Band Unit (BBU) (Terminology) that controls the entire
base station and monitors call control protocols and a
Remote Radio Head (RRH) (Terminology) that processes
signals exchanged through the backhaul and signals to
be placed on the radio routers that control communicaFigure 1 The PS‑LTE system configuration
The system
consists of a control station base stations mobile stations and asupervisory and control centretion with the control station

and antennasTheequipment of the base station excluding the antennas
has a redundant configuration of active and standby
systems■

At the Tokyo 2020 Games the base stations were ofTerminology

PS‑LTE
Public‑Safety LTE A radio system built onan LTE system for public use (for example for use by public
safety organizations at disaster sites) At the Tokyo 2020
Games PS‑LTE was built as a dedicated radio system
BBU
Base Band Unit A device performing digital
baseband signal processing connection and termination
processing with control stations call processing andmonitoring and control processing It converts signals
received from control stations into baseband signals andtransmits them to RRH It also transmits the reverse
direction
RRH
Remote Radio Head A device that transmits andreceives radio signals converts and amplifies the processedbaseband signals from the BBU into radio signals andtransmits them to the mobile station and vice versa It alsotransmits in the reverse direction■

two types : wide‑area stations and venue stations The
wide‑area stations were set up to cover the outdoor area
within a 10‑km radius around the Olympic andParalympic Villages The venue stations were set up tocover the indoor and surrounding areas of the venues()

Wide‑area Station

Radio propagation simulations were conducted inadvance to efficiently cover a 10‑km radius around the
Olympic and Paralympic Villages and suitable facilities
were selected for installation

As a result of thesimulation it was decided to install seven base stations
The number of RRHs per base station ranged from 2 to
4 Figure 2 and Figure 3 show a wide‑area stationʼs

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

105

Figure 2 Base Station Equipment Configuration
The system
consists of a BBU RRHs antennas and routers The number of
RRHs was 2 to 4 depending on the station

Figure 4

Mobile station

A Smartphone‑type Radio was Usedon the size of the venues and the complexity of theirstructures RRHs were 2 for the Canoe Slalom Centre a
simple structure and 14 for the Olympic Stadium alarge‑scale and complex structure
213

Mobile Station

The mobile station is a device that users hold in theirhands to make and receive calls
The mobile station adopted for the Tokyo 2020 Games
was a smartphone‑type radio shown in Figure 4 unlike
the transceiver‑type radio used in past Games
Figure 3 Appearance of the Wide‑area Stationrouters are installed inside the building

The BBU and

NEC adopted a smartphone‑type model with excellent
shock resistance water resistance and dust resistanceand provided approximately 6 300 units

equipment configuration and appearance

214

Supervisory and Control Centre

The operation status of the PS‑LTE system was()

Venue Station

monitored and remotely controlled in the event ofVenue stations are base stations used to cover indoor

failures etc The centre was located at NECʼs office andand surrounding areas of venues and have the samea 24‑hour monitoring and control system was estab-equipment configuration as that of wide‑area stations

lishedThe difference from wide‑area stations was that a

The PS‑LTE system was operated in close coopera-

configuration in which the antennas were partiallytion with Technology Operation Centre (TOC) during

branched to arrange many antennas for covering

the Games period

complicated indoor areas and the shape of the antennas
While wide‑area stations used large antennas installed215

on steel towers to cover a wide area venue stations used

Core network equipment (e gSystem Performance
EPC) with sufficient

small antennas that could be easily installed The small

processing capacity was installed to handle the approxi-

antennas were adopted for the venue stations because ofmately PS‑LTE 6 300 mobile stations

the less duration required for the installation and

The performance of the core network equipment isremoval and the broadcast cameras would not capture

equivalent to that of the equipment used in telecommuni-

themcation carriers and was sufficient to handle all 6 300

The number of RRHs varied significantly depending
106

units even if they were all used simultaneously

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 5 PS‑LTE Coverage Area
This is a simulation result for an area within a 10‑km radius of the
Olympic and Paralympic Villages Prepared by NEC based on the Geographical Survey Institute map(https://maps gsi go jp/#12/35 647951/139 766693/&base=std&ls=std&disp=1&vs=c1j0h0k0l0u0t0z0r0s0
m0f1)

22

Service Area

The areas covered by the PS‑LTE system included

stations was determined by repeating the simulation
with antenna positions as a parameteroutdoor areas such as road event courses (marathonsand triathlons) within a 10‑km radius around the23

Olympic and Paralympic Villages 20 venues such as the

The PS‑LTE system construction started in FY2018

Olympic Stadium and the Olympic and Paralympic

and was carried out with preliminary coordination

Villages within a 10‑km radius and Musashino Forest

installation and verification steps

Sports Plaza and Tokyo Stadium outside the 10‑km
radiusSystem Construction

Since the wide‑area stations were constructed outside
the venues the facilities could be rented earlier andadequate time could be ensured for the construction()

Outdoor Areas within a 10‑km Radius of the
Olympic and Paralympic Villages

periodOn the other hand the renting period of facilities at

Figure 5 shows the results of radio propagation

the venues was set at a minimum and construction work

simulation within a 10‑km radius around the Olympic

had to be carried out in multiple venues within a few

and Paralympic Villages

months immediately before the GamesThe locations of the wide‑area stations were deter-

construction resources a challenge

allocating

Howeverthemined based on these simulations In practice even if

construction plan was carefully coordinated with thethe simulation results showed efficient coverage theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee steps and businessselection of the installation site had to be performed

operators in charge of the maintenance at each venue

several times due to the inability to secure (rent) a

The construction was completed before the Games staff

facility

arrived at the venues and started using the PMR
During the construction of the PS‑LTE system()

Venuesadjustments were made for interference from radio to

Simulations were also conducted in advance for

ensure that the operation of communication carriers andvenues such as the Olympic Stadium Olympic andother wireless systems would not be affected As a

Paralympic Villages and outdoors over a 10‑km radius

result the location of the PS‑LTE antennas had to beof the Olympic and Paralympic Villages

changed and additional filters had to be installed at the

The number of devices installed at each of the 22base stations of communication carriers to avoid

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020107

interferencein the entire PS‑LTE system was 700

After installing the base station radio wave measure-

These groups were defined in a fleet map and thements and call tests were conducted on and aroundmobile stations were configured for these groups based

major roads and venues in Tokyo such as road eventon the fleet map (the configured groups were called

courses and highways designated as Olympic routes“Talk Groups”) and distributed to users

The results confirmed that Reference Signal Received
Power (RSRP) could provide stable calls in all areas

32

except tunnels and that PMR service could be provided

Positions were assigned to TOC and venues to carryas expected

Operational Structureout the operational tasks (Figure 6) The supervisory
and control centre was also staffed 24 hours a day

3．PMR Service Operation
NEC was responsible for constructing the PS‑LTE
system and for operational tasks such as setting up themobile stations delivering to users and responding touser inquiries
NEC handled the PS‑LTE system and other PMR
systems (direct communication radio and IP radio)
Although there were differences in mobile station setup
work depending on the radio technology the operationaltasks were the same
This section describes the operation of the PS‑LTE
system31

Mobile Station Setup

The PS‑LTE system supported approximately 6 300
mobile stations or about 6 300 users

Users gave

instructions through PMRs in units of operational groups
such as venue management

security

and medical

services Groups ranged from 20 to 45 people dependingon the size of the venues and the total number of groups

Figure 7
figure108

PS‑LTE traffic

Figure 6 PMR‑related Operational Positions
positions in TOC and 2 positions at venues

NEC deployed 3

The total daily talk time of the Talk Group is shown in the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

During the Tokyo 2020 Games more than 300 personnel
were mobilized
In principle TOC was staffed 24 hours a day during
the Olympic Games and 19 hours a day during theParalympic Games while the venues were staffed forcompetition hours and several hours before and after
33

Operational Status

The PMR service was provided stably during theGames period including the preparation period with nosystem outages or other problems
The traffic generated during the Tokyo 2020 Games
was also within the performance range of the PS‑LTE

Figure 8 Utilization Rate of the Wireless Band over Time on July
24 2021
The figure shows the utilization rate of the wirelessband over time when the utilization rate was the highest

systemFigure 7 shows the total talk time for each Talk Group
from July 1 to September 8 2021 organized per day
The horizontal axis is the date and the vertical axis is
the total talk time in each Talk Group If Person A

4．Utilization of the PS‑LTE System after
the Games

speaks for 5 seconds in one Talk Group to call Person B

NEC worked to utilize the PS‑LTE system introduced

and then Person B responds for 3 seconds the callat the Tokyo 2020 Games as a legacy after the Games
NEC proposed that the PS‑LTE system be used as

duration is recorded as 8 seconds
The traffic generated (Talk Group calls) tended to bepart of MCA Advance provided by MRC (Mobile Radio
Center Inc ) and after the Tokyo 2020 Games the usedsimilar to past Games
Traffic increased from the time when preparations for
the Games began in earnest and reached their maximum

equipment was diverted to be used to build MCA
Advanceon the day after the opening ceremony of the Olympic
Games The day after the opening ceremony was thefirst day of the competitions in many venues There

5．Conclusion

which

NEC was able to provide a stable PMR service on astimulated the use of radios Subsequently the number

large scale Thanks to the efforts of NEC and the Tokyo

of calls decreased and it is assumed that users got used2020 Organising Committee and all related organiza-

to their work

tions institutions business operators and volunteers I

were many interactions between personnel

Traffic decreased during the transition period but

want to take this opportunity to express my gratitudetraffic increased as the Paralympic Games approachedand preparations began in earnest
Traffic during the Paralympic Games was less thanduring the Olympics Games due to the smaller scale(number of venues etc ) and fewer users
Figure 8 shows the transition of the utilization rate of
the wireless band where the utilization rate was thehighest on July 24

2021

when traffic was at its

maximum The utilization rate of the wireless band was
34% at the maximum and there was enough capacity
The PMR service could be provided without the
restriction of low‑priority Talk Groups which had been

(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 17 2022)

KATSUYAMA Sakae
He graduated from Nagoya University in1994 with a Bachelorʼs degree in Electronics
and Information Technology and completed thefirst half of a Doctoral course at the same
university in 1996 He joined NEC in the same
year and has been engaged in designing
developing and maintaining defense communication networks Since 2017 he has beenworking in the PMR service development for
the Tokyo 2020 Games Currently he is theradio solution project manager of the City
Infrastructure Solutions Division of NEC Corporationconsidered in advance㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020109

2 Telecommunication Radio Broadcast

2‑15

Enhancement of Mobile Communication
Environment for Spectators
KUROMIYA Takayuki

SAITO Wataru

With the increase in the number of cell phone users and the spread of information provision services via smartphones we
had concerns about cell phone congestion and slow communication speeds in and around venues during the Tokyo 2020
Olympic and Paralympic Games We promoted two measures to improve the mobile communication environment to
reduce those concerns One is the deployment and enhancement of mobile communication networks by mobile network
operators and the other is the development of the Wi‑Fi communication environment by facility owners themselves This
article summarizes the activities for these two measures especially the efforts for the permanent facilities and the result
Keywords：Cellular phone Mobile communication 5G Wi‑Fi for spectators Legacy

1．Introduction

mpic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereafter

Tokyo 2020

Games)The importance of high‑speed data communications

Although the Tokyo 2020 Games were eventually held

on mobile devices like smartphones has increased with

with almost no spectators the Organising Committee

each Olympic and Paralympic Games and those commu-

initially had expected 8 million spectators and needed tonications have evolved to be an essential infrastructure

provide a comfortable mobile communication environ-for spectators and the Games stakeholders For exam-

ment for potential users like 200 000 volunteers andple it has become commonplace for spectators to shareother people involved in the Games We planned to(upload) videos and images of their experience throughdeploy and enhance cell phone and Wi‑Fi communication

SNS applications

facilities in the spectator seating areas and concourses at

not just view (download) video

replays and other moving images

the venues by asking mobile network operators andHowever so far in Japan cell phones often cannot

venue facility owners to obtain their understanding andmake a connection in a venue of a large‑scale competi-

cooperation as shown in Figure 1 And the communica-tion or event while mobile device use is increasing year

tion environment especially for cell phones has becomeby year Therefore we saw it should be critical toan essential infrastructure for Tokyo 2020 Games andimprove the communication environment where we canalso society as a whole Therefore we believed that it isuse mobile phones and mobile devices comfortably in andcrucial to keep providing comfortable facilities byaround the Games venues for the Olympic and Paraly-

developing a communications infrastructure not only
during the Games but also after the Games and it will
ultimately lead to an increase in the attractiveness of

KUROMIYA Takayuki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesSAITO Wataru
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 110‑115 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

110

each competition venue Based on this idea the projecttargeted the spectator areas of 43 competition venues
the Athletes Village and some areas of the International
Broadcast Centre (IBC) Main Press Centre (MPC)(Table 1)

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSAs it turned out there were almost no opportunities tofor legacy use after the Games have generally beenuse mobile communication facilities at spectator areas indeveloped as planned and some test use before thethe Tokyo 2020 Games due to the policy of non‑spectator

Games has been conducted The following is a brief

for the Games On the other hand permanent facilities

history and status of the fulfillment

2．Cell Phone Network Development
21

Mobile Operators Olympic Group and Guidelines

In July 2016 the Organising Committee establishedthe Mobile Operators Olympic Group (MOOG) with four
mobile network operators (NTT docomo

KDDI

SoftBank and UQ Communications) to develop the cell
phone communication environment for the Games Afterthat Rakuten Mobile Inc joined MOOG in 2018 (Figure2)
Based on repeated discussions with these mobile
network operators that provided communication services using their communication facilities we released the
Figure 1 Request for Cooperation to the Mobile Network
Operators and Facility Owners
The Organising Committee
requested cooperation in the development and enhancement of cell
phone and Wi‑Fi communication facilities after coordinating theroles of each party“Guidelines for the Improvement of the Mobile Phone
Communication Environment for the Tokyo 2020
Olympic and Paralympic Games” (hereafter

Guide-

lines) on November 8 2017 In the Guidelines thefollowing points were discussed and agreed upon :In the cell phone communication environment in and

Table 1

Target Areas for Cell Phone and Wi‑Fi Facilities
Deployment and Enhancement

Public cell phone

Wi‑Fi for spectators

around the venues

Competition
venuesAthletes Village
IBC/MPC･Spectator area

Residential andbusiness areas･

Spectator Area

Only for related
stakeholders

20% of users will need to be connected even if
they make voice calls concurrently
100% of data communication will need to beconnected and users can comfortably enjoy somecontent like video except during times of congestion

Figure 2 Structure of the Mobile Operators Olympic Group (MOOG)
The Organising Committee and mobile
network operators launched MOOG in 2016 to promote the development plan for the cell phone communication
environment

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020111

Table 2

To achieve these goals each mobile network operator
needed to take measures for the “dead zone” and the“congestion”

TimeSpectator area

Route to the venue

Summer 2020

All competition venues
except Izu MTB course

Several venues

Summer 2021

All venues

About half venues

They considered installing antennas insome areas for spectators where signal reception was
too poor to connect cell phones to reduce the number ofdead zones and also considered installing additional

Status of 5G Service Area Deployment

antennas in areas where many spectators would use
their mobile devices simultaneously to avoid unavailability even if congestions had occurred

Inevitably

MOOGʼs subsequent activities shifted to the steady
implementation of such installation and expansion at thetarget venues

created some leeway in terms of the construction period
even though the actual construction could not begin
Moreoverwe had to consider measures against

coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) infection to start
the construction in 2021 resulting in another round of

22

Activities and Achievements for the Installation

adjustments

When the mobile network operators installed commu-

Nevertheless the mobile network operators recog-

nication facilities it was necessary to lease space fornized the necessity and goal of adding permanent mobile

base station equipment and antennas from the facility

communication facilities at each venue and followed theowners and receive power supply

They had to

Guidelines

In the end

about 4 700 antennas werecoordinate with the department in charge of the venue

installed/added as legacy facilities in total accounting

development of the Organising Committee in the case offor more than 90% of the initial development plan

temporary facilities and with the facility owners of the(including temporary facilities) and they are still invenues such as stadiums in the case of permanent

operation after the Gamesfacilities These activities started in full swing in 2018
The Organising Committee requested the owners of

23

Fifth‑Generation Mobile Communication System (5G)

each facility to understand and cooperate with additional
facilities for the Games and compiled plans for the

5G commercial services started in some areas in Japandevelopment of facilities by mobile network operators

in March 2020 Regarding the competition venues for the

In reality the conditions of the facilities in the venue

Tokyo 2020 Games priority was given to the develop-

were not uniform the development plans varied byment of spectator seating areas As of summer 2020 5G

venue and mobile network operator and we have nearly

was available in the spectator seating areas of all

50 venues so we asked each mobile network operator tocompetition venues except one The postponement ofcarry out its specific coordination

the Games by one year resulted in the expansion of 5G

From the viewpoint of a venue owner coordination

coverage in urban areas which also covered some routes

with multiple mobile network operators was needed

to the venue without a specific measurement (Table 2)almost simultaneously resulting in enormous workloads

However there were almost no spectators during theto deal with those For this reason the mobile network

Games time and the use of 5G had to be limited

operators participating in MOOG consulted with each

Please refer to 4‑3 of these special issue for moreother and appointed a represented managing company

information on the innovation project using the public 5G

for each venue That company was to lead negotiation

network And please refer to 2‑5 of these special issue

and coordination with the venue which was a sort offor the local 5G demonstration (conducted at thedivisional cooperation

National Stadium) that was for the ground area not

Negotiations with the venues

howeverrequiredmore stakeholders and more time than usual as it was

sufficiently covered by the public 5G network because it
mainly covered the spectator seating area

necessary to coordinate with the venue owners thefacility management company and the venue construc-3．Spectator Wi‑Fi

tion company managers and contractors on the Organising Committee side Therefore we had to rush through31

construction from spring 2020 to just before the GamesAs of two to three years before the Games nearly 70%

for almost all venues The one‑year postponement hadof all competition venues had little or no existing Wi‑Fi

112

Requests to the Venue Facilities

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

environment that spectators could use freely The only

The Organising Committee positioned “hospitality”

venues that earlier had Wi‑Fi for spectators were somethrough the “integrated development and utilization of

stadiums used for professional sports teams some event

Wi‑Fi for spectators” as an innovation measure for thevenues and the New National Stadium which had plans

Tokyo 2020 Games and has set a policy to make it ato introduce Wi‑Fi for spectators in preparation for thelegacy after the Games as a significant infrastructure forGames

a tourism‑oriented nation

In the past Games the Organising Committee had noStarting with the briefing session for the related local

experience in providing Wi‑Fi for spectators and relied

governments in October 2017 we repeatedly asked toon mobile network operatorsʼ Wi‑Fi facility development

cooperate on “the development of Wi‑Fi for spectators

plans Regarding the Tokyo 2020 Games however theby each facility owner as a legacy” Most of the new

Organising Committee believed that Wi‑Fi for specta-

development of Wi‑Fi for spectators that followed those

tors in permanent facilities and locations needed beefforts were at venues related to the Tokyo Metropolitan

implemented and used as a legacy by the venue facility

Government (TMG) which was the target of measures

owners or mobile network operators so the Organisingbased on the Tokyo Data Highway basic strategy

Committee decided to take the initiative and encourage(August 2019 https://www digitalservice metro tokyo

their cooperation of those Because we knew that there

lg jp/tokyodatahighway/index html) (Table 3)

were high expectations for Japanʼs mobile communications environment domestically and internationally and32

the opportunities for its use in future events would beTokyo‑related Venues

increasing more and more

Table 3No

Wi‑Fi Installation Plans and Achievements at

Except for a few venues we began the full‑scale

List of Venues/Status of Wi‑Fi for Spectators before the Tokyo 2020 Games

Venue

Existing
facilities

Facilities newly
installed forNo
the Games

Venue

Facilities
Existing
newly installedfacilities
for the Games

1

Tokyo Stadium─Permanent

20

Olympic Stadium

Existing─

2Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium─

Permanent

21

Ibaraki Kashima Stadium

Existing─3

Ariake Gymnastics Centre─

Temporary

22

Sapporo DomeExisting─

4

Ariake Tennis Park─

Permanent
23
and temporary 24
Permanent
25
and temporary
26
Permanent
and temporary 27
28
Permanent

Saitama Stadium

Existing─

Makuhari Messe Hall A

Existing─

Makuhari Messe Hall B

Existing─

Makuhari Messe Hall C

Existing─Sapporo Odori Park

Existing─Enoshima Yacht Harbour

Existing─and temporary 29

Izu Velodrome

Existing─Permanent
30
and temporary31
Temporary32
Temporary33
Temporary34
Temporary35
Temporary36
Temporary
37
Permanent
38
and temporary
39
Permanent
and temporary 40

Miyagi Stadium

Existing─International Stadium Yokohama

Existing─Yokohama Baseball Stadium

Existing───

Nippon Budokan

Existing─

Kokugikan Arena──

Equestrian Park──

Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach──

Saitama Super Arena

─

─

5

Oi Hockey Stadium─6

Sea Forest Waterway─

7Tokyo Aquatics Centre─

8

Tatsumi Water Polo Centre─

9Musashinonomori Park

─10

Ariake Urban Sports Park─11

Odaiba Marine Park

─12

Shiokaze Park

─

13

Aomi Urban Sports Park─14

Sea Forest Cross‑Country Course─15

Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre─

16

Yumenoshima Park Archery Field─

17

Ariake Arena─

Permanent

18

Tokyo International Forum

Existing

19

Musashino Forest Sport Plaza─

Yoyogi National Stadium

Asaka Shooting Range──

Kasumigaseki Country Club

─

─

41

Izu MTB Course

─

─

─

42

Fuji International Speedway──Permanent
and temporary

43

Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium──Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020113

development studies in the fall of 2019 so the coopera-

Since the implementation in the Tokyo Stadium wastion of existing operators at each venue and telecom

decided approximately six months before RWC2019 wepartners in charge of telecommunications construction

did not have enough time to design and introduce thosework for the Games was essential to complete the

Wi‑Fi facilities for spectatorsdevelopment in less than one year before the Games

expansion contract with the existing Wi‑Fi facility

The Organising Committee agreed with TMG that theprovider for the construction work to overcome the time

Organising Committee would oversee procurement andrestriction Then we encountered issues such as slow

construction Since the Wi‑Fi installation works weredisplay and screen transitions of the captive portal

needed to be carried out at the same time as thescreen during the initial phase of operation but improved

construction of the overlay facilities at the venues due tosubsequently by dividing the VLAN of access points andlimited schedules those involved in managing the workrevising those of accommodations

had a tremendously hard time coordinating and cooper-

Stadium the Wi‑Fi service for spectators was provided

ating

at all RWC2019 matches from the opening match on

We designed that each Wi‑Fi access point would
cover approximately 100 seats and provide an Internet
connection environment of at least 1 Mbit/s at aSo

we adopted an

At the Tokyo

September 20 2019 to November 1 2019 and used bymore than 10 000 spectators during those matches
The National Stadium has one of the worldʼs highest

assuming thedensity Wi‑Fi environment with one access point per 70

throughput to enable video viewing In the case ofseats in the spectator area which was available from theinstalling temporary Wi‑Fi facilities

we considered

National Stadium opening event on December 21 2019

installing those Wi‑Fi access points on temporary fences

There is a total of 1 300 access points installed for theand prefabricated roofs so that to have as little impact as

whole area including the concourse and stores

simultaneous connection rate of 30%

possible on the permanent facilities (i eto avoid theneed for repairs after removing temporary ones)

4．Conclusion

After a one‑year postponement we proceeded withconstruction coordination to install the Wi‑Fi facility in

Under the policy of promoting the development of atime for the Tokyo 2020 Games held in 2021 However

mobile communication environment we could see added

deciding on the non‑spectator policy shortly before thecell phone communication facilities to all competition

Games the facility was eventually used only by a portion

venues and newly deployed Wi‑Fi for spectators atof the Olympic family and supporting athletes

major TMG‑owned venues Together with some ofAs permanent facilities a total of more than 1 000

those professional sports teams that already had Wi‑Fi

access points were installed at 11 of the 19 venues owned

for spectators we planned to provide a comfortable

by TMG (1‑19 in Table 3) and provided the public

mobile communications environment for many specta-

wireless LAN service “Tokyo Free Wi‑Fi” (https://

tors However it is regrettable that I cannot describe

www wifi‑tokyo jp/en/) and other services

the actual performance of these facilities here because it
was seldom used in practice due to the policy of a non‑

33

Usage of the Newly Installed and Expanded Wi‑
Fi before the Games

spectator for the GamesIn the meanwhile we can regard it as an achievement

Of the stadiums that were installed Wi‑Fi forof the Tokyo 2020 Games that we enhanced legacy

spectators in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Gamesfacilities to a certain level and demonstrated anonly the Tokyo Stadium and the National Stadium had

advanced project model in which companies normally

actual usage records before the Games

compete cooperated for the improvement of legacy

The Tokyo Stadium was the main venue for the 2019facilities as MOOG

Rugby World Cup (RWC2019) and the competition

In the area of Wi‑Fi while promoting the develop-

venue for the Tokyo 2020 Games so the stadium had

ment of Wi‑Fi for spectators I should also note that the

begun preparing for Wi‑Fi in time for the RWC2019

Organising Committee had to work in the opposite

ahead of the activities described in 3 2 The Organising

direction of expansion and installation

Committee was in charge of managing the construction

shutting down existing Wi‑Fi access points temporarilyof the Wi‑Fi facilities at this Tokyo Stadium as well sincein the venue or changing their frequencies to avoid

the main target was to use it at the Tokyo 2020 Games

channel interference with Wi‑Fi for competition meas-

114

That wasTHE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

urement or the Games management by the stakeholders

some activities by the Organising Committee to protect

in those stadiums

the Wi‑Fi frequencies used by the Games like monitor-

Although the positions and usages of Wi‑Fi communi-

ing and stopping unauthorized use

cations would be changing with the arrival of the 5G era
it will take a reasonable amount of time for replacedcompletely with 5G because there is assumed to remaina specific demand for offloading mobile data communications We believe that these efforts in preparation for the
Tokyo 2020 Games are part of the foundation that will
support a turning point in the mobile communications
environment in Japan
We expect that new next‑generation technologies will
spreadtothetelecommunications

infrastructure

through these world‑class events in the future Whencollaborative efforts among mobile network operators
through a framework such as MOOG can accelerate thedevelopment of such technologies and lead to further
enhancement of the mobile communications environment in Japan I believe this can be called as one of the“legacies” of the Tokyo 2020 Games
Please refer to 2‑12 of these special issue for more

(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 15 2022)

KUROMIYA Takayuki
Mr Kuromiya received his M S in Information Science and Technology from Tohoku
University in 1998 and joined Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation (NTT) in the same
year Since then he has been engaged mainly in
the implementation and operation of a dedicated global network for manufacturing enterprises In January 2015 he was seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Director of Telecom Business Promotion
Technology Services Bureau
SAITO Wataru
Mr Saito graduated from the Graduate
School of Engineering The University of Tokyo(M S 1993) and the Graduate School ofBusiness Carnegie Mellon University (MBA2001) He has been seconded by NTT to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2018as the Director of ICT solutions Department
Technology Services Bureau (Executive Officer Sogo Security Services Co Ltd )information on the policies for the use of the 2 4 GHz and
5 GHz bands for Wi‑Fi use during the Games as well as㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

115

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑1

Summary of Information System and DigitalMedia for the Tokyo 2020 GamesUSUI Akihisa

This article reviews the overall management of information systems and digital media for the Olympic and Paralympic
Games Tokyo 2020 In particular the article shares the successes and reflections of the project focusing on the
management and governance considerations architecture and development system that are necessary when building
information systems for large‑scale events
Keywords：Information system IT governance Enterprise architecture In‑house development DX promotion

1．Introduction
The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) for the
first time in 57 years which were postponed by one year
due to the impact of the COVID‑19 that spread

2．Overview and Governance of Information
Systems
21

Overview of Information Systems Supporting
Games Preparation and Operation

Information systems can be broadly classified into thewere held

following three categories as shown in Figure 1 :without spectators but ended successfully without any

Olympic Diffusion System (ODS) which distributes

major operational disruptions As a member of thecompetition results and measurement results ; Olympic

Information Systems Department of the Bureau ofManagement System (OMS) which supports businessTechnology Services I gained valuable experience in all

operations common to each event with relatively few

phases of the Games from conception and planning torequirements unique to the host city which supports thedevelopment construction testing operation mainte-

management and operation of the Games ; Functional

nance and support This article reviews information

Area Applications (FA apps) which need to be built

systems and digital media among the various technology

from scratch by the host city to meet the uniqueservices provided in preparation for and during therequirements of the 52 functional organizations that will

conference

manage the Games or the functional areas of theworldwide from the beginning of 2020

organising committees that will be in charge of theseorganizations
Digital media for spectators included the official
website mobile applications dedicated websites forticket sales and official goods sales and e‑mail magazines Tokyo 2020 Games ID and Customer Relationship
USUI AKIHISATechnology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 116‑123 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

116

Management (CRM) were introduced and operated as
the user management platform to support these services
for spectators
Excluding the ODS/OMS mentioned above the total

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

Overall Birdʼs‑eye View of Information Systems（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

Table 1

Breakdown of Business Applications

No

Classification

NumberRemarks

1

BPO destination system

9

Ticket management
operations

2

Individual IT service contracts

8

Access control transportation service for related parties electronic medical record
system etc Individual IT service contracts

3

Use of SaaS7

HR (human resources
education portal etc

4

Extranet development

4

Information sharing sites with the Olympic and Paralympic committees of each country
news media etc There were about 120 small‑scale Web sites developed by non‑code
development

5

System development using PaaS

23

Systems developed by low‑code development such as immigration control torch relay
management lost property management and the COVID‑19 countermeasures

6

Outsourced system development

15

Financial accounting contract management official web/smartphone apps for games
etc

Total

66

warehouse management

etc

Systems used in outsourced

travel expense reimbursement

attendance management)

number of business applications deployed at the Tokyoand the total number of systems is 120 Therefore the2020 Games was 66 as shown in Table 1 The total

total number of systems can be considered one of thenumber of business applications in the past Games waslargest everapproximately 60 for the London 2012 Games 80 for the

As for individual topics as reported by the Interna-

Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games and 50 for the Pyeongchangtional Testing Agency (ITA) an independent interna-

2018 Winter Games which were held on a relatively

tional anti‑doping testing organization (1) a paperless

small scale Since the organizational design and businessdoping test record management system using tablet

services for the operation of the Games do not differ

terminals was introduced for the first time at thegreatly from one Games to anotherthe lineup of

Olympic Games As expectations for business innovation

applications is almost the same Although the number isthrough DX increase there is still ample potential for thesmaller than that of Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games theapplication of IT in new areas and for its use in future

extranet development shown in the fourth row of TableGames

1 utilizes a non‑programming development platform
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

117

22
221

Role and Governance of the Technology Serv-

control In particular in IT service procurement fromices Bureau

overseas service providers

although Service Level

Establishment of System Procurement Guide-

Agreements (SLAs) were defined there were somelines

difficulties regarding the availability and promptness of

The Technology Services Bureau was literally in-user acceptance testing before release and failure

volved in the provision of all IT‑related services for the

response after release due to differences in the way ofTokyo 2020 GamesIts responsibilities include thethinking about system quality Even if a Japanese vendor

development of venue networks delivery of IT equip-

can cover a case as an implicit expectation even if it isment implementation of cyber security measures andnot specified in the procurement specifications it is not

implementation of information systems As a matter ofpossible to expect the same from an overseas vendor

fact there were various implementation patterns inThis is not simply an argument of which is better or

addition to the services supplied by the Technology

worse It should be noted again that the high‑quality

Services Bureau as the lead agency As shown in Tableawareness in Japan which is sometimes derided as

1 there are cases where a system of a reasonable scale isexcessive quality should not be expected globally as it

used in a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) contract

is and policies and rules should be firmly discussed

in which the business department outsources thebefore the contract is signed and at the project planningbusiness itself to an external party and there are also

stage

cases where a direct contract is made with an external
IT service vendor In light of this situation a scheme

222

Establishment of IT Solution Selection Criteria

was introduced at the end of 2017 to conduct reviews by

Except for ODS/OMS business applications are notspecialists from each department of the Technology

supplied by the IOCʼs worldwide partners and must be

Services Bureau from the procurement phase This isdeveloped independently by the host city for eachmainly an evaluation from the perspectives of cyberGames For the Tokyo 2020 Games full‑scale considera-

security system quality and project management The

tion of system planning began after the 2016 Games inreviews were conducted at three points in the system

Rio de Janeiro Based on a list of all the applications

lifecycle : when requirements were finalized when theactually developed for the past Games we discussed thesystem design was completed and before the system

necessity of each system operation of FA and optimized

was released Excluding the pre‑review about 200

the budget while weighting the system scales The

reviews were conducted for the final decision before theOlympic and Paralympic Games are transient events

system releaseand systems are often used for only two months before

The human resources of the organising committee are

and after the Games Therefore the challenge is how tolimited and there is no department appointed to perform

select the most cost‑effective and optimal solution The

quality control and quality assurance Therefore thecriteria shown in Figure 2 were developed to promote

best‑effort approach was taken by specialists from eachrational system selection The concept is to use existing

department of the Technology Services Bureau Fortu-

systems as much as possible without creating new ones

nately there have been no incidents that have had abecause of the transient nature of the event

significant impact on operations due to inadequate IT
services or cybersecurity issues from 2018 to the Games

3．Introduction of Information Systemtime of 2021 In particular for procurement by businessFAs who do not have specialized IT skills we believe

31

that we made a significant contribution to governance

The Organising Committee which was created in

Implementation Schedule

including pointing out items that should be included in2014 as a corporate entity with a limited term isthe procurement specifications and evaluating thescheduled to be dissolved in the middle of 2022 after aappropriateness of the prices On the other hand in thelifespan of about eight years Although it started with acase of the system used at the BPO site there were

small staff of a few dozen people the number of staff

issues such as insufficient disclosure of specifications

members reached 8 000 during the Games time and thefrom the vendor and gaps in interpretation of require-staff size increased at an accelerated rate each year In

ments because the system itself was not procured

April 2015 the number of staff members exceeded 300

One more point should be added in terms of quality
118

and the introduction of IT services to improve operation-

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

IT Solution Selection Criteria

al efficiency became inevitable In early 2016 each

32

operational department was drastically increased asshown in Figure 3 the introduction of systems forhuman resource management

financial accounting

contract management etc became necessary first andExamination and Implementation of System andBusiness Architecture

321

Introduction of Common System Infrastructure
Services

Although the Information System Division built

foremost At the time cloud computing was beginningvarious systems from scratch

to emerge in the so‑called mission‑critical systems but

strategically study the architecture that would serve as

there were few options The system was built on‑

the foundation of the system to avoid future bankrupts

premise at a data center contracted by the organising

before implementing and mass‑producing the systemcommittee because the system was used for a longFirst a cloud‑based e‑mail service was provided as aperiod of time until the dissolution of the organization

comprehensive IT service for the staff as well as a fileand because the system architecture for the convention

server for managing various electronic data Then we

required the implementation of individual measuresproceeded with the introduction of the infrastructure

especially in terms of security

functions that support the various IT services As a

it was essential to

From the latter half of 2018 onward the main task wascommon infrastructure for these systems user authenti-

the implementation of business applications Some of thecation and data linkage functions between systems werebusiness applications such as torch relay management

introduced

and rate card management (catalog sales of goods andAs shown in Figure 4

the services for GamesIT services to convention officials for a fee) were usedstakeholders were provided in a hybrid architecture that

before the actual convention but most of them werecombines on‑premise virtual servers and public cloudbasically limited to use for a few months during thecomputing (For details please refer to 3‑2 of thisconvention For this reason system development was

special issue )concentrated one year before the conference
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

119Figure 3

Figure 4322

Outline Schedule for System Implementation

Overview Diagram Centered on the System Common Infrastructure

Business Architecture Designbusiness requirements from scratch for managing the

The core systems led by the financial accounting

FA operations that provide services to the people

system did not have strong requirements specific to theinvolved in the Games (humans) such as arrivals &Olympic and Paralympic Games and could be covered bydepartures

existing IT solutions such as the application of packaged

athletesʼ village Also we were in a state of complete

software (COTS)

exploration regarding the operational requirements fortransportationaccommodationand themanaging the many items (goods) required before andOn the other hand in 2016 we needed to analyze the120

during the Games including the technology equipment

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

as well as the large amount of sports equipment (fromspecial issue )tennis balls to beach volleyball sand) used for competition The management of “goods” for the Olympic and

33

Paralympic Games was called “event logistics” and had
special requirementsofOlympic

Diffusion

System(ODS) Olympic Management System (OMS)

All FAs have an operations

manual that defines their responsibilities along with theIntroduction

and Face Recognition Technology
331

Olympic Diffusion System (ODS)

knowledge inherited from the past Games but although

The ODS is continuously provided by the IOCʼsit describes what to do (what) there is no follow‑up on

worldwide partners across multiple Olympic Games andhow to do it (how) Furthermore there is no document

operates closest to competition operations among thethat describes the comprehensive business flow across

many information systems

multiple FAs and the boundaries of responsibilities

Analysis (BIA) of the Technology Services Bureau

among them Therefore in September 2016 immedi-

evaluates system failures that could disrupt competitions

ately after the Rio de Janeiro 2016 we launched a project

during the Games as having the greatest impact Of all

The Business Impact

to study Enterprise Architecture (EA) and analyzed

the systems ODS is the one with the highest criticality

mainly business architecture (BA : Business Architec-

In fact the day‑to‑day operation of the ODS wasture) (For details see this special issue 3‑3 )rigorously conducted by deploying a system to check the

The departmental design of the Organising Commit-

accuracy of the competition results information distrib-

tee consists of 52 FAs in a so‑called functional

uted in real time from 140 servers deployed at eachorganization Although each organization started upcompetition site (For details please refer to 3‑6 and 3‑7

quicklyof this special issue )there were many scenes in which cross‑organizational discussions stalled This BA study projectis one of the roles expected of the Information System

332

Olympic Management System (OMS)

which has relationships with all business

The OMS provides distribution of competition results

divisions although it is a temporary matrix organization

management of volunteers management of athletes

Division

The cooperation of the various FAs helped to realize theincluding competition schedules

motto of the Organising Committee “One Team” andservices Accreditation is a photo identification card

and accreditation

this project increased the momentum of the field toward

issued to Games stakeholders and centrally manages thethe success of the convention

authority for all services including detailed control of
the areas where athletes can enter and exit each venue

323

Development System for Introduction of Busi-

the availability of food and beverage services in theness Applications

athletesʼ village dining rooms and the service grades of

The core system described above was developed

bus and fleet transportation services OMS is also ausing the waterfall method On the other hand the othersystem provided by the IOCʼs worldwide partners acrossbusiness applications although small in scale required

multiple Games and is a set of systems that implement

the simultaneous development of many systems Be-

the specific business requirements of the Games For thecause it is inefficient to procure each system individuallyTokyo 2020 Games OMS has also been enhanced forin the past Games a system platform was selected in

web accessibility (For details see 3‑6 and 3‑7 in thisadvance and systems were mass‑produced on that basis

special issue )The London 2012 Games were based on a website
development package and the Rio de Janeiro 2016
Games used scratch development based on a certain
development framework both of which were on‑premise environments

For Tokyo 2020 Gamesa PaaS

333

Face Recognition Technology and Congestion
Detection System

The Tokyo 2020 Games introduced an access control
system based on face recognition at all competition

platform that enables low‑code development wasvenues including the athletesʼ village and the Interna-

selected for small‑and medium‑scale business applica-

tional Broadcasting Centre This control system whichtions The platform was called “Software Factory” andutilizes an IC chip embedded in the accreditation card

application development was carried out while maintain-

has contributed greatly to the efficiency of entrance

ing a system that included IT engineers under quasi‑

checks at each venue and the strictness of identity

contractual agreements (For details see 3‑4 of thisauthentication

In addition

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

a congestion detection
121system installed in the main dining hall of the Athletesʼ

contributing significantly to ticket sales and information

Village showed the congestion status to the athletes

distribution during the Games (For details please referencouraging them to avoid the three‑density areas andto 3‑10 of this special issue )contributing to the thorough prevention of infection(For details see 3‑7 and 3‑8 of this special issue )4．Digital Media
41

5．Difficulty in Transferring Knowledge to
the Next Convention
ODS/OMS are used continuously at multiple Games

Official Website and Mobile Apps

and are provided to the next convention after repeated

The Tokyo 2020 Games official website and mobile

improvements On the other hand how to efficiently

application (hereinafter referred to as GTWA : Gamestransfer the knowledge of business applications devel-

Time Website and Mobile application) which distrib-

oped for each event to future events has become an

uted various information on the Olympic and Paralympic

important issue in terms of reducing the cost burden on

Games to the entire world successfully completed its

the next host city In fact we were handed over with theservices without any system problems caused bydocumentations from the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games but

cyberattacks

While people around the world were

unfortunately this did not lead to significant cost savings

forced to live with severe restrictions due to the COVID‑

because the deliverables were too fragmented to rebuild

19 pandemic the distribution of information on thethe system As a result the most effective way was toGames through digital media attracted a great deal oftransfer the knowledge of the former staff members

attention and recorded the largest number of uniquebrought in from Rio de Janeiro through human resource

users in the history of the Games According to a reporttransfer Knowledge transfer to the next Games in Paris

from a content delivery network operator (2) the

2024 was done through the provision of documents via

streaming playback time via the Internet was more thanextranet

double that of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games In the past

viewpoint of cost efficiency in Tokyo the development

Games GTWA was established and operated for eachdocuments were kept to a minimum and written ingame but from the Tokyo 2020 Games the scheme wasJapanese which in my personal evaluation was not anchanged to one in which IT services are provided acrossefficient knowledge transfer Knowledge transfer acrossmultiple Games

countries from the past Games was also at the same

similar to the ODS/OMS scheme

QA

and meetings

Howeverfrom theDigital media will be positioned as an important medium

level

for future Gamesand advanced services will besomething that works only during the period of theprovided in line with the progress of IT technology in theorganising committeeʼs activities at minimal cost was aworld (For details please refer to 3‑9 of this special

factor in the first placeissue )and the requirement to build and operate

In general a large volume of deliverables delivered

GTWA was built through agile development using

under a traditional lump‑sum contract enables vendor

Scrum Although it was a difficult project to manage

replacement at the time of system renewal or transition

involving several overseas service providers no major

However due to the recent changes in system develop-

problems in progress or quality occurred and stable

ment methods knowledge about systems is becoming

services were provided thanks to the teamwork fostered

more and more proprietary In fact in the quality

across organizations and companies

evaluation results of a service provider involved in aconvention that promoted agile development there was

42

Tokyo 2020 Games ID

CRM

and Service

Linkagean example in which Talent Retention Plan was cited as
an issue

The purpose of CRM is to maintain relationships with

In such a changing environment the IOC in an

people around the world who have expressed interest in

attempt to transfer and pass on knowledge has left

the Tokyo 2020 GamesThe Tokyo Games werebehind video images of key persons involved in theoperated in a grand scope integrating CRM services

Games who answer questions in an interview format

that had been operated by the IOC for some time As aand opened them to the Organising Committee for future

result 8 2 million users registered almost twice asGames In the COVID‑19 pandemic we the staff of themany as at the London 2012 Games the largest everorganising committee had to work at home as well as122

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the companies but the recording of online meetings andhad proceeded only after the business requirements

the provision of user manuals in the form of video images

were completely determined delivery would not haveworked very efficiently Furthermore with the rise of

been possible even in time for the closing ceremony of

non‑code and low‑code platforms the need for knowl-

the Paralympic Games (For details please refer to 3‑5edge of manufacturing processes is shrinking In theof this special issue )future it is expected that a new standard for knowledge

Based on this experience we believe that a scheme oftransfer will be formed in sync with the evolution of ICT

in‑house production by in‑house engineers on a low‑and system platforms and the promotion of DX

code platform called “PaaS” is fully feasible

The

presence of engineers who are less restricted in theirscope of activities by contract and who can discuss and6．Conclusion

co‑create new value with business departments on an

In the Japanese IT industry the pros and cons of theequal footing is necessary to accelerate DX by each“vendor‑dependency” structure are often discussed

company itself Furthermore whether they are in‑

The business application development project describedhouse engineers or external resources under a quasi‑

above was promoted under a scheme similar to in‑house

contractual agreement IT departments need to contin-

development in which external resources secured under

ue to produce results in order to maintain them over thea quasi‑contract on a long‑term basis collaborated withlong term In the Tokyo 2020 Games the Technology

in‑house IT staff

Services Bureau which has a so‑called Information

This scheme

called “software

factory” has been used in the past Games to mass‑

Systems Department

continued to emphasize theproduce relatively small‑scale systems (average man‑importance of IT within the organization and may havemonths per system : about 6 man‑months) This scheme

contributed in no small way to overcoming the final

was born out of necessity as the development of thechallenge of the spread of the COVID‑19

system had to be started at a stage when the business

Finally I personally hope that the importance of IT

requirements were not yet clear and a lump‑sum

will be increasingly recognized as companies promote

contract was not suitable In fact all the members who

DX and that the treatment of IT personnel in Japan will

participated in the project worked in the same environ-improve and that the mobility of human resources will

ment and with the same ambitions as our staff members

also increase

I would like to express my great appreciation to themonce again
Here is an example

References

In a normal competition(

personnel are shifted to the competition site as the event
approaches and the system operation and maintenancesystem is re‑established This is to concentrate on
training for the operation and maintenance of theservices that have been established so far

and toprepare for the actual operation of the competition The
development of a system to support the operations of theTokyo Games however was an urgent task as thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) countermeasures
were to be added to the normal Games operations The()

International Testing Agency (ITA), Tokyo 2020 : ITA succeeded infully implementing anti-doping program for Olympic Games despite
challenging COVID-19 circumstances, Sep. 2008. (1) International
Testing Agency (ITA), Tokyo 2020 : ITA succeeded in fully
implementing anti-doping program for Olympic Games despite
challenging COVID-19 circumstances, Sept. 13, 2021.
https://ita.sport/news/tokyo-2020-ita-succeeded-in-fully-implement
ing-anti-doping-program-for-olympic-games-despite-challenging-covid19-circumstances/) C. Sakakeeny, Tokyo streaming traffic runs rings around Rio, Aug. 16,2021.
https://www.akamai.com/blog/performance/tokyo-streaming-trafficruns-rings-around-rio(Received Feb 9 2022 ; Revised Feb 28 2022)

Games Delivery Office which serves as the businessdivision led the cycle of formulating business rules andorganizing them into systemization requirements on a
weekly basis As a result the delivery of the system wascompleted without major delays toward the entry
schedule of the parties involved We believe that wewere able to achieve this because of the maturity of the
Software Factory scheme that was launched at the
beginning of 2018 If the design and development phases

USUI Akihisa
Akihisa Usui graduated from Kumamoto
University with a bachelorʼs degree in engineering in 1995 and was transferred to theTechnology Service Bureau from Fujitsu Limited in 2015‑03 Since then he has been
engaged in governance formulation planning
development and operation of information
systems in general Prior to the Games time hewas the Director of Information Systems
Department

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

123

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑2

System Platform for the Tokyo 2020 GamesKAWASE Takeshi

OGURA Mikio

The System Platform considered “naturally in operation” was built and operated under the pressure of “absolutely
unstoppable” even at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 For the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo
2020 we made maximum use of cloud services built a private cloud that clears the high system requirements unique to the
Olympic and Paralympic Games implemented a common platform that connects to the cloud and operated the Games in a
hybrid cloud environment The System Platform for cyber security was also thoroughly implemented and zero incidents
affecting the operation of the Games were recorded This article reviews the System Platform of the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020 and discusses its prospects
Keywords：System platform Private cloud Common platform design Platform security

1．Introduction

2．Overview of the System Platform

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

The information system was built for the Olympic and(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020”) were post-

Paralympic Games operation by establishing a Primary

poned for one year for the first time in history due to the

Data Centre (hereinafter the PDC) and a Secondary

spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) ended

Data Centre (hereinafter the SDC) for disaster meas-

successfully with the Information System of the games

ures in the host city for each Games In addition a Venue

operating smoothly without any interruption during theData Centre (hereinafter the “VDC”) and an On Venue

entire duration of the Tokyo 2020 Games The System

Result (hereinafter the “OVR”) were installed at each

Platform which consists of servers and storage thatcompetition venue to deploy systems for the Gamesʼ

operates the information system also contributed to themeasurement and distribution The competition was

success of the Games by achieving stable operation

operated under a design that allows operations towithout a single incident affecting the gamesʼ operation

continue even in the unlikely event of network problems

This article reviews the challenges and solutions to thebetween venues

System Platform specific to the Tokyo 2020 Games anddiscusses the legacy of the GamesThe System Platform for past Olympic and Paralympic Games was on‑premise until the Rio 2016 Games
which was changed to a cloud environment owned by aglobal partner from Pyeongchang 2018 Games (Figure
1)

KAWASE Takeshi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesE‑mail kawase takeshi@fujitsu com
OGURA Mikio
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesE‑mail ogu@fujitsu com

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 124‑131 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

124

The cloud environment runs the “Games Information
System and Games Management System”
Suite” “Integrated Data Platform” etc“Officeand provides

functions to each venue via the PDC/SDC
The Tokyo 2020 Games while following the basic
layout of the System Platform of previous Olympic andParalympic Games accelerated the shift to the cloud and

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1 Overall View of the System Platform
The System Platform consists of the main Primary Data Centre Secondary Data Centre
for disaster measures Venue Data Centre and On Venue Result for each stadium and a hybrid cloud system using external clouds （©2021‑
International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

established a System Platform based on the following

often happens to organizations that are being built

two basic policies

in a short period server virtualization capabilities
are needed that can provide server resources in･Basic Policy ① :an on‑premise environment promptly when

Public cloud computing and existing systems ofpartners and suppliers should be used to the possible

required()

Performance and stability are required based

extent in the construction and operation of short‑termon the assumption that hundreds of thousands ofuse systems

users will be accessing the system intensively in ashort period immediately before and during the･Basic Policy ② :Olympic and Paralympic Games In other words

Functions that cannot be handled by the existinga cloud environment that can withstand highsystem and mechanisms for inter‑system linkage should
be built independently in a private cloud environment

loads is required()

Because mission‑critical systems must be
operated such that they can never shut down

Based on the above policies

the Olympic andduring the short Games period reliability andParalympic Gamesʼ system was operated in a “Hybrid

redundancy are required to ensure that opera-

Cloud Environment” that maximizes operational flexibil-tions can continue even in the event of a data

ity and cost advantages The authors believe this Systemcentre disaster or serious problems

Platform utilized the most cloud technology compared toprevious Olympic and Paralympic Games contributing

Building the system using cloud services such as IaaS

to flexible application development/operation and ais recommended to meet the above requirements

back‑office automation environment

However servers must be installed on‑premise at eachcompetition venue to meet the requirements of millisec-3．Requirements for the System Platform
31

Scalability and Reliability

The following three points can be cited as characteristics of the Information System for the Olympic andParalympic Games

ond response time for competition measurement andimmediate distribution of results It was also necessary
to set up a PDC/SDC to consolidate these servers andconnect them to each cloud thereby establishing a
System Platform
Therefore it was essential to build a private cloud as
the System Platform for the Tokyo 2020 Games that()

In a situation where business requirements

satisfies the following requirements

take longer than expected to be finalized which
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

125

①

Have a server virtualization function that can
provide a server promptly when needed②

technology systems and creating a common platform In
addition since many business applications were pro-

Provide an environment that ensures reliability

vided agilely using the public cloud environment it wasby ensuring hardware and virtual server redun-necessary to design a hub function to connect the on‑

dancy

premise and cloud environments③

Has expandability and ease of expansion for theincrease in the number of resources and data for the33

duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games andCyber security measures have been an issue that has

reduces costs by improving the efficiency of

attracted worldwide attention at the Tokyo 2020 Games

infrastructure construction and operation

as cyber security attacks have caused security incidents④

Continues the Olympic and Paralympic Games
operations even during a disaster

Thorough Security Measuresthat have affected the operation of the Olympic andParalympic Games in the past
Therefore to prevent security incidents from occur-

32

Standardization and Platformization of Common

ring at the Tokyo 2020 Games it was essential toFunctionsestablish a highly robust System Platform and we

The Information System for the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be constructed as an international

focused on comprehensiveness when considering security measuresmulti‑vendor system including the core system for

A hybrid architecture was adopted for the Common

Olympic Games and Paralympic Games operations

Platform of Security Functions which included not only

provided by the global partners Although 66 businessthe cloud environment of global partners but also major

applications were finally introduced at the Tokyo 2020

cloud services used in the back‑office environment

Games each business department and partner company
studied the system individually giving rise to concerns

4．System Platform Designthat the system development project would become
isolated and siloed resulting in insufficient data integra-

41

Physical Design of the Private Cloud Environmenttion between systems and unnecessarily high costs
Therefore Tokyo 2020 designed an enterprise archi-

For easy construction of a private cloud environment

tecture based on a rough analysis of business require-that meets the requirements described in 3 1

ments in the initial study phase standardizing data andvertically integrated virtualization and cloud computing

Figure 2 PRIMEFLEX for Cloud(©2021‑Fujitsu Limited)

126

Vertically integrated virtualized cloud platform

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSasystem “FUJITSU Integrated System PRIMEFLEX for

Platform targeted the ① Authentication Platform which

Cloud (PRIMEFLEX)” which employs globally provenis required for each application

virtualization technology and can be expanded as

Platform which is required for coordination among

needed was adopted as the PDC PRIMEFLEX is aapplications② Data Linkage

and ③ Integrated Database Platformvertically integrated virtualization and cloud computing

which consolidates the information of each application

platform that can be expanded as needed (Figure 2)

To integrate with on‑premise systems we built ① and

The introduction of PRIMEFLEX enabled the configu-② on a private cloud and ③ on a public cloud (Figure 3)

ration of a system with high mutual compatibility byunifying OS types

versions

security levels

andcentralized monitoring of hardware failures and re-①

Authentication Platform

The

Authentication

Platform

was

implemented

source thresholds to centralize operation and manage-

through a hybrid cloud environment providing authenti-

ment

By enabling the flexible provision of virtual

cation functions for Single Sign‑on (SSO) and Multi‑

servers following the timing of business application

factor Authentication for staff and stakeholder businessintroduction and gradually expanding the resource poolsystems

toward the production of the Games period the scale of･

the private cloud was kept to the minimum necessary to
reduce introduction costs and minimize maintenance andSingle Sign‑on Function :Provides SSO authentication for each application using
SAML Open ID Connect and proxy authentication

operation costs to establish the System Platform This･

has also enabled the company to establish a System

In addition to integrated Windows authentication andPlatform with minimal maintenance and operation costs

ID/password authentication we provide multi‑factor

In addition to prepare for the risk of data centre

authentication functions such as one‑time passwords tocollapse or system shutdown in the event of a disaster aMulti‑factor Authentication Function :strengthen the security of each application

sub‑site SDC was set up so that it could be switchedover in the incident of a disaster The System Platform
environment was designed to be at its minimum and wasconstructed and operated cost‑effectively②

Data Linkage Platform

Provided a platform for real‑time data integration andbatch data integration between various environments(PDC/SDC systems provided by Games partners and

42

Design of Common Functions of System Plat-

cloud services)･form
The design of common functions of the System

High‑speed Data Linkage Function :Provided data (CSV XML etc ) linkage function

Figure 3 Design of Common Functions
The systemʼs authentication function data linkage
function and integrated database function are commonizedSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

127

Figure 4 Multi‑layer Security Defense Mechanism for Security Measures of Private Cloud
Functions for security measures are
deployed comprehensively to identify prevent detect respond to and recover from attacks to ensure robustness

between systems including external systems via cloud431

computing and the Internet･

Detecting the Occurrence of Vulnerabilities
and Immediate Application of Countermeas-

Data Processing Functions :ures

Provided data processing functions such as format

To eliminate vulnerabilities the existence or nonexis-

conversion merging filtering and fixed value setting

tence of vulnerabilities was validated every month in theare provided for data linkage

operation system

The System Platform requires amechanism to quickly and without omission apply③

Integrated Database Platform

measures for detected vulnerabilities to all businessInformation commonly required by each application

applications on all virtual servers and “BladeLogic”

such as persons involved in the Tokyo 2020 Games waswhich automates patch application and provisioning

aggregated and compiled into a database which could be

was introduced to achieve operation with a unified

used with the API

security level

By providing common functions we could reduce the432development period for each application and significantly
contribute to the reduction of development costs
In addition the centralized management of accounts
and other information made management and operation
more efficient

Establishment of the Multi‑layered Defense
Mechanism

To protect against cyber‑attacks a comprehensive
multi‑layered defense mechanism was established bydeploying various solutions

facilitated tracking in the event of

In addition to protection from attacks operations

security incidents and enabled the smooth operation ofwere established to detect and immediately respond to

the Games system

suspicious behavior

43

Design of Security Measures

433

Network‑level Communication Control

The main policy of the security measures that wereServers were defined to be installed in four zones

comprehensively implemented is described below (Fig-according to their purpose (Table 1) All communica-

ure 4)

tions between servers in different segments were
controlled by a firewall in the form of a whitelist
In addition all operations on the servers must be

128

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1
Zone

Zone Division and Definition

Table 2

Zone Definition

DMZ

External zone that is open to the Internet
Zone that requires an external connection to the

Edge

Internet

TrustedDefault trusted zone

SecureMost secure and isolated zone

Configuration of System Platform during the Games
PeriodCompetition venue（VDC・OVR）

Data centre（PDC・SDC）
・Number of installed servers : 35
・Number of virtual servers : 220
・Storage capacity : 490 TByte

512

・Number of installed servers : 140

Thorough Operational Training

We conducted a series of operational drills to verify
performed via a jump server and remote desktop

the operation of the System Platform in the actual

connections to the jump server

It should require

operation of the Games through test events and to deal

multifactor authentication using an authentication appli-

with simulated incidents through Technology Rehearsal

cation in addition to IDs and passwords

and Table Top Exercise to familiarize ourselves with

Security measures at the network level prevent thesystem monitoring and operation In addition several

intrusion of malicious programs and enhance robustness

Disaster Recovery Rehearsals were conducted toto minimize damage in the event of an intrusion into therecover from system downtime due to PDC damage orinternal network

cyber incidents An operational system was establishedand operations were mastered so that operations could

434

Built the Backup and Restore Environment

To ensure smooth restoration in the event of a cyberbe immediately restored even in the event of a large‑
scale failure

incident that compromised the system environment wehave installed “Arcserve UDP” which backup criticalsystems daily and restore them to their pre‑attack state

52

Achievements during the Olympic and Paralympic GamesThe System Platform environment was designed to

The System Platform built for the Tokyo 2020 Games

ensure the continuity of Games operations by enabling

was expanded to the following configuration during thereliable and rapid recovery from cyber attacks

Games (Table 2)
In Rio 2016 Games 138 Physical Servers and 258

5．Operation Result at the Tokyo 2020 Games
51

Improvement of Operational Maturity

Based on the design of the System Platform describedin 4 above a security countermeasure mechanism was

Virtual Servers were operating at the PDC and SDC In
Tokyo 2020 the number of servers and storage spacebuilt exclusively for the Games was significantly reducedby shifting to the cloud
Regarding the common functions of the Systemconstructed and thorough audit tests and operational

Platform business applications were operated between

training were conducted to improve the security level of

12 authentication platforms and 8 data linkage platforms

the System Platform before the Games time

The integrated database platform was widely used forbusiness applications for the Games officials such as

511

Thorough Auditing/Testing

Tokyo 2020 ICON a support system for infectious

Security reviews by security specialists during systemdisease control operations The rapid provision of theinstallation penetration tests and security assessments

server environment through the private cloud and theby multiple external organizations were conducted to

streamlined application development through the com-raise the security level and attack defense exercises by

mon function design of the System Platform reduced thewhite‑hat hackers were conducted to close vulnerability

delivery period of the business applications from two toholes

six months and reduced the cost

In addition we conducted periodic inventory and

In addition

62 incidents related to the System

audits of accounts with administrative privileges andPlatform were issued during the Games period but nomaintained an environment in which privileged accounts

incidents affected the Gamesʼ operations Implementing

were kept to the minimum necessary to prevent

multi‑layered security measures thorough audits andunnecessary accounts from being misused

strengthening the System Platform through operational

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

129Figure 5

System Platform Using Common Cloud Platform for Each Olympic and Paralympic Games

training contributed to the stable operation of the Games

allow each country to use the System Platform thatsystemmeets the requirements of the Olympic and Paralympic

The server security network and application teams

Games simply by setting up a network base that serves

worked in unison to set up the platform and the one‑as a hub for relaying between each venue or base and theteam monitoring and operation prevented threats before

cloud and by having a dedicated line to the common

they occurred

cloud platform (Figure 5)
On the other hand in considering the reliability and6．Future Prospects

redundancy of the System Platform attention must be
focused on cyber security trends that have become

The stable operation of the platform including theincreasingly severe in recent years as well as operation-

System Platform and communication networks intro-

al problems that frequently occur at large‑scale cloud

duced in this report is considered to have primarily

service providers Specifically instead of “same architec-

contributed to the significantly fewer critical incidents

ture different location” redundancy that mainly assumes

that occurred during the Games time compared tophysical disasters at data centres “different architec-

previous Olympic and Paralympic Games The effective-

ture different location” redundancy that also assumes

ness of the hybrid cloud/multi‑cloud System Platform

contamination of the system environment by severe

was confirmed at the Tokyo 2020 Games and it iscyber‑attacks should be considered This may minimize

expected that the optimal combination of those will be

the business impact caused by cyber‑attacks andconsidered for future Olympic and Paralympic Games

problems in the external business environment

To meet high response requirements and to ensure

We want to take this opportunity to thank ourcontingency in the incident of network problems it will

partners and suppliers who have contributed to thebe necessary to install servers at local venues forconstruction and operation of a stable System Platform

Olympic and Paralympic Games operations However

throughout the Tokyo 2020 Gamesbecause of the high level of requirements specific to the
Olympic and Paralympic Games it would be a heavy
burden for the organising committees of each host citywhich are just starting to define the requirements anddesign the system Therefore it is preferred that a
global partner involved in multiple Games provides acommon cloud platform for each Olympic and Paralympic Games that meets the requirements This will130

References
(

)

(

)

M. Tasaki, “Olympic IT Challenge : Behind the Scenes of the Games
Supported by Systems,” Impress R&D, Tokyo, 2016.
K. Chihara, K. Takahashi, and S. Kanayama, “System Infrastructure
Supporting Large-Scale Sporting Events,” Fujitsu Limited, Tokyo,
2018.
(Received February 28 2022)

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

KAWASE Takeshi
Graduated from Ritsumeikan University in2006 He joined Fujitsu Limited in the same
year He was seconded from Fujitsu Limited to
the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee in 2017‑04 In 2017‑04 he was transferred from Fujitsu
Limited to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee to take charge of infrastructure construction in the Technology Services Bureau

OGURA Mikio
Graduated from the University of Electro‑
Communications in 1996 Joined Fujitsu Limited in the same year He was transferred from
Fujitsu Limited to the Tokyo 2020 Organising
Committee in 2015‑09 as the Manager of the
System Infrastructure Section of the Technology Service Bureau He was transferred to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee from Fujitsu Limited in 2015‑09 where he established thesystem infrastructure for the Tokyo 2020
Games as the head of the System Infrastructure
Section of the Technology Services Bureau㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020131

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑3Enterprise Architecture Study for Design
and Development of Systems to Support
the Game Operations
WASHIDA ShinichiThis article describes an enterprise architecture study to design and develop systems for supporting game management
Furthermore the article focuses on the methodology used to plan and design a large number of applications with limited
resources and provides insights into how to proceed with the development and operation of applications that are not yet
mature The importance of governance rules and the key points in promoting them are also described
Keywords：Information system Requirement definition Governance rule

1．Introduction

the systems that would play a fundamental role in theorganising committeeʼs operations

such as financial

The development of new systems for the Olympic andaccounting electronic approval and procurement were

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred torequired to be implemented as soon as possible from theas “Tokyo 2020”) started from a situation where

early stages of the project

information on the scale and difficulty of the development was not fully understood

In other words the number of staff will rapidly
increase during the Games and the organising commit-

After the Rio 2016 Games we began a full‑fledged

tee will launch various new operations Therefore it wassystem planning study using the list of applications

clear that if individual systems were designed anddeveloped for the past Games From the list we were

procured based only on immediate business require-able to obtain information on the kind and number ofments optimization and systematization of the overallsystems developed but we could not obtain detailed

system for the convention would not be realized andinformation on how long and how many man‑hours were

there was a high risk of inefficient development andspent on the development and when they wererework Therefore a project for studying enterprisedeveloped

architecture was launched in September 2016 and an

It was expected that many business applications

analysis was conducted mainly on business architecture

would be released just before the Games and used mainlyFirst we organized the business operations according

during the Games period As of 2016 many businesses

to the following four elements (Figure 1)

did not yet exist and it was difficult even to specify
business and system requirements On the other hand･Business system : The structure and roles of theentire organization are defined

WASHIDA Shinichi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 132‑137 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers132

and businessprocesses and information are modeled･Data system : Defines the data handled by theorganization including where each data originates
how it is processed and when it is deleted

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

･

Application system : Defines the functions of thesystem that supports business processes and thecapability to realize them･

2．Architecture of Convention Management
Operations

Technology system : Defines “technology stand-As a result the operations were successfully classified

ards” for the stable construction operation andinto the following four themes by “Downstream Analy-

expansion of information systems in the futuresis”(Figure 2)

By doing this the overall image and outline of thebusiness and systems for which applications must be

Theme 1 : Sports Operations
Group of operations closely related to competition
management : Competition management (operations)developed gradually emerged

medical services doping control accreditation issuancemanagement and so on
Theme 2 : Event Operations
Group of peripheral operations required to organize
and operate large‑scale events which are closely related
to the logistics and transportation of equipment andsupplies : Logistics procurement of goods cleaning andwaste disposal etc
Another group of operations is related to the
movement and guidance of the Games officials andspectators : Transportation of people immigration accommodation torch relay signage spectator services
etc
Figure 1

Four Elements for Organising Application

Figure 2

Example of Application Classification by Downstream Analysis

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

133

Theme 3 : Business Operations
Group of operations related to financial accounting
revenue‑generating businessand public relations

activities : Ticket sales license management food andbeverage sales financial procurement etc

3．Consideration of Business Applications
Supporting Financial Accounting ofGames Management
The “Financial Accounting System” belongs to theaforementioned “Theme 3 : Business Operations” and is

Theme 4 : Facility Operations

one of the core components of the Games management

Group of operations closely related to the construction

operations In 2015 there were only about 300 staff

and operation of venues and infrastructure facilities :

members and the “Financial Accounting System” usedvenue management

at that time was a small‑scale system for small andathleteʼs village management

power supply at each facility security etc

medium‑sized companies After that the system was
upgraded to meet the demands of the Games with the

Of the above four types of operations those developed
and operated mainly by global partners (sports opera-

participation of 8 000 people and was completely
operational in 2017

tions) and those managed mainly by suppliers using

It was also necessary to link the “Contract Manage-

existing tools and methods such as drawing manage-

ment System” and the external “Electronic Bidding

ment and progress management (facility operations)

System” in conjunction with the “Financial Accounting

were limited in terms of the elements that the

System”

Technology Department of Organising Committee had

operation and linkage in 2017 In the meetings (orand these systems also started full‑scale

to design and build Therefore the following three areas

processes) where procurement decisions are madewere identified as the areas in which the Organising

several hundred cases a year are deliberated and theCommitteeʼs Technology Department needed to focus onlinkage of these systems plays a significant role inexamining business requirements and system procure-smoothly handling the large number of procurementmentcases decided during deliberations
Furthermore the stakeholders discussed the debts of()“Theme 2 : Logistics and Transportation ofGoods in Event Operations”

public interest incorporated foundation the organising()

committee cannot directly manage accommodation

in Event Operations”

facilities for the stakeholders()

discussed and organized the division of roles with outside“Theme 2 : Movement and Guidance of People“Theme 3 : Business Operations”

the organising committee and its management As a

For this reason

wevendors and the timing of information coordination In
With only a few engineers available resources are notsufficient for approaching each project individuallyparticular ticket sales to the Olympic and Paralympic
Committees of each country and the payment method

Therefore based on these classifications we assigned

such as when to record sales and how to handle

a full‑time engineer to define application requirements

cancellations or postponements of the competitions wereas relevant as possible and established a system tocomplicated Therefore there were many cases to be

implement business relevance and database commonal-

discussed The handling of credits and debts will be theity Then an “Upstream Analysis” was conducted forfocus during each Games event in the future because

the above three areas This enabled smooth linkage andvarious cases can be considered under the laws ofstandardization among applications to meet each systemdifferent countries regarding these themes

requirement that emerged from the business requirements

In most cases when the use of an application used forGames is terminated the system is closed However it

In chapter 3

business applications are groupedis imperative to consider how to close back‑office

explicitly by relevance and the study contents are

systems such as the “Financial Accounting System”

described in each of the above three areas

when the organising committee is dissolved

For

example whether the reduced‑size system should be
retained or whether the data output and saving the date
are needed For a company that is assumed to besustainable the financial data will be retained in the134

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 4
Figure 3

SKUs Affixed on All Goods Stored in the Warehouse

Large Volume of Goods Stored in a Logistics
Warehouse for the Games

the warehouse transportation planning and instructions method of delivery at the venue to removal after
system unless the company goes bankrupt However

the Games were conducted daily until late involving all

the Organising Committee is a very special organization

stakeholders Eventually it was decided to introducethat is assumed to be dissolved ; Therefore such a

ATS (Asset Tracking System) which manages goods

discussion was necessary

by SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) codes
The design of the ATS was adapted from an

4．Study of Business Applications that Support
for Logistics and Transportation of Large
Quantities of GoodEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package forgeneral trading companies The system was designed totreat each venue as a warehouse with operations basedon the assumption that goods are moved in the

The logistics system is one of the most challenging

warehouse Goods procured by the organising commit-

applications to define in analyzing the business Thistee are considered purchases from outside and the final

application is mainly for transporting goods delivered toreturn or sale of goods to the outside as shipment As aand stored in the logistics warehouse of the Organising

result this system was used not only for logistics but

Committee to the competition venues and other related

also as a management ledger for asset management andlocations The system had to be built to withstand theasset disposal It enabled the smooth disposal of goods

tremendous number of operations

after the Games in consideration of sustainability

including 8 000

trucks (total for the Olympics and Paralympics) and
62 000 logistics staff (Figure 3)
The absence of a business owner was an additional

An SKU code is a unit for counting the minimum
number of items in inventory management An 11‑digit
code with a 3‑letters assigned for each Games manage-

Difficulty in determining requirements isment function was defined for each type of item The

usually common in a typical project but in this casetotal number of SKU codes or the number of items

there was no one to determine the requirements in theregisteredfirst place This was because no department could

movement instruction slips input by the ATS was

bundle and promote the systemization of the various

128 264 (including cancellations after movement instruc-items requested to be transported to each venue fromtions)(Figure 4)

problemwas 15 328

and the total number of

Although the system ultimately functioned well andvarious sources
On the other hand given the expected development

contributed to the success of the Games a problem

scale waiting for the business owner to be determined

occurred in the early stages of operation that all goods

would not be allowed us to release the system in timescheduled to be moved were recorded as “they had

Therefore in the summer of 2017 a study task was

already been moved” in the system The cause was anlaunched under the leadership of the Technology

operator error in which all goods were processed at

Services Bureau to promote the project with theonce It should have been recorded that “only the goods

involvement of members of related departmentsthat had arrived were moved” Initially the system was

Discussions about who would be in charge of tasks

designed to be operated by all the operators in charge ofreceipt of delivered items

each Games management function that requests theacceptance inspection processing method of delivery todelivery of goods However it was concluded that thisranging from ordering

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

135

would be difficult due to the lack of cost and timeincreasingly important to share data of Games officials

available Alternatively a backup operation was im-

through the systems that support the movement andproved to manually restore erroneous operations and theguidance of convention officials These systems must

number of operators who operate the ATS system washave data of Games officials

limited as possible

The accreditation system developed and operated byThis was a critical case that staff should be assigned to

global partners in which the personal information oftrain the operators when operations are not sophisti-

Games officials is registered and managed has uniquecated and the time available for system operation

limitations in its design and operation to meet thetraining is limited Trained operators were also expected

specific requirements of sports operations since the past

to become proficient promptly

and the number ofGames Therefore the information managed by themembers with access to the system should be limited asaccreditation system was used as the master data for the

possibledevelopment and operation of a business application by

In addition

when assigning SKU codes

many

the Organising Committee to support the movement andunexpected situations occurred in actual operations

guidance of the Games stakeholders A duplicate of thesuch as how to count sand used at a beach volleyballmaster data was built on a platform (public cloudvenue as one unit

we

service) independently procured and operated by thegathered all stakeholders to discuss the issue andEach time this happened

Organising Committee as a database of the Games

created various operation workarounds rather thanstakeholders ensuring a degree of freedom in develop-changing the systemment and operation This architecture was adopted fromthe Rio 2016 Games but Tokyo 2020 has the additional

5．Study of Business Applications that Support
the Movement and Guidance of Games
Officials
Firstly for “Theme 2 : Movement and Guidance of

requirement of operating during the COVID‑19 pandemic The database has proven highly effective as a user
information management platform for the rapid andsecure development and operation of new businesssystemssuch as a reservation system for media

People in Event Operations” immigration information

coverage areas to prevent media triangulation and amanagement accommodation and transportation‑re-support system for infectious disease control operations

lated systems were required

for Games stakeholders

Their systems were

especially important because Olympic Games were held

The database holds information on 420 000 Olympic

during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19)

and 310 000 Paralympic Games stakeholders Naturally“immigration information

access to the data is strictly restricted The data thatmanagement systems” “accommodation systems” andpandemic

For example

each application must access is defined in terms of which“transportation‑related systems” are a group of applica-

data is absolutely necessary for business purposes intions related to the movement and transportation ofwhich situations how often the data must be updated

peopleand how to manage user privileges and operations for

Although the number of Games officials entering

accessing the information The members in charge ofJapan from overseas was lower than expected due to thebusiness applications that support the movement andimpact of COVID‑19 43 000 people entered the country

guidance of Games stakeholders played a central role infor the Olympic Games (peak entry of 4 200 on July 18

the detailed scrutiny of these issues starting from theand peak departure of 9 600 on August 9) and 11 000 fortime of requirement definition

the Paralympic Games (peak entry of 2 000 on August
20 and peak departure of 4 200 on September 6) These
people had to complete quarantine and other procedures

6．Conclusion

at the airport without delay Then we needed to arrange

As the feature of a limited‑time organization thatfor special vehicles to facilitate smooth transportationplans and operates a public event we faced many

between the airport the athletesʼ villages and hotels In

challenges such as requiring several days to determine

addition making reservations for places where media

business requirements and developing the needed staff

representatives and other people are likely to be

operation systems For example the detail of require-concentrated was needed For this reason it became

ments for asset management including the disposal of136

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

assets after the event was not always finalized on time

Committee executives of the need for “cyber security

In such cases it was effective not only to “ask to user

measures” and “cost optimization” was a great encour-requirements” but also to “show the model” Eventually

agement for this activity

business departments could understand the require-

It should be noted that the best design cannot be madements smoothly and decide to proceed with theirwith various technologies techniques and mechanisms

consent

even if we scrutinize the architecture sufficiently Even

Even if there is a delay in determining businesswith only authentication infrastructures for users it was

requirements or a rework in the process it is importantnecessary to use four or five different designs such as

to have an established technical standard for architec-

for competition information back‑office external users

ture to optimize the overall system designetc

In the development and release of all the applications

Furthermore technology is evolving so rapidly theseit was effective to keep the common governance rules

days that even if the nature of the work has not changed

established as a result of this enterprise architecture

significantly from past Games it is expected that every

study such as security review of design procurement

Game event will be a challenge especially in terms ofspecifications provision of penetration tests (developed

system architecture to incorporate new information into

in‑house) and pre‑release judgment meetings The

the activities

design review for the access to the Games stakeholders

Similarly it can be said that the introduction anddatabase described in “5” was also conducted in thisrenewal of mission‑critical systems in companies

framework

Therefore it is essential always to consider and update

It was also important to establish rules that enable thethe proper architecture based on the latest technological

technology department to be involved in all systemtrends for each company In addition the understanding

procurement and outsourcing contracts that handled theand support of top management are also neededbusiness and data of the Organising Committee rather
than leaving system development entirely to suppliers
Although this article focused on applications handled by
the Technology Services Bureau this framework could
also apply to large‑scale projects led by other bureaus(e gticket sales

fleet management

etc )

The

framework was designed so that the Technology
Department is always involved in the review of non‑functional requirements (network environment reliability design security design) and release decisions
Furthermore the understanding of the Organising(Received March 15 2022 : Revised March 28 2022)

WASHIDA Shinichi
WASHIDA Shinichi graduated from thedepartment of science Rikkyo University in1998 He joined Canon Sales Inc (2006 : thecompany changed its name to Canon Marketing
Japan Inc ) in the same year He was seconded
to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee in
October 2015 where he was engaged in theplanning development and operation of business applications in the Technology Services
Bureau He was the section manager in chargeof business applications㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

137

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑4

Development System and Introduction
Results of Business Applications
at the Tokyo 2020 GamesUSUI Akihisa

WASHIDA Shinichi

TACHI Takeshi

The Organising Committees had to design and develop dozens of business applications in addition to the common
information system (e g OMS : Olympic Management System) provided by the global partners for the two Games due tothe wide range of tasks involved in the management of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and because the requirementsof each host city are different This article introduces the structure of the Software Factory which realized agile
development of applications on the development platform adopted for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 as
well as the operational results during the Games Although the business applications development system is for aninternational sporting event we believe that some findings should be referred to when introducing systems in ordinary
businesses
Keywords：Information system Agile development In‑house development CoE DX promotion

1．Introduction
The Organising Committees of recent Games haveadopted existing development frameworks and plat-common team accumulates knowledge of application
development and operations across multiple applications
In analyzing these precedents

the Tokyo 2020

forms for developing and deploying dozens of business

Organising Committee noted that many of the businessapplications For example the London 2012 Gamesapplications introduced were relatively small in scale andadopted an existing website development package andused only during the Games and that the requirements of

Rio 2016 Games adopted a development framework fromthe business divisions were not necessarily determineda major vendor which was developed from scratch in an

early on In other words we concluded that develop-

on‑premise environment under a standardized process

ment from scratch in an on‑premise environment is not

From Rio 2016 Games an in‑house development teamnecessarily optimal but rather agile development cancalled the “Software Factory” was established where abe easily achieved with fewer resources by adopting
PaaS (Platform as a Service) which has abundantfunctional modules as a development platform

USUI Akihisa
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesWASHIDA Shinichi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesTACHI Takeshi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 138‑143 August 2022

In launching the Software Factory

an in‑housedevelopment team on this development platform we
decided to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) as anarchitectural team to improve the productivity of theentire development project and to support project
management© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

138

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1 Software Factory Structure
Approximately one year after
the launch the CoE Team was increased from two to three members to
three to four members

processes into development rules such as Business

2．Software Factory and CoE

Application Development Guidelines and overall opera-

The Software Factory system was launched in thetional processes

summer of 2017 three years before the Games toformulate the overall development plan for approxi-

22

Overall Architecture Design

mately three years and design applications that require

Based on the findings from past Games the CoE Teaman early start To secure the human resources necessary

analyzed the high‑level requirements for each businesson a somewhat regular basis a schedule was establishedapplication and conducted a suitability assessment forto equalize the development project load as much as

development on the PaaS development platform The

possible with a standard structure of seven to eight

evaluation measures included the suitability of standard

members from the contractor for the Application

function modules the volume of customization required

Development Team and two to three members from thefor the user interface and the complexity of the businesssupplier of the development platform employed for theprocessing logic As a result of the evaluation it was

CoE Team respectively Under this structure there

found that approximately 80% of the applications could

were more than ten application projects in progress inbe covered by the common functions of PaaS which

parallel at most (Figure 1)

enables low‑code development and that the Software
Factory system is suitable for the development of these21

Development Rules and Processes

applications because it can reduce the number of man‑

Since Software Factory is a multi‑vendor system thestandardization of the development processes was a key

hours required for the development
Several functions are commonly used and referenced

point that had a significant impact on not only thein many business applications

productivity of each development project but also thebuilding these as common functions would lead to morequality and reliability of applications introduced in large

efficient development Specifically there is an integrated

numbers Because of the wide range of organizations

database function that manages information commonly

involved in large‑scale international events such as theused by multiple applications such as information on

and designing andOlympic and Paralympic Games they handle a vast

Games officials vehicle information for officials manage-amount of personal information and the event organizers

ment codes for asset management and service catalogs

frequently request changes to the workflow even after

provided to officials with rate cards (paid menu) as well

the development has begun Under these conditions

as a user authentication function that users inside andagile development does not mean that documents suchoutside the Organising Committee are required to use

as design documents are entirely unnecessary Espe-

for each application in accordance with the confidential-

it is

ity of the information being handled Some of the user

important to have progress where development docu-

authentication and data integration functions withments such as Business Flow Data Models Sequence

external systems were implemented on the on‑premise

Diagrams etc

system infrastructure The CoE Team collaborated withcially in the case of large‑scale applications

are created and then reviewed by allparties involved
The CoE Team helped develop and compile these

the System Infrastructure Development Team to design
this entire hybrid on‑premise and PaaS architecture

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

139

23

On‑premise Support for Agile Development

In the early days of the project

more effectively approximately one year after establish-

requirements

ing the system the resources of the CoE Team were

definition by the business department did not always

enhanced to provide support for application develop-

proceed as planned rework and inefficient processes

ment including technical verification before develop-

often occurred in the development process Therefore

ment For relatively small‑scale applications the CoE

in many development projects of applications mockups

Team can complete the product as is as an extension ofwere created instead of simply listening to the Businessthe mock‑ups created by them

Departmentʼs requirements and the approach adopted

In addition

the CoE Team members conducted

was to “show them the model” and have them “agree on

training for the staff members of the Organising

the requirements” to streamline the development

Committee judging that in‑house development of simple

process

applications was possible by the staff A system to

The CoE Team pointed out that even when asupport the management of lost and found items at thedevelopment platform with an excellent track record invenues and a system to manage the distribution of

the market is used but the Application Development

tickets to Games officials which was not implemented

Team is not familiar with the functional details anddue to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) areexternal connection requirements of the standard

examples of in‑house development by the staff

function modules they cannot accurately determine

These measures allowed the Application Development

whether they can be adopted and the conditions underTeam to focus resources and time on developing

which they can be adopted

applications of a larger scale such as the rate card

which often leads tounnecessary and proprietary development processes
Therefore to promote the agile development process

Figure 2

140

acceptance portal which required multi‑stage function
releases

and the asset and logistics management

Business Applications Developed by Software Factory and Development Effort

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSsystem which required complex requirements to beinterconnectivity testing and security testing

defined

4．Application Operation Results
3．Application Development Achievements

41

Operation System

In the end 29 business applications were independ-

Including the partial release of functions several

ently developed and implemented on the development

business applications were introduced during theplatform for the Tokyo 2020 Games These included

competition preparation period (e gmany applications that were not envisioned in the initial

details of competition operation plans with the Interna-

planning (e gcompetition‑related planning and man-tional Federation) which began in earnest in 2018 andagement tools that had previously been replaced by

to improve the maturity of competition operation work

spreadsheet software) and additional functions and(e gimprovements to the user interfaces that had not been

venue) in the test event that began in the summer ofrealized in past Games (Figure 2)

2019 During this phase a portion of the Software

coordination ofmanagement of goods transportation to each

In addition to the originally developed systems there

Factory structure (including staff involved in in‑housewere more than 30 cases in which third‑party packaged

development) responded to incidents and support

applications were introduced (e g financial accounting

requests that arose during operations

systems) or existing systems were used by suppliers

During the early operation phase

we received(e g systems provided as part of outsourcing contracts

requests from the IOC and other games stakeholders forto transportation and logistics‑related partner compa-

improvements in functionality and user interface andnies) depending on the business field However evenchanges in requirements for some of the applications

when using third‑party systems the common functional

While obvious additions to the functionality requiredparts of the Organising Committee (e gintegrated

additional development resources many minor modifica-

database function user authentication function etc )tions and screen design changes could be handledwere required in many cases ; hence it was necessary toquickly within the regular operational support systemlink the systems through the system infrastructure of

As an operational support system during the Games

the Organising Committee Therefore a project forthe personnel and staff of the outsourcing company

system interconnectivity was launched within the

responsible for the Software Factory responded effi-

Software Factory structure to promote interface design

ciently with a limited number of staff (Figure 3) This

Figure 3 Business Application Operation Support System during the Critical Period
A mixed team of staff and contractors provided efficient operational support

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020141

Figure 4 Number of Incidents and Service Requests
Number of incidents and service
requests assigned to the business application operation team during the critical period(June 23 2021 to September 10 2021)

was because applications and common functions were
implemented on the same development platform Thus
a considerable portion of the know‑how and skills
necessary for dealing with incidents and issues werestandardized
42

Results

If we look at the period from June 23 2021 when theTechnology Operation Centre (TOC) began its extensive support system to September 10 2021 when the
TOC was closed (hereafter referred to as the critical
period) including the Games period there were no
incidents of high importance during the critical period
On the other hand the most frequent severity 4
incidents (minor incidents) and service requests (Figure 4 and Figure 5) which occurred mainly in earlyJuly were related to the Infection Control BusinessSupport System (Tokyo 2020 ICON)

which wasdeveloped by the additional software company members
and was introduced for the COVID‑19 (The trouble
ticket is categorized in the “Participant database”) This
confusion was caused by a lack of information regarding
the pre‑registration of users to the system and delays in
the procedures for the entry of Games officials and not

Figure 5 Breakdown of Incidents and Service Requests
Breakdown of incidents and service requests assigned to theBusiness Application Operations Team during the critical period(June 23 2021 to September 10 2021) by the system

by any problems with Tokyo 2020 ICONThe IOC requested a relatively significant change inthe database of Games officials to modify the data

keeping the system in operation

processing logic to reflect the special requirements ofathletesʼ entries to the competition even during thecritical period In this case it should be noted that the5．Conclusion

CoE Team membersʼ extensive knowledge of the

The operations of the Olympic and Paralympic Gamesfunctionality of the development platform enabled themcontinue to evolve based on the knowledge gained fromto implement the modification in a short period while

each event and each host city has its requirements that142

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

reflect its circumstances

In introducing businesswell understood

applications each Organising Committee needs an agile

Incidentally the most compelling case in which thedevelopment system that can flexibly respond to

CoE Team was incorporated into a fully‑fledged

modification requests

business process design system that spanned the major

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee devoted

business divisions of the Organising Committee was thesufficient time and resources to analyzing case studies ofproject for an Infection Control Business Support Systembusiness applications implemented in past Games(Tokyo 2020 ICON) which was hurriedly launched after

thanks partially to the arrival in 2014 of seconded staff

the postponement of the Games The project requiredwith expertise and experience from technology‑related

additional development staff and CoE members on shortpartner companies This led to establishing a specialized

notice It is clear that behind the sufficient functioning ofsystem for software development and operation oriented

the system was the accumulation of the Software

toward agile development at a relatively early stage

Factory system and standardized development processcompared to past Games

that had been established up to that point as well as theOn the other hand in launching the Software Factory
we tried to equalize the workload of development
projects to secure joint development and architectural
human resources regularly

Howeversome of theapplications for which requirements definition anddatabase of Games officials that had been maintained andoperated as a common function
We believe that this knowledge can be applied to thedigital transformation of organizations which has been
the focus of much attention recently

design were started early due to these efforts were notfully organized by the business department or thetiming of requirements elicitation from the participantsof the Games was too early
If a clear goal is not set for systemization based on
sufficient analysis by the business department

theinvestment may be wasted if systemization is initiatedbased solely on abstract expectations for digitizing
business operations We have heard that many applications ended up not being used at past Games On theother hand it was clear that if the development project
were launched later the workload would be concentrated in the busy period before the Games and there
would be problems in securing human resources andlearning the development and operation processes
We believe that the CoE Teamʼs activities within thedevelopment structure described in this report partiallyhelped resolve this issue However more fundamentally it is a problem that needs to be solved by the entire
organization including the operations department For
example just as architect teams were necessary for the
productivity of development projects “business process
design teams” were established relatively early on
mainly in the planning department to promote businessstart‑up projects Unfortunately however the “need todetermine business processes ahead of time ” emphasized by the technology department was not always(Received March 4 2022 ; Revised March 14 2022)

USUI Akihisa
Graduated from Kumamoto University witha bachelorʼs degree in engineering in 1995 andwas transferred from Fujitsu Limited to theTechnology Service Bureau of the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee in March 2015 Since
then he has been engaged in the governanceplanning development and operation of information systems in general Before the Gameshe was the Director of the Information Systems
Department and is currently with the National
Security Division of Fujitsu Limited
WASHIDA Shinichi
Graduated from Rikkyo University with a
Bachelor of Science in 1998 He joined Canon
Sales Inc (2006: the company changed its nameto Canon Marketing Japan Inc ) in the same
year He was seconded to the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee in Oct‑2015 where he
was engaged in the planning development andoperation of business applications in the Technology Services Department He was thesection manager in charge of business applications
TACHI Takeshi
Completed his masterʼs degree at Osaka
University in 1989 He joined Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation (NTT) in 1989
where he was engaged in research anddevelopment of next‑generation IP networks
cyber security etc He has been assigned to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2014
and will join the organization in April 2022㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

143

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑5

Introduction History and Operational
Performance of the Infection Control BusinessSupport System “Tokyo 2020 ICON”TACHI Takeshi

USUI Akihisa

NAKAYASU Fumiaki

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 were held amid the lingering effects of the coronavirus disease 2019
This article reviews the development project and operational performance of the Infection Control Business Support
System (Tokyo 2020 ICON) which was introduced at short notice to implement entry procedures for the international
Games stakeholders in cooperation with the national government and the management of health conditions and screening
test results of the stakeholders and staff The primary users of Tokyo 2020 ICON were the managers in charge of theinfection control operation in each organization This article also analyzes the success factors and lessons learned in the
project to introduce the most extensively used digital tool in the Games operations
Keywords：Information system Personal information management

1．Launch of the Projectand how to prevent the outbreak of infectious disease
clusters during the GamesIt was expected that the number of participants in theOn the other hand when the decision was made to

Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (herein-

postpone the Games (March 24 2020) only four months

after referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) would reachwere left before the Games and the information systemseveral hundred thousand including athletes and sports

to be used in the Gamesʼ operations was almost

officials and Japanese and international broadcasting andcomplete There was a concern that implementing a

media personnel and officials from partner companies

completely new system design on a large scale and in

involved in preparations and operations of the Games

such a short period even for measures against infectious

Therefore studies began in the summer of 2020 during

diseases would entail significant risks to the stable

the postponement period of the Games in cooperation

operation of the entire information system and informa-with the national government to resolve issues such astion security governancemanaging the health condition of people visiting Japan

Thereforein considering the requirements for

infectious disease control operations in cooperation withthe government the concerned parties first agreed to
TACHI Takeshi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesUSUI Akihisa
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesNAKAYASU Fumiaki
Games Delivery Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic Gamesuse the design of the existing system infrastructure of

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 144‑150 August 2022

requirements and worked on the project© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

144

the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee (hereafterreferred to as the “Organising Committee”) as a base
Then we prepared a system for the agile developmentof an application that would meet the new operational
This article summarizes the project from its launch to

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the performance achieved throughout the system

spectators coming to Japan to watch the games The

operation period

government and the Organising Committee agreed tocreate synergy by linking the back end of this application

2．Requirements Definition and Project
Structure
21

Main Functional Requirementswith a new information system to be developed by theOrganising Committee for the use of personnel in chargeof infection control operations in each organization
Expected synergy effects were : the government to meet

In the summer of 2020 shortly after the coronavirus

its immigration control requirements for the Tokyo 2020

pandemic began several event organizers and local

Games with a minimum of development effort andgovernments had already developed and introduced

operation by using the information system which issome trial applications that could contribute to prevent-developed by the Organising Committee

ing the occurrence of infectious disease clusters These

Organising Committee to meet its requirement of healthapplications can be used for officials and spectators

condition management of people involved in the Games(entering a specific venue or event) to input their healthby saving the effort in developing a separate end‑user

conditions information ahead of the events and manage

application and utilizing the government‑produced

them Referring to such cases the relevant sections ofapplication instead

the Organising Committee began to consider the related
requirements for the Tokyo 2020 GamesThe government was also planning to develop aand theBased on these backgrounds the functional requirements for the new system to be developed by theOrganising Committee were agreed upon as follows :) to manage all “Schedule of Activities in Japan (Note 1)”

smartphone application to confirm the health condition of(visitors during the immigration process not only forto be submitted by the international Games stakehold-those involved in the Games but also for overseas

ers (Figure 1) to manage the health condition and alert

Infection Control Business Support System Tokyo 2020 ICON

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020145

Table 1

Main Functions of the Infection Control BusinessSupport System Tokyo 2020 ICON

No

Function name

Description

1

Management of
the Schedule ofActivities inJapan (Note 1)

The responsible manager in eachorganization submits the Schedule ofActivities in Japan required for entryof the members and the government
notifies the approval result accordinglyManagement of
Health Condition

Daily health condition which wasentered into a government‑developed
smartphone application is visualized to
the responsible managers in eachorganization and Infection Control
Centre Poor health condition andmissing information are automaticallydetected and alerted

2

3

4

5

Management of
Screening Test
Results

Management of
Incidents(Positive Test
Case)

Issuance of Negative Certificates

Results of screening test that theGames stakeholder and staff periodically taken are visualized to the
responsible managers in each organization and Infection Control Centre
Associated information of test‑positive persons (date of onset date of
test inpatient care facility close‑contacted person facilities visited etc )are recorded and shared with relevant
parties
Negative test certificates which arenecessary upon return to the homecountries are issued based on thelatest screening test results(Note 1) Schedule of Activities in Japan : Advance declaration of
the subjectʼs activity plan for the first 14 days after entry into
Japan including where to stay and where to go

In addition to the personal information of Games
stakeholders (passport numbers dates of birth andother information necessary for the issuance of accreditation cards) that has been managed by the Organising
Committee since past Games Tokyo 2020 ICON was
designed to handle more sensitive personal informationsuch as daily health information screening test results
and information on close contacts of the infected person
Consequently it was required to carefully study thesystem design

operationand rules for handlingpersonal information and deliberately explain the system
and associated operations to the concerned people andorganizations
Therefore it was clear that the Organising Committee needed to have a substantial structure to ensure thatthese requirements would be realized and the system
would be introduced by the deadline and operated
without significant incident
22

User Authentication Access Control etc

As a requirement for the government‑provided
smartphone application (OCHA) it was decided to
implement it as a native smartphone application toprevent user spoofing in the immigration process On
the other hand the government requirements which
need to be met by working with the Organising
Committee were first to ensure the identification ofGames stakeholders and to control the use of thefunction in the case of health abnormalities () toapplication so that it cannot be activated without prior) to manage

approval of the “Schedule of Activities in Japan” and toincidents (case of positive test results) These require-enable the application to recognize specific Gamesments were mainly from the managers responsible forstakeholders if their registration was cancelled for somethe infection control operation in each organization This

reasonmanage the screening test results (system was named Tokyo 2020 ICON (Infection
CONtrol)(Figure 1)

Tokyo 2020 ICON requires multi‑factor authentication for access due to the systemʼs feature which allows

In early July when Tokyo 2020 ICON was completely

authorized persons in charge of infection control

operational a possible problem of issuing a large volume

operations to access a large volume of personalof the new coronavirus negative test certificates

information in managing the daily health conditions of(hereinafter referred to as “negative certificates”) at

the members of each organization Furthermore it was

medical institutions was identified That is when thedesigned so that the highest authority level to access allnumber of international people involved in the Games

Games stakeholders and staff information is available

would return home simultaneously after the closing

only over a specific VLAN (Virtual Local Area

ceremony at the beginning of August the capacity of

Network) to strengthen security measures further

medical institutions in the city to perform tests and issue(administrator authority granted to the Organisingnegative certificates requested by the governments ofCommitteeʼs Infection Control Centre ) In addition data

their home countries was assessed as insufficient Then

encryption was implemented for particularly sensitivea fifth functional requirement to issue negative certifi-

data fields (e g screening test results)

cates by referring to the recorded latest test results wasadded to Tokyo 2020 ICON (see Table 1)
146

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

23

Project Structure

and other concerned organizations This framework and

The Organising Committee originally had a frame-

structure contributed to the successful completion of thework composed of the Software Factory and the Center

development project without rework even in a limitedof Excellence (CoE) for agile development and operation

period and under strict deadlinesof the numerous information systems required for the
Games operation Therefore it was most reasonable to

3．Operational Performance

significantly strengthen the existing framework fordeveloping Tokyo 2020 ICON at the start of this project

31

Major Results during the Operation Period

Also we decided to extend and use the database of theTokyo 2020 ICON was released in three phases inGames stakeholders and staff (named Participant

response to an increasing number of Games stakeholders

Database) for Tokyo 2020 ICON This is because thecoming to Japan for the Games (Table 2) All Games

database had already been constructed for different

stakeholders both Japanese and international werebusiness applications and all data were supposed to beregistered in Tokyo 2020 ICON for health management

registered in advance through the accreditation system

and incident management in the event of a positive test

In addition to collect and manage additional sensitive

result On the other hand the primary users of thepersonal information it was necessary to identify legal

system were managers responsible for infection control

requirements from the perspective of personal information protection and medical information management
and to define requirements and rules from the perspec-

Table 2

tive of system design and operation In parallel with theDatelaunch of the development project a study team was set
up consisting mainly of consultants with experience inTokyo 2020 ICON function release schedule
EventsRelease/Close function

Year 2021
May 31Primary
release

Release : management functionsof the Schedule of Activities inJapanJune 24

Secondaryrelease

Release : management functionsof health condition/management
functions of screening test results/management functions ofincidents

July 25

Additional
release

Release : issuance function of negative test certificate

August 11

System mode switch from Olympic to Paralympic
Games

September
12Part offunctions close

Close : function of submitting the
Schedule of Activities in Japanetc

September
20

Furtherfunctions close

Close : all functions for external
users

September
23

Complete system close

information system audits and the legal staff of theOrganising Committee (Figure 2) This team provided
advice on requirement definition and privacy policy
formulation and assistance for preliminary explanations
and coordination of business requirements with the IOC

Table 3Figure 2

Tokyo 2020 ICON Design and Development Structure

Tokyo 2020 ICON usage results

Item

ResultNumber of users

5 600 organizations registered
6 900 responsible managers for infection control registered

Immigration entry
handling

Approval of the Schedule of Activities in Japan for 14 000 cases or
65 000 persons

Health information
management

1 79 million cases or 69 000 persons

Screening Test Results

920 000

Incidents managed

1 300

Negative certificatesissued53 000Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020147

operations in each organization and those in the Infection

32

Control Centre of the Organising Committee and a total

Tokyo 2020 ICON was operated stably throughout theof 6 900 of these managers were registered A vast

entire operation period On the other hand there wasvolume of information was registered and managed

significant confusion due to the lack of prior explanation

Problems in Operation and Response to Themduring the operation period including 1 79 million healthabout related procedures to the Games stakeholders

management cases 920 000 test result management

Examples of this are the pre‑registration procedures forcases and 1 300 incidents (Table 3)

visitors to Japan which were also required in conjunction

The health management status of the Games stake-with the introduction of this new system and the user

holders and staff in each organization and the occurrence

authentication procedure when activating the smart-of positive screening results were visualized in real‑timephone application OCHA

using the dashboard function This was utilized by the

The number of visitors to Japan peaked in mid‑July

responsible managers in each organization and the(Figure 4) A little earlier than this peak in early July

Infection Control Centre for their work including thethe call centre began receiving many complaints thatstatus report given to the public (Figure 3)

OCHA could not be activated even after the necessary

Figure 3

Figure 4

148

Tokyo 2020 ICON Dashboard Screen

Trends in the Number of Entrants Based on the Schedule of Activities in JapanTHE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 5

Trends in the Number of Cases Handled by the Dedicated Call Centre

information had been entered At its peak there was a

the accreditation cardbacklog of nearly 1 000 problem cases that remained

accreditation service counter by verifying the identity ofunresolved but an investigation revealed that about 80%

the person and correcting the data recorded Howeverof the problems were caused due to “user registration

when the same registered information is used for

not completed in advance”

Why this happened is

identification in online user authentication as in thisdescribed below Tokyo 2020 ICON needs to be set up incase the individual cannot easily correct information

advance so that the designated managers in charge ofthat is not correct on the spot In many cases theinfection control operations in each organization are

registration information could not be corrected in time

authorized to access the personal information of theirso the applicants needed to bring a separate article

members As some organizations have several thousand

document to prove that their application for entry had

members it is necessary to have multiple managers

already been approved

This was handled at thedesignated on a pre‑registration sheet and to clarify who
can access the personal information of which members in33

the organization

Operations at the Tokyo 2020 Games which were held

If the registration sheet was not

Lessons Learned and Areas for Improvement

completed the OCHA and Tokyo 2020 ICON could notin the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic were much

be linked resulting in many problems that prevented

more complicated than in past Games held under normal

OCHA from activating correctly

circumstances This includes the specialized procedures

In response to this emergency we reiterated theat the airport such as immigration inspection screening

necessity of pre‑registration to each organization andtests and handling of special vehicles for transportation

distributed an updated manual to make the registration

Despite such complexity the immigration procedures

process easier to understand We also modify the error

using OCHA correctly in conjunction with Tokyo 2020

message which is displayed when the pre‑registration

ICON were confirmed to be very smooth This was thewas not completed to be a more recognizable expres-case observed especially in the latter half of the Olympic

sion With these measures implemented the number ofGames period and during the Paralympic Games period

backlogs at the call centre reduced significantly (Figure

as the process had matured Although the preparation

5)

period was short it is regrettable that the confusion at
The final problem that required individual support

the beginning of the operational period could have been

was the inability to activate the application due to errors

avoided if more preliminary reviews and rehearsals fromin basic personal information (e gincorrect passport

the userʼs perspective had been conducted and if thenumber middle name) that each organization had pre‑improvement measures mentioned above had beenregistered in the accreditation system at the very

introduced earlier

beginning In past Games if there had been a mistake in

In addition we noticed that the information of thethe information registered it was dealt with by reissuingpeople involved in the Games and registered in theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020149

accreditation system could be a valuable database thatflexible development system

makes sense not only for infection control measures but

We would also like to take this opportunity to thankalso for various potential information services Consider-

the government officials who made a tremendous effort

ing that there are a certain number of people whoto establish rules and procedures for a large number ofcontinuously participate in multiple Games such asGames stakeholders coming to Japan under such difficult

Games and media officials if this information can be

circumstances as the coronavirus pandemic

taken over and fully utilized with the consent of eachindividual it could further improve the efficiency andserviceability of Games management through the use ofdigital tools For this purpose it would be desirable todevelop a Customer Relationship Management platform
for future Games that guarantees the accuracy ofregistered information and securely transfers or updates
the information from one Games to the next

4．Conclusion
The Tokyo 2020 Games held in the aftermath of thecoronavirus pandemic introduced and utilized more
new digital tools than any past Games including tools
other than Tokyo 2020 ICON discussed in this article
Examples include (1) a function added to the Games
information system (myInfo) to stream daily press
meetings and athlete interviews and (2) a reservation
system to avoid dense crowding and maintain social
distance in interview areas(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 10 2022)

TACHI Takeshi
Mr Tachi received his M S from Osaka
University in 1989 and his M S from the
University of California Berkeley in 1997 He
joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in 1989 where he was engaged in
the research and development of next‑generation I P networks and cyber security He has
been seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising
Committee since 2014 He is the Executive
Director of the Technology Services Bureau
Since July 2022 Senior Vice President General
Manager of IPES Business Division NTT
Advanced Technology Corporation
USUI Akihisa
USUI Akihisa graduated from Kumamoto
University with a bachelorʼs degree in engineering in 1995 and was transferred to theTechnology Service Bureau from Fujitsu Limited in March 2015 Since then he has been
engaged in governance formulation planning
development and operation of information
systems Before the Games he was the
Director of the Information Systems Department

Tokyo 2020 ICON which is the most extensively used
and largest‑scale system as well as the core tool of
infection control operations has achieved secure andstable operation despite its short development time
This was mainly due to the system platform including
the database of Games stakeholders that were already inplace as well as the presence of the Software Factoryand CoE that built and operated the system Although
we were unable to mention them in this article thanks tothe support from partners and suppliers involved in the
project we could promptly respond to requests forchanges from Games stakeholders even after the systemwent into complete operation We want to express our
gratitude for the efforts of all who have created such a

NAKAYASU Fumiaki
NAKAYASU Fumiaki graduated from the
University of Tokyo in 2001 with a bachelorʼs
degree in liberal arts He joined the Ministry of
Education Culture Sports Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as MEXT) in
the same year He has been engaged in theplanning and administration of MEXT (review
of “Yutori” education English in elementary
schools voting rights for 18‑year‑olds investment in national university ventures theestablishment of new medical schools after theearthquake etc ) He completed his MBA in2006 from the University of Texas ; seconded to
the Organising Committee (Director of Planning Department Deputy Director of the
Corporate Planning Office) After Tokyo 2020
he joined MEXT again as Director of Promoting
Vocational School Education㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

150

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3 Information System Digital Media

3‑6

Olympic Diffusion and Management Systems :Tokyo 2020 Bringing Agility into Critical
Application Delivery
Albert MINGUILLÓNThe Olympic and Paralympic Games are a unique event that moves from host city to host city every two years between
Summer and Winter editions Every host city starts from scratch to plan and implement all the needed systems to ensure
successful delivery of these celebrated historic events Atos as Worldwide IT Partner to the Olympic and Paralympic
Games supports each host cityʼs Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) by providing integration services
and managing applications This article focuses on our application services which have delivered the critical Olympic
Management System (OMS) and Olympic Diffusion System (ODS) since the Olympic Games Barcelona 1992 The article
begins with some highlights of the critical applications we deliver Then it describes the transformations we haveintroduced to optimize delivery quality timing and outcomes
Keywords：Atos Application transformation OMS ODS

1．Introduction : What are Critical Applications?

staffing plan for the Games It balances the needs of all
OCOG functional areas venues and facilities It coordi-

OMS and ODS are the two categories of applications

nates coverage for extended Games‑time work hours

called “critical International Olympic Committee (IOC)and supports selection and allocation of staff (volunteers

applications” as they support the Olympic Gamesʼ core

contractors and paid staff) to fit in the needs of all

functionality They ensure the Games are run consis-

required positions

tently from one edition to the next following businessprocesses and standards defined by the IOC

Then the system supports the OCOG in assigningstaff following up with training needs and assigning aroster for each person Once thatʼs done it transfers the11

Olympic Management System

OMS is a set of applications that support the OCOGs in

information to the Accreditations system to obtainsecure venue access for the entire workforce

preparation for the Games These applications include :・Volunteer Portal :・Workforce Management System :The volunteer program of each host city is a vital part

Workforce Management implements a proven busi-of the Games providing a unique opportunity for locals

ness process to support the OCOG in defining theto be active participants In turn they help the OCOG tocover its big

Albert MINGUILLÓN
Major Events Atos
E‑mail albert minguillon@atos net

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 151‑157 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

temporary workforce demand

The

Volunteer Portal is the engagement platform from which
the OCOG identifies potential volunteers interacts withthem to organize interviews and training and offers
them positions For the Olympic and Paralympic Games

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151

Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020
Games”) it ensured the OCOG could effectively andefficiently manage more than 200 000 applications
which exceeded all expectations and accept and assign
more than 70 000 volunteers
・Accreditations :Knowing who is participating in the Games ─
workforce press media sponsors athletes and officials─ is critical to ensuring that only authorized personnel
can access the venues

It also ensures that those

personnel have the access that they need to performtheir duties The Accreditations system helps the OCOG
keep track of participants for the Games It ensures thatdefined attendee quotas are respected validates thatparticipants have cleared their security risk assessments assigns the right privileges and finally issues the
Olympic ID card (Figure 1) The Olympic ID card is the
only piece of identification required during the Games It

Figure 1

Olympic ID Card Presented to Advanced AccessControl System（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

permits access to venues and many services like Games‑
specific transportation and acts as a visa to enter thecountry

iterative and incremental process beginning years before
the Games to track the results of all athletes aiming to・Uniform Management :participate to see who qualifies They discuss andHalfway between Workforce Management and Ac-

validate the resulting participants with each National

creditations the Uniform Management system collects

Olympic Committee (NOC) and IF to generate the final

information from both systems to help the OCOG plan

list of athletes for each sport and NOC This is all

for uniform requirements and control their distribution

supported by the Sport Entries and Qualifications

to the different collectives

application which has been increasingly allowing the fullprocess to be online and automated・Competition Schedule :Defining the schedule for the Games is not a trivial

・eVoting :activity as it balances the needs of many different

The eVoting application supports the election of the

stakeholders Scheduling ensures the events are prop-

Athlete Representatives to the IOC Athletes Commis-

erly spread to comply with International Sports Federa-sion for each edition of the Olympic and Paralympic

tion (IF) rules as well as broadcasting and ticketing

Games It is one of the few OMS applications that

expectations

The Competition Schedule application

reaches peak usage during the Games and not priorsupports the OCOG in defining the stages and progres-even though preparation and setup of the voting processsion of the Gamesʼ final schedule It starts at the day level

starts well before eVoting offers a simple and conven-and ends with a detailed minute‑by‑minute plan that

ient set of voting booths mainly at the Olympic Villages

ensures at each step

where athletes cast votes for their representatives in thethat needed validations andapprovals from external stakeholders are covered

IOC Athletes Commission The system ensures thevotes are secret and immutable offering full transpar-・Sport Entries and Qualifications :ency and reliability to the voting process

Participating in the Olympic Games is not an
opportunity any athlete can take In order to be allowed

・Access Control :to participate in the Olympics each IF together with the

Security of the Games depends on ensuring that only

IOC defines a set of qualification criteria to ensure fairauthorized people can access restricted venue areas andparticipation of countries and athletes They follow anthat their access is smooth and fluid The Access Control

152

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

solution takes a simple approach to properly implementing the complex validation needed to grant or restrict a
personʼs access to a venue upon display of the Olympic
ID card (Figure 1)

The Access Control solution

manages perimeter validation at venue entrances as wellas in‑venue access to more tightly restricted areas
For the Tokyo 2020 Games Atos reinforced the
security systems at the event with delivery of theAdvanced Access Control System (AACS) project led
by Atos

AACS was supported by key partners

Panasonic contributing solutions and equipment ; andNEC contributing its facial recognition system AACS

Figure 2

Karate Commentator Information System（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

further improved operations by allowing access to thevenues without human intervention It also enhanced
security by ensuring that the Olympic ID cardholder

・Results Pages for the official website :was indeed the person who was accredited Altogether

The Results Pages must provide accurate information

AACS reduced fraud errors and wait times at entry

and present it according to IOC and IF rules This

pointsincludes up‑to‑date information on schedules medals
live results data and records as well as biographical12

Olympic Diffusion System

ODS applications focus on distributing informationfrom the On Venue Results system delivered by Olympic

information of all athletes and officials The results areembedded into the official Olympic website and mobile
app for people around the world to accessGames Official Timekeeper which captures and generates the official results of the events ODS relays those・Olympic Data Feed :results to different target systems at the right moment

All the ODS systems presented thus far transform andto ensure reliability and integrity ODS comprises the

prepare the data to be consumed by end users But there

following applications :are also many stakeholders that require the results data
to be distributed in a machine‑readable format The

・Commentator Information System (CIS):

IOC together with Atos and the Olympic Games Official

This is how commentators in the venues or broadcast

Timekeeper Partner defines the Olympic Data Feedcentres have endless data and information at hand(ODF) standard protocol to relay all information about

during live broadcasts CIS is deployed to be always

the Games to different stakeholders including press

available in the venues even in cases where connectivity

agencies broadcasters and sports federations ODF

is lost outside a venue

allowing commentators tooffers a pull‑and‑push service by which stakeholders

continue broadcasting without interruption In order to

can receive or fetch the data to be used by their systems

ensure accuracy data is available on their screens inas soon as it is available Their feeds are customized to

fewer than 0 3 seconds from the moment it is captured

ensure that data will always follow the proper sequence

by On Venue Results system (Figure 2)

and content for their needs

・Remote Commentator Information System :Similar to CIS in venues and broadcast centres
Remote CIS is offered worldwide to commentators in・myInfo :myInfo is the private website for press
broadcasters and the Olympic Family

media

It provides

their home locations to support remote broadcasting

extended content like news items recorded interviews

unitsThis service delivers event data to themwith athletes and ─ available for the first time in Tokyo

anywhere anytime in fewer than 2 5 seconds For the2020 ─ video press conferences Similar to RemoteTokyo 2020 Games demand for Remote CIS spiked

CIS the myInfo service saw a significant usage increase

compared to previous Games because of pandemic

during the Tokyo 2020 Games It provided remoterestrictions limiting travel and on‑site team sizes

professionals all the relevant information as if they wereSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

153

21

Project One : Transition OMS and ODS Delivery
to Agile and DevOps

Up until the Tokyo 2020 project application delivery
followed a pure waterfall model by which there wereseveral phases in the project focused on different goals :･ Requirements gathering･ Application design･ Application implementation･ Testing and release
Figure 3

MyInfo Applications on Screens at the Main Press
Centre in Tokyo（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

This approach was successfully applied for many
Olympic Games editions but required a long wait
between the moment users provided requirements andwhen they could really see the expected outcomes The
normal cycle was six to nine months from requirementsin the host city

to release and the number of changes delivered at once
was significant This was exacerbated by the host citychanging every two years

2．Modernizing Application Delivery
for Tokyo 2020

With each new host our clients on the different
Organising Committees are learning what it means to

Atos has been delivering critical IOC applications(e gdeliver the Games and gaining experience over timethose in Figures 2 and 3) for 30 years The

Along their learning journey our waterfall model wasapplications as well as the delivery model have beenleading to requirements not being properly understood

evolving since then aligned with technology advance-or prioritized during initial phases That led to outcomesments and best practices from the market

When

not aligning with expectations at the release andplanning delivery for the pinnacle of competitive

requiring further changes on top of initial requirements

sporting events our guiding principle is always : The

Moving to agile delivery would give our clients shorter

Olympic and Paralympic Games are not a technology

incremental releases with more participation in the fullshowcase Our goal is to be as invisible as possible

process

making everything work as expected without showing

requirements were misunderstood With incremental

the technology behind it With this in mind we always

releases would come regular review cycles allowing

perform a detailed evaluation of risks and benefits before

them to refine or prioritize requirements as they gain

pushing forward any changes

more insight into their needs Agile was clearly the

When planning for Tokyo 2020 delivery we assessed

allowing them to react more quickly if

better choice for our situation

the maturity and status of the different solutions in our

The transformation project started with a definition ofscope Out of our assessment reinforced after Pyeong-

the to‑be state for Tokyo 2020 Then we defined anchang 2018 we concluded that certain aspects could be

onboarding plansignificantly improved by transforming parts of thecustomer to ensure a smooth and progressive approachdelivery model After risk assessment and planning

At this phase we also identified the tools and reskilling

validation we decided to launch three projects for Tokyo

programs needed These steps ensured that :team by team and customer by

2020 :･ Development teams worked on the most critical①

Transition OMS and ODS delivery to agile anditems based on Tokyo 2020 priorities･ OCOG functional area and technology teams could

DevOpssee what the development team was working on②

Modernize ODS applications③

Transform infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

including early releases of the changes requested

delivery of ODS applications to platform as a service･ OCOG functional area technology teams could(PaaS)
154

adjusttherequirements

duringdevelopment

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

stages significantly reducing the number of lateisolation･ Leverage automation for continuous integration andchanges raised in the projectcontinuous delivery (CI/CD)
Internally the transformation to agile forced the team
They had been

The four objectives of this modernization project wereorganized by skills and expertise with individual teams

to increase flexibility reduce technical debt rationalize

focused on requirements analysis

cloud resource utilization and increase scalability

structure to change significantly

development andtesting ; and one team on application deployment andclient support With the move to agile the teams were

options
Once the greenfield design was complete

risk

decomposed and re‑built into multidisciplinary teams

assessment and assurance allowed us to select design

with experts in all the aspects needed to deliver theelements that would bring major benefits to the Tokyo

applications

This ensured that each team was as2020 project It also allowed us to address the biggest

autonomous as possible and minimized the handover ofidentified issues of the solution delivered so far and towork

factor in enough time to ensure secure delivery of the

Having a multidisciplinary team greatly helped inpromoting continuous improvement as all team mem-project
The end design contained a combination of :bers were aware of issues end‑to‑end It also increased
their awareness of how services were designed･ New components developed from scratch

developed tested and delivered by all team members･ Legacy components re‑architected to increase
isolation and scalability

Initially these changes reduced the performance ofthe team while everyone was learning and adapting to･ Off‑the‑shelf components replacing retired legacy
components

the new way of working But the benefits of the changes
have been materializing over time Now the teams are･ Legacy components maintained as they wereinterfacing with the new components

stronger and able to deliver our services with great
autonomy
While the simultaneous transformation of OMS andThis mixed approach allowed a staged and progres-

ODS delivery was first seen as a risk our staged andsive delivery that transformed the applications added

incremental approach ensured that issues were tackled

business value and progressed incrementally without

immediately and the process improved continuously

disrupting overall readiness for the GamesThe implemented architecture (Figure 4) is based on

Project two : Modernize ODS Applications

a set of legacy services together with a set of

Up until the Pyeongchang 2018 Games most ODS

microservices replacing legacy components that had

applications were designed and implemented for London

been retired Theyʼre all connected via a message broker

222012 with some components aging since Beijing 2008

based on Apache Kafka and supported by MS SQL

By 2018 they had accumulated significant technical debt

Server as relational database and Redis as in‑memorythat required much team effort to manage

databaseThat combined with the fact that cloud services had
significantly evolved since the applications were de-23

Project Three : Transform IaaS Delivery of ODS
Applications to PaaS Delivery

signed showed us that ODS was not leveraging all theWe had a new software architecture and autonomous

benefits of current cloud services
Just after Pyeongchang delivery we fully re‑assessed

agile teams The infrastructure delivery model needed

the ODS solution starting with a greenfield approach toto match in terms of increased independence between

get a totally new design for all ODS applications based on

the application and infrastructure delivery teams
In IaaS environments itʼs hard to draw a line between

these transformation principles :infrastructure configuration and application configura･ Use off‑the‑shelf components as much as possibletion･ Adoptteams are needed for applications to work Moving to a

microservices‑basedarchitectures

withwell‑defined APIs
･ Ensure all components can be fully tested in

as most changes performed by infrastructure

PaaS environment specifically a contained orchestrated
platform the line is much easier to draw The platform

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155

Figure 4

Figure 5

New ODS Software Architecture

CI/CD Pipeline Used for Tokyo 2020 Delivery

team ensures that the container orchestration platform

Another important part of the pipeline that grewis available and healthy while the application team is fully

significantly during the project : Monitoring has beenin charge of application deployment

enriched to provide each team the information they needThis clear separation together with a fully automatedCI/CD pipeline

accelerated our delivery from two

releases per year to one per month ─ with automatic

to monitor the services being delivered
Overall the CI/CD pipeline for the project covered
the end‑to‑end CI/CD life cycle (Figure 5)

availability of the new releases in the integration test
environments
The CI/CD pipeline grew during the project to

3．Observed Results after All Changes

incorporate more automation and controls including

The three transformation projects showed benefits

package generation functional testing security testing

especially visible on the latest phases of the projectand deployment in testing environments

While at the start introducing three transformations

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THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

caused certain delivery disruptions during the last six

cantly improved From requirements gathering to live

months of the project we reached a stable delivery pacesystem support having all team members familiar withThat was when the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑

all environments has enabled them to provide more

19) pandemic appeared and pushed the Tokyo 2020

effective end‑to‑end support with fewer incident

Games to 2021 It also brought several challenges tohandovers

application delivery

These transformations were key to delivering smooth

Pandemic restrictions and the new way of deliveringand successful Olympic and Paralympic Games during

the Tokyo 2020 Games remotely created new require-the pandemic

ments for the application team For some sports newchallenges we not only delivered the three projects

rules were announced a few months before the events tosuccessfully but also proved the benefits of the changes

address potential COVID‑19 situations during competi-

during the project itself

Even with the potential risks andtion Having a reliable delivery process that provides
assurance on released applications was a key asset toapproaching and minimizing the risks of such latechanges A strict change‑control process also provided
extra assurance to avoid disruptive late changes and theunnecessary risks they introduce to delivery
Another significant observation after the transformation has been the autonomy of the different teams due totheir end‑to‑end ownership of the applications being
delivered(Received March 4 2022 ; Revised March 15 2022)

Albert MINGUILLÓN
Albert MINGUILLÓN is Atos Major Events
Applications Director leading product delivery
to major events such as the Olympic Games andCommonwealth Games For more than 15
years he has worked all digital angles of major
events including development operations andsystem and service integration finally serving
as senior architect and solution manager before
moving to his current roleItʼs similar to what we observed withapplication delivery initially disrupted and then signifi㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

157

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑7

Advanced Access Control System with
Face Recognition Technology
NAGAMINE Nanaumi

IMAIZUMI Masumi

KOBASHI Atsushi

An entrance control system with face recognition was adopted at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 for thestringent verification of visitorsʼ identity at the entrances of all competition venues the Athletesʼ Village the Media Press
Centre and the International Broadcast Centre More than 700 000 persons were registered and more than 4 million
checks were performed during the Games with an authentication rate of more than 99 8%
Keywords：Face recognition Access control Facial feature

1．Introduction

to verify the ownerʼs identity thereby realizing stringent security

In previous conventions the identity of the partici-

This is the first time in the history of the Olympic andpants was verified by visual inspection of photographs ofParalympic Games that face recognition technology has

their faces printed on accreditation cards (Terminology) at the

been used to verify the identity of each authorized

entrance for the authorized personnel of each venue andpersonnel

the admission authorization was verified by visual

Atos was in charge of the total coordination and theinspection of symbols indicating the admission areaauthorization check function on mobile devices Panason-barcodesThis method may overlook

ic developed the entrance authorization check function

unauthorized entry due to identity theft tampering withand IC tags

linked to the dedicated face recognition devices thetickets etc Therefore the Advanced Access Control

video camera and IC card reader in the devices and NEC

System (AACS) which simultaneously verifies identity

was responsible for the face recognition devices and theusing a face recognition system and admission authority

face recognition function on the serverusing IC tags was introduced at the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020

2．Face Recognition Technology

This system uses an IC chip embedded in theaccreditation card to ensure the authenticity of the cardand facial information linked to the ID stored in the card

In this section we will introduce the face recognition
technology used in AACS
21

NAGAMINE Nanaumi
First Public Security Solutions Department Government and Public Solutions
Division NEC Corporation
IMAIZUMI Masumi
First Public Security Solutions Department Government and Public Solutions
Division NEC Corporation
KOBASHI Atsushi
Security Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 158‑161 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

158

Overview

Face recognition technology compares the face
information registered in advance with that of a person
facing the device to determine whether the face is that of
the registered person NECʼs face recognition system(product name : NeoFace) used in the Games uses
proprietary technology to perform the matching using
data called facial features

which is digitized facial

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

characteristics

matching features and not an ID card are used to check

Face recognition is a standard authentication method

whether a person exists in the database In the Games

that people use in everyday life to identify others and a

1 : 1 authentication was adopted for more rigorous

natural authentication method that does not impose aidentification without making significant changes to

psychological burden on the user In addition faceprevious operations

recognition is a technology that has been used in various
situations in recent years because it uses general‑

3．Features of the Dedicated Face
Recognition System

purpose products such as video cameras (1) while otherbiometric methods such as fingerprint vein and irisrecognition require a dedicated scanning device to31

Configurationcollect information

Figure 2 shows an overview of the exterior and an
enlarged view of the console of the face recognition

22

Face Detection〜Feature Point Extraction

deviceThe part of an image containing what appears to be a

① is an LED light that turns on when a person

human face is detected and cropped (face detection)

approaches to attract the subjectʼs attention and make

Thereafter feature points to identify that individual arethem face the camera ② is a motion sensor that turns on

extracted (feature point extraction) and digitized

the LED light in ((Figure 1)

Panasonic) when it detects a person ③ is acamerawithanintelligent

autofunction (Terminology) that captures high‑quality face images
23even in various shooting environments such as back-Face Recognition

Face recognition compares features registered in the
database with those for matching and outputs a score of
0 to 1 for the similarity degree In general there are two
types of biometric authentication : 1 : 1 authentication inwhich a specific person in the database is matched withan ID card

Figure 1■

and 1 : N authenticationin which theFace Detection〜Feature Point Extraction

Terminology

Accreditation Card
An identification card issued by
IOC or IPC to authorized persons which works as an
entrance pass to the staff area Identity number photo nameand the areas allowed access to are printed and an IC chip isembedded to prevent forgery
Intelligent Auto Function
An intelligent and automatedfunction used to tune the parameters of the Panasonic camera
to meet the various lighting conditions
VAO Venue Accreditation Office
The office established at each venue to reissue accreditation cards andreregister facial features■

Figure 2

Overview of the Exterior and an Enlarged View of theConsole of the Face Recognition Device（©NEC
Corporation）

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159

light and nighttime ④ is the result display screen

quakes or human collisions by using a steel base plate

Before the ticket is held up a mirror image is projectedwith a 50 cm radius and setting the centre of gravity atto encourage the subject to face the camera After thethe bottom to achieve a tipping angle of 27 0 to 27 9

ticket is held up the authentication result is displayed

from left to right and 26 9 to 27 7 from front to back

⑤ is where the accreditation card is touched and it has a

These values are sufficient to withstand an earthquake

built‑in IC Card Reader The LEDs ⑥ on both sides ofintensity of upper 5

the screen are embedded with three‑color lights so that

The device is secured with screws that can only be

the security staff standing behind the device can easily

opened with a special driver to prevent theft from inside

see the authentication results

and the SSD of the device is encrypted so that it can beread only by the deviceʼs motherboard

32

Universal Design

features are deleted from the device when a match is

Athletes taller than two meters participate in the
Olympic GamesThe facial

and athletes in wheelchairs were

found or four seconds have elapsed Even if the facial
features are leaked they cannot be decrypted by otherpresent at the Paralympic Games In order to capturedeviceshigh‑quality facial images of both athletes with the same

hardware and software security measures have been

device the height and elevation angle of the camera

implemented

In this way

multiple layers of physicalwere calculated Because wheelchair users are often
accompanied by their caregivers

the images were

4．Statistical Information

captured to recognize two people with faces at different
heights consecutively The lower part of the device is41

designed to be narrow so that a wheelchair can easily

The number of registrants for accreditation was

Number of Registrants

420 000 for the Olympic Games and 310 000 for the

pass throughThe authentication result screen (result display) for

Paralympic Games an increase from 280 000 for thevisitors is also designed to be easily recognized by

London 2012 Games and 230 000 for the Rio 2016 Gamesvisitors from all over the world as shown in Figure 3
Figure 3(a) shows the screen displayed when a visitor

42

Authentication Rateis asked to enter the venue after both face recognition

The flow of the face authentication portion excluding

and entrance authorization have been verified success-the authority check portion is shown in Figure 4 The

fully Figure 3 (b) is the screen displayed when faceperson is allowed to enter if the matching score exceeds

recognition fails and the user is asked to touch their card

the threshold in three attempts If the face recognition

and face the camera again Figure 3 (c) is the screen
displayed when an alternative way is required to verify
the visitorʼs identity for reasons such as when facerecognition fails three times consecutively using up all
the attempts
33

Security Measures

The device is prevented from tipping due to earth-（a）Figure 3

160

（b）

（c）

Authentication Result Screen（©NEC Corporation）

Figure 4

Flow of Face Authentication

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1

Authentication Rate of Face Recognition

5．Conclusion

Olympic Games

Paralympic GamesN1

2 729 680

1 058 260N2

80 57522 799received strict reviews from the IOC

Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo 2020 Organis-

N3
Total
Authentication rate ＊

4 734

2 025

2 814 989

1 083 084

99 83%

99 81%＊The authentication rate is defined as (N 1＋N 2)/(N 1＋N 2＋N 3)
PeriodOlympic Games July 21 to August 8 2021
Paralympic Games August 25 to September 5 2021

Since the beginning of the proposal in 2016

wethe Tokyo

ing Committee and have achieved a high authentication
rate and zero failures due to careful tuning of parameters
and operational design through demonstration experiments and test events We want to once again express
our gratitude to the Security Bureau of the Organising
Committee for their efforts

fails three times consecutively it is considered that thepoor quality of the registered image is the reason andshe or he is requested to go to VAO (Venue Accreditation Office) (Terminology) for more careful identity verification
with other documents such as the passport and register
the facial features to the server again The person isallowed to enter if the face recognition succeeds after
registering the facial features again (N 2) If the person is
not recognized as an authorized person she or he is notallowed to enter and it is counted as a recognition failure(N 3)
Table 1 shows the number of cases for the Olympic
and Paralympic respectively
The statistics show no significant difference between
the Olympic and Paralympics and both have achieved
an authentication rate of more than 99 8% It should be
noted that N 3 does not indicate the actual performance offace recognition since it includes cases where a person
other than the registered person such as a vendor cameto the venue and was refused entry
Although it is difficult to compare the results withthose of past Games which used visual identification
there were almost no queues at the Tokyo Games which
was observed at the entrances for visitors to past
Games suggesting that this system contributed to strict
identity verification and improved the throughput
43

Failure Rate

During the preparation period before the Olympic
Games there was a malfunction due to an overcurrent in
the network equipment caused by a lightning strike but
no hardware or software failures or malfunctions wereReferences()

NEC Technical Journal, vol. 71, 2018.
https://www.nec.com/en/global/techrep/journal/g18/n02/g1802pa.
html(Received February 28, 2022 ; Revised March 11, 2022)

NAGAMINE Nanaumi
Graduated from the University of Tokyo in
1995 with a degree in Liberal Arts and Basic
Sciences I Joined NEC Corporation in the same
year Since then he has been engaged inconstructing supercomputer systems and developing systems for government agencies
Currently he is the Senior Director of the First
Public Security Solutions Department Government and Public Solutions Division NEC
Corporation Author of “How to Organise a
Global Project Team ”
IMAIZUMI Masumi
Graduated from the Graduate School of
Science and Engineering Tsukuba University
with a Masterʼs degree in 1998 Joined NEC
Corporation in the same year Since then she
has been engaged in the research and development of systems for the Ministry of Defense
Currently she is the Deputy Senior Director of
the First Public Security Solutions Department
Government and Public Solutions Division
NEC Corporation
KOBASHI Atsushi
Completed the first half of the doctoral
course at the Graduate School of Engineering
Nagoya University in 1997 and joined NEC
Software Ltd Since then he has been engaged
in system development for the financial sectors
and government agencies and has been
seconded to the Tokyo Organising Committeeof the Olympic and Paralympic Games since2015 where he was assigned as the Manager of
the First Equipment Procurement Section of
the Security Bureau Currently he is a Senior
Professional at the Public Solutions Division
NEC Solution Innovator Ltd

reported from the servers in the data centre and the facerecognition devices installed at the venues during the
Olympic and Paralympic Games

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161

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑8

Congestion Monitoring System for Infection
Control Measure
IIO Atsushi IMAI Masatoshi SAITO Tsuguharu
MAEJIMA Seiichi MATSUSAKA Kazuyoshi

This article describes the congestion monitoring system provided to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
focusing on two distinctive points : first the service was provided in a short period and second the project progress andsystem operation was under an exceptional environment during the infection spread period of the coronavirus disease2019
Keywords：Social distancing measures Congestion monitoring Behavior change

1．Background of the Introduction of
the Congestion Monitoring System

11

Short‑term Implementation after the Decision to
Introduce the System

The adoption of the congestion monitoring system was

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

officially decided at the end of March 2021 This project(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”)

had to build and deploy the system locally in about 3

scheduled for 2020 were postponed by one year tomonthssummer 2021 due to the spread of the coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID‑19) infection In addition to the12

original plan it was necessary to prepare for the Games

Globally Recognized Measures against Infectious Diseases

keeping COVID‑19 in mind And an additional budget

Avoidance based on “SANMITSU” has been proposed

was created as a measure in the December 2020

as a measure against infectious diseases in Japan (1)supplementary budget

The congestion monitoring“SANMITSU” means “avoiding gatherings in crowded

system shown in Figure 1 was introduced as a social

places close‑contact settings and enclosed spaces”

distancing measure

WHO also called for the “3Cs” in July 2020 which are thesame as the “SANMITSU in Japan (2)IIO Atsushi
Digital Platform Business Unit‑Service Platform Division NEC Corporation
E‑mail a‑iio@nec com
IMAI Masatoshi
Digital Platform Business Unit‑Service Platform Division NEC Corporation
E‑mail masatoshi‑imai@nec com
SAITO Tsuguharu
Digital Platform Business Unit‑Service Platform Division NEC Corporation
E‑mail t‑saito‑dh@nec com
MAEJIMA Seiichi
Digital Platform Business Unit‑Service Platform Division NEC Corporation
E‑mail s maejima@nec com
MATSUSAKA Kazuyoshi
Digital Platform Business Unit‑Service Platform Division NEC Corporation
E‑mail k‑matsusaka@nec com

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 162‑168 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

162

2．Congestion Monitoring System andProject Management
This section provides an overview of the congestion
monitoring system tasks and solutions and how the
project is progressing
21

System Implementation

It was decided that the congestion monitoring system

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

Overview of Congestion Monitoring System

planned initially would be built for the Games However

22

there were challenges in terms of delivery time and costThis project was not only a large‑scale event but also

The system utilized an existing cloud service to

faced different constraints and risks than usual under theovercome these issues This led to the introduction of acircumstances of a global pandemic

Project Progresscongestion monitoring system that could be implemented in a short period and solve the installation issues

221
･

211

Installation Issues

Requirements for This Project

Construction in a short period of about 3 months
until June 2021

Initially a plan to use network cameras was consid-･

Low‑cost implementation

ered for the congestion monitoring system Most of the･

Security and content design must comply with PJ

facilities prepared for 2020 had already been constructedat the time of the study There were problems inconstructing additional networks and other infrastruc-standard･

To be understood worldwide as a measure for
infectious diseases

ture facilities regarding cost physical coordination (e gsecuring conduits) and construction period

222

Approach to the Requirements

To manage the progress of multiple teams a “Work212

Solutions

To address this issue

Breakdown Structure (WBS)” was used to visualize thethe existing “Congestiontasks and team status of the entire project In addition

Visualization Service” using mobile networks wasagile development was used to adjust to the require-

adopted to solve the network installation issue andments and Daily Scrums were conducted to ensure that

construction work was kept to a minimum for power

the schedule was maintained while the situation changed

supply and sensor installation

day by day We have assigned quality control experts to

In addition to the“Congestion Visualization Service”

Digital Signage

ensure the quality of the project

Service” and “Passer‑by Counting Service” were used
for short‑term implementation The lack of functionality

223

was addressed by minimizing customization and design-

The first state of emergency was declared during theing a system to meet the operational needs of the Games

Progress of the Project during the Pandemic

project period on April 7 2020

As a result the services solved the issues of short‑term

Project members were restricted in their activities ;

implementation and achieved low‑cost implementation

therefore they had to communicate more closely to keep

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020163

the project moving forward Measures were necessary
to prevent infection among project members during
processes that required on‑site responsesuch aspreliminary inspections to determine sensor installation
locations installation work and subsequent testing224

Measures during Site WorkA detailed work plan was made for the site andpreliminary inspections
target areas

considering routes between

and rehearsals were conductedInaddition the number of people was narrowed down by
subdividing an area into smaller areas for sensor
detection testing The members who worked on the site
reported daily their temperatures and physical condition
during the work period to avoid the risk of the project
shut down due to infection and the risk of being placed inquarantine at home in the event of heavy contact
225

Other Measures

To prevent congestion by workers on‑site

weensured that no more than four people were present in agroup during meetings dismissal and waiting at thesite

In addition

heat stroke measures were alsoprioritized by increasing the number and duration of
breaks because the site tests were conducted under hightemperature and humidity conditions
23

Information Provision Mechanism

For conveying the detected congestion information inreal‑time to the athletes and other people involved
consideration was given to the diversity and ease of

Figure 2

understanding of the information
231

Diversity of Communication

Information Display（©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

that does not rely on the language for non‑verbal

Digital signage was installed in the lobbies maincommunication Congestion information was displayed

dining hall casual dining room and fitness centre of thein three levels (below 30% 30‑70% above 70%) Staff

athletesʼ residential building in the Olympic and Paraly-

could switch the display on the second floor of the main

mpic Village For example when athletes leave thedining hall to a “Closed” sign An original content design

residential building for a meal they can check the digital

was created following the guidelines of the Games looksignage in the lobby to find out the availability ofdesignfacilities The same information was provided to the

proposals were exchanged closely with the Tokyo 2020

Due to the short turnaround time

designsmartphones used by athletes and related personnel toOrganising Committee Still it took longer than ex-

access the information from anywhere By using various

pected to finalize the design because approval had to bemethods to provide information the system was able toobtained from several departments

guide users to avoid congestion
24
232

Understandability of the Content

Overview of the Congestion Monitoring System

Informing athletes and other related personnel of

The information shown in Figure 2 is displayed incongestion conditions in real‑time made it possible forJapanese and English but the content is mainly visualthem to take action to avoid crowded places and times of164

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 3

Figure 4

Congestion Visualization Service

Detection Sensors（©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

congestion The following is an overview and configuration of the system (Figure 3)
241

Figure 5 Image of Counting the Number of People
Detection
sensors count the number of people image data is discarded andonly the numerical data is sent to the cloud （©2021‑International
Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

Figure 6 Appropriate Number of People in the Target Area
Example : Capacity : 20 people the number of people is calculated
considering the appropriate interval for the target area

Location of the Congestion Monitoring System

The congestion visualization system was installed in
the main dining hall casual dining room recreation area
fitness centre and village plaza of the Olympic andParalympic Village
242

Congestion Monitoring Mechanism

The congestion monitoring mechanism uses a detection sensor (Figure 4) to capture images of the target
area detect human shapes and count the number ofpeople (Figure 5) The detection sensor consists of acomputer a camera and a SIM and counts the number

Figure 7 Appropriate Interval Considered as Social DistanceAccording to the “New Lifestyle” announced by the Ministry of
Health Labor and Welfare the recommended distance is 2 m andthe minimum is 1 mof people (Figure 6) The images captured are immediately deleted after processing in the detection sensor
and the appropriate area that can be covered by a single

243

detection sensor is 10 m×10 m (Figure 7) The conges-

The digital signage was a cloud‑based system (Figure

Digital Signage Service

tion level content was generated based on the threshold

9)

values specified in advance in the cloud (Figure 8)

hardware made it possible to deploy the service at the

The subscription‑type service

which includes

Olympic and Paralympic Villages in a short period By
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020165

3．Service Operation and Lessons Learned
during the Games
Standard services alone cannot cover all the requirements The policy of this project was to respond to thecharacteristics of a short‑term event The gap with therequest was addressed by human operation
31

Utilization of Existing Services

Generally

the operation of the service aims at

automation However in this project the service was
Figure 8 Criteria for Judging Crowding
In the case of 20
people 1 person/1 m 2 was used as the maximum capacity

designed with the highest priority to date of delivery andcost The operation design was studied according to theTokyo 2020 Games A one‑stop service was provided asa system including operation and maintenance such as
establishing a local response system and designingescalation rules for the Games period
32

Issues during the Games

There were discrepancies between the congestion
level considered by the site staff and the congestion level
displayed by the system If the level felt by the site staff
and the level of the system are different the on‑site staff
will be given priority Therefore this problem wassolved by adjusting the threshold settings again since
Figure 9

on‑site operations are given priority

Digital Signage Service

33

Operational Changes during the Games

During the Games

there were no major system

preparing a unified support desk as a congestion

failures It is due to the success of repeated on‑site

detection service inquiries after the start of operation

operational tests During the transition period from the

could be handled promptly and operations could be

Olympic to Paralympic Games the thresholds were

continued until the end of the Games without trouble

modified to reflect the change in the maximum numberof people in each area We took into account the change

244

Web Constructionin the number of athletes and the number of wheelchair

The Web server was built on an IaaS service andcomplied with the security requirements described by
the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee

users during the duration of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic
Games

The loadbalancing was performed using a CDN : Content Delivery Network service provided by Tokyo 2020 Organising34

Behavioral Changes during the Period

According to the final report compiled by the Tokyo

Committee and dual security measures were imple-

2020 Organising Committee

mented by the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee andpeople stayed in the Olympic and Paralympic Villages

the vendor As in past Games there were many cyber‑during the peak of the Games The facility was used byattacks at this Games but none of them affected our3 636 people of which 500 people or 14% viewed theservices

Web The number of viewers of the digital signage wasapproximately 14 000

not counted
341

Effects of Introducing the System

At the time of the Tokyo 2020 Games the capacity of
166

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 10 Crowding Time of Occurrence (hours) on 1F/2F
Analyzing the data of July 25 (Sun )a dispersion induction time zone was set up on the second floor In addition the threshold value for the
first floor on July 26 was lowered and an early warning was issued As a result the congestion timezone on the first floor has decreased

the main dining hall was 618 seats on the first floor andsystem for the Tokyo 2020 Games was a flexible

2 100 seats on the second floor The entrance to theoperational design We proved that standard services

facility is located on the first floor and the first floor is

could be used for future large‑scale events such as thequickly crowded but effective dispersal guidance andTokyo 2020 Games by designing operations according toalerts were provided through quantitative monitoring

requirements

thereby leveling the congestion as shown in Figure 10
References

342

Effects of the System on the Operation Staff

(

)

(

)

The system was well received by the facilityʼs users as
a “good initiative” It was also highly evaluated by those
involved in managing the Olympic and Paralympic
Villages

The management staff was able to makedecisions on the operation of the facilities based on the

Example of practicing a “New Lifestyle,” Ministry of Health, Labourand Welfare.
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/en.newlifestyle.pdf“WHO calls for avoidance of ʻ3 Cʼ,” NHK, July 19, 2020, 4 : 42.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200719/k10012522831000.html(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 11 2022)

data of the crowded information In addition the dataalso helped to improve the overall efficiency of the
Olympic and Paralympic Villages as the staff was able
to grasp the status of not only the facilities they were in
charge of but also the entire Olympic and Paralympic
Village

Furthermore

we analyzed the congestion

period in each area and captured the behavior patternsof the athletes The behavior patterns provided usefuldata for the future provision of meals

4．Conclusion
This project provided a system that could be used todeal with infectious diseases in a short period and at a

IIO Atsushi
He graduated from Kanagawa University in2002 with a degree in Economics and joined
NEC Corporation in 2009 Since then he has
been engaged in digital signage‑related business Currently he is in charge of the IoT
service business in the Service Platform
Division of NEC Corporation
IMAI Masatoshi
He graduated from Saga University in 2011
with a bachelorʼs degree in Information Systems He joined NEC Corporation in the same
year Since then he has been engaged ininfrastructure construction work for the government and municipal offices Currently incharge of digital signage service business in theService Platform Division of NEC Corporation

low cost by utilizing a standard service In addition the
project was able to make up for requirements outside of
the service with a minimum of customization andoperation The key point of the congestion monitoring
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

167

SAITO Tsuguharu
He graduated from the Japan Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) in
1998 with a Masterʼs degree in Information
Science Since then he has been engaged inresearch mainly on QoS security and Identity
Federation Currently he is in charge of MDM
and IoT services
MAEJIMA Seiichi
He graduated from Kokugakuin University in1988 and joined NEC Corporation in 2010
where he has been engaged in web systemdevelopment new business development digital signage and IoT service business He iscurrently a professional in the Service Management Department of NEC Corporation 2011
Web creator and 2016 IT coordinator
MATSUSAKA Kazuyoshi
He graduated from Ritsumeikan University
in 1990 with a degree in economics In the same
year he joined NEC Corporation and isengaged in digital business related to broadcasting media Currently he is Senior Manager
Service Platform Division NEC Corporation㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

168

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑9

Tokyo 2020 Games‑Time Official Website
and Mobile Application
YAMAMURA Masao

ICHIO Koji

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Time Official Website and Mobile Application was developed as adigital channel to disseminate Tokyo 2020 Games‑related information to Olympic and Paralympic fans and spectators
around the world and attracted the large number of unique user accesses even in comparison with the past Games The
application also blocked all cyber‑attacks and prevented serious cyber incidents

This article summarizes therequirements and technical approaches that were considered most important to achieve these goals and reviews theactual access to the system during the Games
Keywords：Official website & mobile application System availability Cyber security measures User experience

1．Introduction
The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

that attracted worldwide attention taking into accountthe technological aspects as well as key statistics fromthe actual Games(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) Time
Official Website and Mobile Application (GTWA)
played an important role as a digital channel for the

2．Summary of GTWA System Architecture

comprehensive dissemination of information related to

GTWA is an Internet service that attracted attention

the Tokyo 2020 Games including competition schedules

from all over the world and was accessed by an

and results the torch relay venue information precau-

unspecified large number of people and we proceeded

tions against heat and measures against the coronavirus

with the system design and development considering thedisease 2019 (COVID‑19) to Olympic and Paralympic

following three requirements in particular

Games fans and spectators around the world
As a result although the Tokyo2020 Games were held･

System availability to process high trafficwith virtually no audience due to the coronavirus･

Robust security measures against cyber attacks

pandemic they ultimately attracted a large number of･User experience for efficient dissemination ofunique users during the Games TimeTokyo 2020 Games‑related information

This article looks back on how we built the system
The following sections (2 1 to 2 3) describe the
YAMAMURA Masao
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesE‑mail yamamuram@nttdocomo com
ICHIO Koji
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesE‑mail ichio koji@jp fujitsu com

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 169‑173 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

technical approach to achieving these requirements
21

System Availability

211

Cloud Platform

We used a global‑scale cloud platform to host theorigin VM servers with a multi‑region configuration in
geographically sufficiently distant regions and a multi‑

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020169

availability zone configuration within each region This

major security alert exceeding the level was generated

ensured high availability scalability and system redun-

the alert was escalated in real time and the TOC

dancy that could cope with disaster recovery in case of(Technology Operation Centre) started the incident

emergency

control to smoothly isolate and respond coordinatingwith all related partners

212

CDN (Contents Delivery Network)

Since the partners were located around the world

CDN was installed in front of the origin servers tointensive trainings were conducted through cybercache contents on distribution servers located aroundsecurity table‑top exercises and technical rehearsals

the world distribute them from there to reduce the loadconcentration on the origin servers and process the high23

user traffic

dynamic contents such as

GTWA played the role of a hub for all informationcompetition schedules and results information wererelated to the Tokyo 2020 Games and we pursued user

dynamically included on the distribution server using

experience to efficiently deliver information that users

ESI (Edge Side Includes) technology which further

wanted and also built a back‑end system for operators

reduced the load on the origin server and achieved highto edit and publish Tokyo 2020 related contents in a

performancetimely and efficient manner

In addition

User Experience

Prior to release performance tests were conducted on
the entire platform and results showed that the system231

was able to continuously process 100 k concurrent

GTWA supported seven languages (Japanese Chi-

Supported Languages

connections (average of over 500 kreq /s) This number

nese English Korean French Spanish and Hindi) thewas sufficient for the demand forecast

largest number of languages supported for the digital
media ever in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic

22

Cyber Security Measures

Since several serious security incidents due to cyber‑attacks had occurred in past Games cyber‑security

Games In particular mobile applications automaticallyread the language settings of the userʼs device anddisplayed contents in the most appropriate language

measures for servers that were open to the Internet had
to be developed with extra care The security measures

232

taken were reviewed through system audits and

The GTWA project team completed the service

Website and Mobile Application Development

penetration tests to ensure that they were properly andrequirements definition through a number of meetings

fully implemented

and reviews with the relevant departments within theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee The application was

221

Security Solution

As a solution CDN was used to protect against cyber‑then developed and refined with top‑level partners inthe sports technology industry in almost 60 cycles ofattacks from the Internet and EDR (Endpoint Detection

agile sprints over a three‑year period including theand Response) to detect suspicious behavior on endpoint

postponement period of Tokyo 2020 Games

servers The log information obtained was stored in

For instance easy content personalization and sign‑

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)

up through onboarding single sign‑on with Tokyo 2020

and the Cyber SOC (Security Operation Centre)

ID to other digital channels provided by Tokyo 2020

monitored the log on a 24‑hour basis This enabled theOrganising Committee such as My TOKYO2020 site

isolation rapid detection and response to the cyber‑official ticket site official online shop site and so on

attacks on the GTWA system
A vulnerability management operation system wasalso utilized to obtain the latest vulnerability information
and respond to them in a timely manner233

CMS (Contents Management System) Development

To disseminate the latest Olympic and Paralympic
Games information in a timely manner during the Games

222

Incident Response Flow

Time Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and the IOC

The first level incident response manual was createdjointly established a global content editing team and they

for typical cyber‑attack scenarios so that the Cyber SOC

worked in shifts Also the back‑end Content Manage-

could complete the response by themselves and when ament System (CMS) was developed and customized for170

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1

Major Statistics during the Tokyo 2020 Games

Item

NumberPeriodTotal number of unique users

199 million

1 Jan 2021‑5 Sep 2021

Total number of page views

1 34 billion

1 Jan 2021‑5 Sep 2021

Total number of mobile app downloads

5 5 million

25 May 2021‑5 Sep 2021 ＊1

Peak number of concurrent users

261 housand/minute

21：48 27 Jul 2021

Peak number of page views

191 thousand/minute

20：52 7 Aug 2021

Total number of cyber‑attacks blocked

163 million

Total number of critical security incidents

0

Average CDN cache hit rate

98 5%

＊1

23 Jul 2021‑8 Aug 2021 and
24 Aug 2021‑5 Sep 2021

25 May 2021 : Pre‑release date of the official mobile appthem to improve the efficiency of editing work
For example a dedicated template for each content
page such as a live blogging was provided to minimize
the number of editing points and reduce the workload
and integration with external services such as photo
albums weather and WBGT (heat index) information
enabled the automatic contents update via Push
notification
Figure 1

Daily Transition in Page Views/Unique Users

3．Key Statistics during Tokyo 2020 Games TimeThe main statistics of the GTWA system during theTokyo 2020 Games are shown in Table 1 and discussed in
Sections 3 1 through 3 5 Note that the figures for cybersecurity are those that occurred only during the Olympic
and Paralympic Games excluding the transition period
31

Number of Unique Users/Page Views

GTWA was positioned as a digital channel for
disseminating Tokyo 2020 Games information to users
and also as a means of realizing the digital marketingstrategy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games For the
Tokyo 2020 Games 200 million unique users were set as
Figure 2

KPI (key performance indicator) and the target was

Top 10 Countries in Page Views

almost achieved with 199 million unique users including
31 million mobile app users which was a little more than
15% As mentioned earlier this was a very large number

views indicating they had a high level of interest in theof user accesses even in comparison with the past

Tokyo 2020 Games On the other hand 49% of theGames indicating that the status of Internet media as aaccesses were from other countries not in the top tenmeans of watching the Olympic and Paralympic Games

indicating that thanks to the provision of contents in

is improving more and more (Figure 1)

seven languages many people from all over the world

In terms of page views there were a total of 1 34

accessed GTWA (Figure 2)

billion accesses During Tokyo 2020 Games approximately 90% of the user accesses were to the pages of thecompetition schedule results and medals

32

Mobile Applications

The number of downloads of the official mobile

In addition Japan the host country was ranked in theapplication began to increase rapidly after the start ofsecond of the top ten countries/regions in terms of page

the Olympics Games as expected but then suddenlySpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

171

slowed down over the next few days (Figure 3) The

the reasons why the number of mobile application

mobile application was intended to deliver proper

download did not increase as expected

information in a timely manner to Japanese andinternational spectators visiting the venues by utilizing

The ratio of the number of app downloads per
mobileOS was 47% for Android and 53% for iOS

the push notification function However due to thecoronavirus pandemic Tokyo 2020 Games was held with

33

Peak Accessalmost no spectators in the venues and the promotion

Peak accesses were considered to have been proc-

could not be conducted sufficiently that may be one ofessed well within the range guaranteed in the performance test There was no significant peak and thenumber of traffic increased and decreased repeatedly indaily cycle (Figure 4 and Figure 5)
34

Cyber Security Measures

Regarding access to the GTWA system the numberof blocked unauthorized communications including
cyber‑attacks began to increase gradually about 10
days before the opening ceremony of the Olympics
peaked on the second day and did not reach any
significant peaks thereafter (Figure 6)
Figure 3

Figure 4

Daily Transition in Mobile App Downloads

Transition in Concurrent Users per Minute (Olympic
Games Time)

Figure 6172

During the

Olympic and Paralympic Games the CDN blocked all of

Figure 5

Transition in Page Views per Minute (Olympic
Games Time)

Daily Transition in Total Number of Accesses (page views) and Blocked Communications
Including Cyber Attacks

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

in various fields from around the world were engaged tofocus on platform availability scalability user experience and cyber security measures Also an efficient
operation flow was developed to work closely withpartners and suppliers involved in operations during theTokyo 2020 Games As a result we could successfully
operate GTWA systems without any serious incident
GTWA systems were built in collaboration with IOC
and Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee which were for
Figure 7

Daily Transition in CDN Cache Hit Rate (bits)

the first time in the history of the Olympic andParalympic Games They will be taken over by IOC andthe 163 million unauthorized communications in total

used as a valuable legacy for future Games In addition

and Tokyo 2020 Games successfully completed without

we believe that the knowledge and successful experien-

any impact on services No major security incidents

ces of the engineers and managers who participated inwere escalated by the SOC during the Games indicating

this project will be of great significance to the Japanesethat security measures of GTWA achieved significant

industry in the future

success(Received February 28 2022)

35

Cache Hit Rate

During the Olympic and Paralympic Games CDN
recorded a very high cache hit rate of 98 5% on average
which was effective enough to improve response quality(Figure 7)

Also

the origin server operated stably

during this period without running out of resources

4．Conclusion
In the past Games the official websites and mobile
application of the Olympic and Paralympic Games werebuilt for limited‑time events ; however

it also had

characteristics that they attracted significant accesses
from users around the world and could become thetarget of cyber‑attacks repeatedly therefore the stable
operation of the systems was a challenge for the Olympic
and Paralympic organising committees
While building the GTWA systems experts/partners

YAMAMURA Masao
Masao Yamamura completed his masterʼsdegree at the University of Tokyo in 1999 andwas transferred from NTT DOCOMO Inc to
the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee in July
2018 where he was engaged in planning
development and operation of mobile‑related
projects as Director of the Channel Systems
Section Information Systems Department
Technology Services Bureau He is currently in
the Product Design Department NTT DOCOMO Inc
ICHIO Koji
Koji Ichio completed his masterʼs degree at
Osaka University in 2010 and was transferredfrom Fujitsu Limited to the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee in April 2017 where he
was engaged in planning development andoperation of mobile‑related projects as Manager of the Channel Systems Section Information
Systems Department Technology Services
Bureau He is currently with the Digital
Transportation Business Division of Fujitsu
Limited㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020173

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑10

Improvement of Web Content Accessibility
for Competition Results Distribution
YAMAMOTO Shinya

The competition results distribution system is the most widely used system in the Olympic and Paralympic GamesTokyo 2020 The users include athletes broadcasters spectators athletic organizations press and staff At the Olympic
and Paralympic Games Sydney 2000 visually impaired people from Australia complained to the organising committee thatthey could not use the results delivery system This was the worldʼs first lawsuit regarding Web accessibility The Olympic
and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 will place even greater emphasis on Web accessibility than in the past Games In thedevelopment of the results distribution system where it is challenging to ensure Web accessibility we conducted expert
tests that were taken by visually impaired people We identified more than 100 issues that did not conform with theaccessibility guidelines and worked to improve them This article describes the outline of the initiatives and solutions to theissuesKeywords：Accessibility Competition results User testing WCAG JIS X 8341‑3

developed so that people with disabilities can use them”

1．Introduction

Web

Advances in technology allow people to collect the
information they want anytime
various ways

Howeveranywhereand innot all people can takeaccessibility

also

benefits

peoplewithout

disabilities (Note 1) Accessibility is essential for people withdisabilities and is helpful for everyone in various
situations

advantage of this convenience Particularly for people

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has identified

with disabilities technology has the power to make“diversity and harmony” as one of the basic concepts ofthings possible that they might otherwise have given up

the Games (Note 2) In line with this concept the accessibil-

Nevertheless some technology services are still inacces-

ity of the Gamesʼ technology services was to be improved

sible to people with disabilities

to ensure that information is accessible to everyone

Web creator Tim Berners Lee says “The power of the
Web is in its universality

Access by everyone

regardless of disability is an essential aspect” Theregardless of race color gender sexual orientation
language religion politics disability or other disadvantages

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) founded by Tim

Under these circumstances the Tokyo 2020 Organis-

Berners Lee explains “Web accessibility means that

ing Committee worked to improve the Web accessibility

websitesof the results distribution system for the Tokyo 2020

tools

and technologies are designed andOlympic and Paralympic Games (hereinafter referred to

YAMAMOTO Shinya
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 174‑181 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

174(Note 1) W3C Accessibility
https://www w3 org/standards/webdesign/accessibility(Note 2) Conference Visionhttps://www tokyo2020 jp/ja/games/games‑vision/index html

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) which is the system with the22most users

Games Result Distribution Service and Web
Accessibility

Among the functions of the results distribution

2．The Olympics and Web Accessibility
21

system developed by the global partners and provided
at each Olympic and Paralympic Games the results

Litigation Case in the Sydney 2000 Games

pages in particular are used not only by the media and

The Olympic and Paralympic Games and Webother Games officials but also by viewers around theaccessibility are closely related : In 2000 a user withworld through the official website and mobile applica-

visual impairment in Australia sued the Sydney 2000

tions To provide easy‑to‑understand information to a

Olympic Games Organising Committee

The userwide range of viewers regardless of disabilities theclaimed that the inability to use the official website of thecontent of the competition results distribution system

Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with screen readers andmust be updated in real time This had to be done using a

Braille displays was a violation of the Disability

large amount of non‑textual content such as complex

Discrimination Act (DDA) The lawsuit was the worldʼstables and graphs to provide numerical data such as

first web accessibility lawsuit (Note 3) The visually im-scores and times which are actual competition data

paired plaintiffs demanded the following three items by

This data must be accessible to viewers with andthe time of the Games (September 2000)

without disabilities This is a characteristic that makes it
hard to ensure Web accessibility()

Provide alternative text for all images()

Ensure access from the Schedule page to theIndex of Sports()

Ensure access to the Results Tables on thewebsite during the Games

3．Tokyo 2020 Web Accessibility Policy
31

Web Accessibility Guidelines

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has
established the “IPC Accessibility Guide” (Note 4) which

The Sydney Organising Committee responded as

the Olympic and Paralympic host cities and Organising
Committees must follow The Guideʼs 7 5 10 Communi-

follows :cation requires that websites meet the W3C accessibility()

Alternative text for images was being progressively implemented as part of continual develop-

(

The

Web

Content

Accessibility

Guidelines

ment(WCAG) (Note 5) of this W3C Recommendation include)

three levels :Access from the “Schedule page” to the “Index
of Sport” was possible by inputting the required

A : A minimum required level to secure accessibility

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into the web

AA : A level required for public organizations in otherbrowser directly(

guidelines)

Access to the Results Tables would cause therespondent unjustifiable hardship to comply as
the site had already undergone “substantial

countries
AAA : It is not recommended to set AAA as a targetlevel
W3C recommended WCAG 2 0 in 2008

which

implementation” and planning The resolution forchanged to ISO/IEC 40500 : 2012 and JIS X 8341‑3 : 2016that would cost an estimated 150 million yen over

The contents of these three guidelines are all identical

368 working days
In the judgment the plaintiffʼs request was fully
approved The Organising Committee was ordered tomake all improvements before the start of the GamesIn the end the Organising Committee compensatedthe plaintiff because only partial improvements could bemade before the start of the Games(Note 3) Minimize Legal Risk
https://www w3 org/WAI/business‑case/#minimize‑legal‑risk(Note 4) IPC Accessibility Guide
https://www.paralympic.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/IPC%20Acce
ssibility%20Guide%20-%204th%20edition%20-%20October%202020̲0.pdf(Note 5) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 1
https://www w3 org/TR/WCAG21/

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175

32

Tokyo 2020 Accessibility Guidelines and Poli-

validations

cies

Games were handed over to the Organising Committee

Based on the IPC Accessibility Guide the Tokyo 2020

The issues remaining from the current

for the next Games

Organising Committee developed the “Tokyo 2020
Accessibility Guidelines” (Note 6) which were approved by

42

the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) The

While extracting issues through heuristic diagnostics

Guidelinesʼ 2 4 3 Website Criteria states that the website

and proceeding with the improvement we conductedshould be developed to include all people as users anduser tests twice to check from the userʼs perspective It

Accessibility User Test

meet the requirements of the W3C Accessibility

was to determine if there were any omissions

Guidelines The W3C Accessibility Guidelines are theimprovement was sufficient and if users with visual

most important guidelines for the Tokyo 2020 Games

impairments could use the assistive technology tools

ifUnder this policy the competition results distribution(screen reader and magnifier) without any issues The

system to be made available on the official website

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has conducted two

during the Games was also designed to comply with theuser tests with screen readers and magnifiers The

AA level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee hoped to gain

(WCAG) 2 1

knowledge and insight into the digital tools used bypeople with disabilities and encourage the participation

4．Validation of Web Accessibilityof the younger generation in the Tokyo 2020 Games The
test subjects were students with visual impairments

Web accessibility of the competition results distribu-

enrolled at the Tsukuba University of Technology (thetion page was evaluated using two methods : ʻHeuristic

first national university in Japan to make visuallyDiagnosticsʼ method which is a process where experts

impaired and hearing‑impaired students a condition foruse a thumb rule to measure the accessibility of user

admission)interfaces in independent walkthroughs and report

language test websites for the Olympic and Paralympic

The test subjects were two Japanese‑

issues and ʻAccessibility User Testʼ method in which

Games results distribution system The test scenarios

actual users verify the operation of the system underwere the Olympic and Paralympic Games where 12

development This is because some issues may not betasks were set for eachnoticed only by heuristic diagnostics

students were employed as testers for the first and ten

Seven visually impaired

for the second The test environment consisted of using
41

Heuristic Diagnostics

Accessibility experts conducted the following diagnostics based on their experience :their PCs and their screen readers (NVDA PC‑Talker
JAWS) magnifiers (Windows standard) and high‑contrast displays (inverted black and white) Since theuser test and heuristic validation are evaluated from()

Checklist creation : A checklist of 30 items forLevel A and 20 items for Level AA was createddifferent perspectives the number of questions wascounted independently for eachfor the achievement criteria()

Selection of target screens : 53 screen templates

421

November 2020)

were selected for the competition results distribution system(

Results of the First User Test (Conducted in

There were 33 issues of which 18 required improve-

Validation and issue definition : 103 issues thatments excluding minor issues The breakdown of these

did not conform to the success criteria were18 issues to the WCAG success criteria is as follows :)extracted(

Creation of improvement plan and instructions･

1 3 1 (A)“Info and Relationships” : 2 issues

for improvement : Present the impact cause and･

1 3 2 (A)“Meaningful Sequence” : 2 issues

specific improvement plan to the developer and･

2 4 4 (A)“Link Purpose” : 1 issue)

give instructions for improvement
The 103 issues in March 2020 were reduced to 8 issues
in December 2020 through repeated improvements and176(Note 6) Tokyo 2020 Accessibility Guidelines
https://www.tokyo2020.jp/ja/organising-committee/accessibility/
index.html

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

･

2 4 5 (AA)“Multiple Ways” : 6 issues･

2 4 6 (AA)“Headings and Labels” : 5 issues･

3 2 4 (AA)“Consistent Identification” : 2 issues

These issues which all tester students indicated theywould like to see fixed are presented in 5 1 10
422

Results of the Second User Test (Conductedin March 2021)

There were 39 issues (the number of issues increased

Figure 1

Issue of Medal Identification in the Competition Results
Display

Figure 2

Improvement of Medal Identification in the Competition
Results Display

512

Text Alternative is Not Provided for Medalfrom the first round because there were three moretesters and some test scenarios were changed) except
for minor issues three issues that required improvements The breakdown of the three cases that did notmeet the WCAG success criteria is as follows･

1 3 2 (A)“Meaningful Sequence” : 2 issues･

3 2 4 (AA)“Consistent Identification” : 1 issue

Among these issues the issue that many of the testers
indicated that they would like to see fixed was theinability to find the desired event This was because
there were too many choices in the menu for event
selection

This issue needed to be addressed as

described in 5 2 below

Images［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 1 1“Non‑text Content”(Level A)］
Because no alternative text (alt attribute) is set for

5．Major Web Accessibility Issues andImprovements

the medal image (img element) the screen reader reads

As mentioned above more than 100 issues required

user cannot obtain the medal information (Figure 3)“medal1 png” as the image file name The screen reader

improvements due to non‑compliance with WCAG 2 1
Level A and Level AA accessibility requirements The→We improved the medal image (img element) toprovide a text alternative such as alt=“gold medal”

major issues and improvements among these issues aredescribed below

513

There is No Heading for the Competition Icons［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1
51

Major Issues and Improvements“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］

Below is a list of significant issues identified during
validation and testing and their remedies

The text “live” was not marked up as a heading so
users could not understand that the competition was live
when they read the competition name on the competition

511

Color is Used as the Only Visual Means ofConveying Information

icon (Figure 4)→Improvements made to mark up the text “live” with

［Nonconformance with WCAG Sucess Criterion 1 4 1

heading elements and set supplementary information“Use of Color”(Level A)］(title attribute)

Users who have difficulty distinguishing between
colors cannot distinguish between gold

silverandbronze medals because the medals are identical in shape(Figure 1)→Improvements were made to add text information
within the image of the medals (Figure 2)

514

Semantic Elements and Attributes Not Being
Used in the Detailed Competition Results
Table［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

177

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Issue of Medal Images in the Event Result Display

Issue of Heading in the Competition Schedule Display

Issue of Reading Out Numbers in the Detailed Competition Results Table

Because heading and data cells are not correctly

515

associated with each other using the <th> element andLabels Not Being Provided for Competition
Result Scores

scope attribute screen reader users cannot understand［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1

what the numbers are or which athleteʼs information“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］

they are about because only the numbers are read out
continuously (Figure 5)→Improvements were made to associate heading cellswith data cells using the <th> element and scope
attribute

Since no headings or labels are provided for the scores
screen reader users cannot understand the meaning of
the numbers read out (i e which teamʼs score)(Figure
6)→The score section was improved to include the teamnames such as title=“final score of Japan”

178

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 6

Figure 8

Issue of Notation in Page Title

Figure 9

Correction of Page Title Notation

Issue of Reading Out Competition Results Score

Figure 7

Issue of Reading Out the Winner in the Competition
Results

516

The Order of Code Description in the Competition Result Score Not Being Appropriate［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 1“Info and Relationships”(Level A)］
The screen reader reads “Iran Winner” to read the

Figure 10

Issue of Not Being Able to Find Links

Figure 11

Issue of Not Being Able to Find Links

HTML source code in the order of its description
This misinforms the screen reader user that Mexico isa Winner when it is not a Winner (Figure 7)”→The relevant information was improved in thesource code to be written in sequence without separating
them
517

Page Title Not Written Properly［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 2 4 2“Page Titled”(Level A)］
The screen reader first reads the page title The
screen reader user cannot understand that this is anarchery page unless the text of the page is read out aswell (Figure 8)→The page title has been improved to include thename of the competition (Figure 9)
518

Inability to Recognize the Link Destinationfrom the Link Text

［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 2 4 4“Link Purpose”(Level A)］
The name of the country athlete and sport is a link

Figure 12

Issue of Not Noticing Submenus

but users cannot tell what page the link will take them toby just looking at the link text (Figure 10)
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

179

→The link text has been improved to set thedestination pageʼs title using the title attribute (Figure
11)519

The Existence of Submenus Going Unnoticed［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 2 4 5“Multiple Ways”(Level AA)］
Screen reader users do not notice the existence ofsubmenus because they are placed above the h1 heading(Figure 12)→This issue affected all pages and was difficult tocorrect due to development resource and schedule
constraints so it was addressed with the alternative
measure “accessibility help” described below
5 1 10

The Competition List Not Being in the Orderof the 50‑character Kana Syllabary on theJapanese Page

［Nonconformance with WCAG success criteria : 1 3 2“Meaningful Sequence”(Level A)］
Screen reader users cannot select the desiredcompetition from the competition list because thecompetition list is not in the order of the 50‑character
Figure 13

Issue with Competition Names Not Listed in Alphabetical Orderkana syllabary (Figure 13) Since no specific requirements were initially presented

the order of thecompetition names on the Japanese page was numerals
katakana and kanji in the JIS code The English page

Figure 14

180

Accessibility Help

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

was in alphabetical orderopinions of visually impaired users and were set at→The order of the competition names was improved

three levels : high medium and low These areso that they were in the order of the 50‑character kanasyllabary combining kana and kanjidifferent from those stipulated in the project()

The developer was presented with specificHTML source code improvement solutions and52

Alternate Solutions for Issues That are Difficult
to Fixscreen images of the improvements()

Indicate the issues to the developer when they

Among the issues identified in the user test large‑

are non‑compliant with the success criteria of thescale improvements that would affect the entire system

WCAG and any areas where the users will have

could not be implemented due to constraints on

issuesdevelopment resources and schedule As an alternative
we implemented a help page “Accessibility Help” forusers who use assistive technologies (e gscreenreaders)(Figure 14)

We believe these points will make it easier to proceedwith Web Accessibility improvements
We are confident that the significant improvements in

The following four items are included on the help
page :

Web accessibility achieved in the competition results
distribution system based on the testing and proposed
improvements proactively conducted by the Tokyo 2020()

How to use a pull‑down menu at the top of apage

Organising Committee will be carried over to future
games

(

)

How to find an event schedule

Finally we would like to thank the faculty staff and()

How to find a ʻlive nowʼ event

students of the Tsukuba University of Technology for()

How to find Baseball or Softballtheir cooperation as testers and NTT Claruty Corporation for their cooperation as facilitators in the user test

6．Wrap‑up
The factors that contributed to the success of theTokyo 2020 Organising Committeeʼs Web accessibility
improvements can be summarized as follows :()

Conducting user testing･The authentic voice from users resonates wellwith developers･

Problems are found that the experts were
unaware of()(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 31 2022)

YAMAMOTO Shinya
Senior Expert at NTT DATA Corporation
Public and Infrastructure Business Development Department He graduated from Osaka
Kyoiku University in 1992 and joined NTT
DATA Corporation in the same year In 2012
he received the “Certified Human Centered
Design Professional” certificate from the Human Centered Design Organization He engaged in web accessibility improvement for the
Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee from 2019
to 2021 He is from Gamagori City Aichi
Prefecture

Represent an ordering of priority for each
issue

Priority levels were set based on the㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

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181

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑11

A Study of Impact to Internet Traffic during
the Tokyo 2020 Games : Correlation
between Traffic and TV Rating
YOSHIDA Tomoya

SUZUKI Takashi

MATSUZAKI Mitsunari

When world‑class sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Soccer World Cup are held or
when high‑profile TV programs are broadcast Internet traffic (hereinafter referred to as “traffic”) is affected In the
Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 we observed some interesting fluctuations in Internet traffic during the
opening and closing ceremonies of the games as well as during the events which conflicted with the TV viewership In
this article we introduce those traffic trends
Keywords：Traffic TV ratings

1．Introduction

2．Traffic Trends of Tokyo 2020 Games

Human behavior and traffic are closely related For

In this section we introduce the traffic trends of theexample the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑Tokyo 2020 Games including the overall trends the19) increased the traffic due to the stay‑home and theopening ceremony and the trends of the most populartraffic increases temporarily when a high‑profile event is

eventsheld via the Internet due to increased Internet viewers
In the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games” )we observed an increase in online viewing traffic due

21

Overall Trends during the Games

Figure 1 shows the traffic trends of OCN an NTT
Communications Internet service provider

to online distribution via TVer and gorin jp while aDuring the Tokyo 2020 Games especially from thedecrease in traffic was observed during TV broadcast by

end of July to the beginning of August a significant

NHK and commercial broadcasters In section 2 wedecrease in Internet traffic was observed for a certain

introduce the actual traffic fluctuations concerning TV

period This means that many people watched theviewership Note that the traffic trends introduced here

competition events on TV resulting in a decrease ininclude the amount of Internet viewing

traffic volume Internet traffic volume declines whenhigh‑profile events are held However characteristics
such as a decline in traffic over a period are rare and

YOSHIDA Tomoya
Cloud and Network Services NTT Communications Corporation
E‑mail tomoya yoshida@ntt com
SUZUKI Takashi
Cloud and Network Services NTT Communications Corporation
MATSUZAKI Mitsunari
Cloud and Network Services NTT Communications Corporation

have not been observed in recent years except for the

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 182‑187 August 2022

usage decreases for about a week during the year‑end© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

182

Tokyo 2020 Games
This trend is similar to the decrease in traffic observed
during the year‑end and New Year holidays Internet
and New Year holidays due to increased TV viewing at

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

Figure 2

OCN Traffic Trends

Traffic Trends during Olympic Opening CeremonySpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020183

home and when returning home Traffic trends for the
Tokyo 2020 Games are similar to this trend
22

Traffic Trends during the Opening and Closing
Ceremonies

Next we introduce the traffic trends during the
opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games Figure 2
shows the correlation between the traffic for the opening
ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games and the change in
TV viewership (1) (the change in traffic when the
average weekly traffic during the base week of June 21 is
set to 1)

Figure 3

Traffic Trend of Olympic Closing Ceremony

Characteristic changes were observed in ①〜⑤ The
traffic decreased when the TV viewership increased andconversely increased when the TV viewership decreased for the various events of the Olympic opening
ceremony (2) The increase or decrease in traffic wasinversely related to the level of interest of the TV
viewers which was an interesting result①

Traffic decreased with the start of the opening
and closing ceremonies②

Traffic increased during the entrance of theathletes③

Traffic decreased with the entrance of theJapanese athletes④

Figure 4

Traffic Trends for the Opening Ceremony of the
Paralympics

Figure 5

Traffic Trend of Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony

Traffic increased during the time of the greetingby the organizer of the games⑤

Traffic increased after the closing ceremony

Compared to the traffic trend on the same day of theweek of June 21 approximately one month before theopening ceremony the traffic volume decreased considerably on the day of the opening ceremony indicating ahigh level of interest In Figure 3 the closing ceremonyof the Olympic Games (3) the traffic decreased at the
beginning of the closing ceremony and the entrance of
the Japanese athletes which may be due to the increasein the number of TV viewers
Duringceremony

the(5)

opening

ceremony (4)andclosingof the Paralympics (Figure 4 and Figure 5

respectively) although the traffic did not increase or
decrease as much as in the Olympics it did increase or
decrease according to the level of attention to each

23

event

Here are two of the most high‑profile traffic trends in

It can be said that there was an inverse relationship

Event Traffic Trends

the Olympic competitions

between the level of interest of the TV viewers and thetraffic

231

Japan Menʼs Soccer Semifinal (August 3)

One of the most popular events was the semifinal of184

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 6

Traffic Trend of Menʼs Soccer Semifinal

the Japanese menʼs soccer tournament The traffic also

232

showed characteristic changes

Another high‑profile event the final game of the

As shown in the red line in Figure 6 traffic growthslowed down before 20 : 00 when the various games

Samurai Japan Baseball Final (August 7)

Samurai Japan baseball tournament was also observed
as a high‑profile event

were being watched on TV but after 20 : 00 when the

As shown in Figure 7 a decrease in traffic wassoccer game started the growth slowed down further

observed from 19：00 during the final game during the

The decrease in traffic also indicates the degree ofgold medal game of Samurai Japan A certain amount ofattention paid to this game Then at around 20 : 45 thetraffic decreased for an extended period compared totraffic increased significantly at the end of the first half

Saturday traffic during the week of June 21 The traffic

This indicates that Internet users increased after thechange results appear to reflect the tendency of baseballfirst half when they temporarily stopped watching TV

to have longer game times than soccer and no significant

When the second half of the game started the traffic

scene changes The traffic decreased further because of

decreased again The traffic trend shows that people

the tense matchups and the final game for the gold medal

watch TV during soccer games and use the Internetby Samurai Japan which is inversely related to theduring breaks The traffic increased temporarily during

increase in the number of TV viewers (Estimatedthe break before the extra time as well as during the

because TV ratings are unknown ) The most significant

half time The traffic decreased more and more during

decrease in traffic was observed at the moment of theextra time as more attention was paid to the match The

victory It is assumed that this moment attracted thetraffic increased around 22 : 30 when the game ended

most attention The traffic decreased but returned to theand returned to the usual traffic trend about 30 minutes

usual at 23 : 00 The Internet traffic returned to regularlater

traffic relatively soon after the soccer game because the

The same traffic trend was observed for the high‑team lost the game However Internet traffic returned

profile soccer matches at the Olympics and the World

to regular traffic late in the day after the baseball game

Cup

because the baseball team won the gold medal and it

and the high‑profile Japanese menʼs semifinalsoccer match at the Olympics was a remarkable result

was a Saturday

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

185

Figure 7

Table 1

Traffic Trend of the Final Match of Samurai Japan

Traffic Difference Compared to the Same Day of the
Week on June 21

profile events such as the Olympics saw an increase in
TV viewership and a decrease in Internet traffic The

Day ofthe week

Difference from normal(Max value)

results were particularly interesting for the opening

Opening ceremony

Friday0 298

ceremony and other high‑profile competition events

Soccer semifinal

Tuesday

0 191

where traffic fluctuations were observed for each scene

Baseball final

Saturday0 165

Not only at this Tokyo 2020 Games but also at various
other events human behavior and characteristics can beextracted from changes in Internet traffic It is expected24

Traffic Differences from Usual Times

Table 1 shows the maximum difference in trafficthat traffic trends will continue to be analyzed fromvarious perspectives in the future

between the three events the opening ceremony of the
Olympics the menʼs soccer semifinal and the baseball
final compared to the same day of the week on June 21

References
(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

This table shows the attention paid to the opening
ceremony The traffic difference from the usual time
was higher for the soccer semifinal held on Tuesday thanfor the gold medal‑winning baseball game and theoverall traffic decrease was also higher indicating thehigh level of attention and interest

3．Conclusion
In this article we introduced traffic trends for the
Tokyo 2020 Games and found an inverse relationshipbetween traffic and TV viewership The most high‑186

Yahoo! JAPAN News, “Viewership of the Opening Ceremony : 42.5%,
Triple that of Rio.”
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/suzukiyuji/20210724-00249622
The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210723/k10013155501000.
html
The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210808/k10013189101000.
html
The Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210824/k10013221141000.
html
The Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210905/k10013245281000.
html(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 18 2022)

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSYOSHIDA Tomoya
YOSHIDA Tomoya graduated from Chuo
University in 1998 with a bachelorʼs degree inInformation Science and Technology He joined
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporationin the same year Since then he has been
engaged in the operation and development of IP
networks He is an evangelist at NTT Communications Corporation Director of the Cloudand Network Services Department and Chairof the CONECT : COuncil for Network Efficiency by Cross‑layer Technical members

MATSUZAKI Mitsunari
MATSUZAKI Mitsunari graduated from
Kumamoto National College of Technology in2017 and joined NTT Com Engineering Corporation in the same year Since then he has been
engaged in the operation and development of
FLETʼS network services Currently he works
at Cloud and Network Services Department
NTT Communications Corporation

SUZUKI Takashi
SUZUKI Takashi joined Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation in 1996 2012 Joined
NTT Communications Corporation where he
was engaged in the development of domestic IP
networks and FLETʼS network services Currently he is a Cloud and Network Services
Department manager Data Analyst㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

187

3 Information System Digital Media

3‑12

Customer Relationship Management for
the Tokyo 2020 Games
FUEKI Nobutaka

ANDO Tatsuya SAITO Kazuo
SEKIGUCHI Naohiro

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was implemented for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 toconnect with the spectator and build a bond with the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Unique ID the so‑called
TOKYO 2020 ID for Olympic and Paralympic Official Ticket Sales and official online shop sales was implemented as acommunication channel for ID registrants Information was provided through the portal site so‑called My TOKYO 2020and TOKYO 2020 email magazine This article introduces CRM initiatives put into practice at Tokyo 2020 Games such as
the first‑ever data synchronization between TOKYO CRM and IOC CRM
Keywords：CRM TOKYO 2020 ID My TOKYO 2020 TOKYO 2020 email magazine IOC collaboration Legacy

1．Introduction
This article first introduces the “background and2．Background and Approach
21

Project Launch Period

approach” of the project from its launch to the GamesAs of 2016 the results of various surveys indicatedperiod Next the channels “My TOKYO 2020” “TO-that ticket sales for the Tokyo 2020 Games were in

KYO 2020 email magazine” and various collaborations

danger of slumping given that the intention to watch thethat practiced CRM Then “TOKYO 2020 ID” which

Tokyo 2020 Games at venues had not increased and thesynchronized various systems“IOC collaboration”

ticket sales rate for the Rio 2016 Games was 91% (Note 1)

which was the first attempt in history and “Legacy”

which was low There was a possibility that ticket

which will be inherited after the end of the Olympic andholders would not come to the venue for the TOKYO

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to2020 Games In the past Games there was an incident

as “Tokyo 2020”) will be introduced

where ticket holders did not come to the venue even if
purchased and it seems to be applied to Tokyo 2020
Games A CRM project was launched to solve these
problems with the goals of “selling out tickets” andFUEKI Nobutaka
Marketing Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic Games
ANDO Tatsuya
Digital Marketing Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic GamesSAITO Kazuo
Digital Marketing Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic GamesSEKIGUCHI Naohiro
Digital Marketing Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 188‑196 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

188“achieving full stadiums” for the Tokyo 2020 Games The
project aimed to conduct sales promotions to increase
the intention of spectators to attend the Tokyo 2020
Games

identify potential spectatorsand distribute

appropriate information to spectators In response to thelow user‑friendliness of the multiple IDs used in past

(Note 1) Adapted from OLIMPIC MARKETING FACT FILE 2021
EDITIONTHE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

such as the lottery application start event were held toincrease exposure and generate buzz

In addition

information was provided through My TOKYO 2020 and
the TOKYO 2020 email magazine mainly to those who
intend to purchase tickets leading to an increase inlottery applications In addition we sought to build
momentum by disseminating information on ticket sales
through official media such as SNS As a result access tothe ticket sales website was flooded and a long waiting
period ensued generating such a tremendous responsethat additionallottery sales were conducted
The number of tickets sold in the first lottery wasapproximately 3 22 million and approximately 350 000
tickets were sold in the additional lottery Seventeen
types of regular demand were selected for CRM andwere the target of focused communication for the second
Figure 1

CRM Strategy

lottery sale
23

Paralympic Games First Lottery Sales Period

As with the first Olympic Games lottery approxiGames we implemented an integrated One ID for Tokyo

mately 600 000 tickets were sold due to the combined2020 for centralized information management

implementation of various measures Twenty‑two types

The CRM strategy (Figure 1) was to provide
information about the Tokyo 2020 Games to generateof regular demand were selected as the target of focusedcommunication for the second lottery saleinterest encourage participation in events and increase
involvement This is because maximizing both engage-

24

Olympic Second Lottery Sales Period

ment activities to broaden the base of interest andBased on the first Olympic Games lottery results PR

Spectator Experience (SPX) activities to increase

activities were conducted to promote the attractivenessinvolvement in the Games would increase the number ofof each sport in the second lottery so that people could

people who work together to create the Tokyo 2020

apply for not only popular sports but various otherGames

sports The distribution of TOKYO 2020 email maga-TOKYO 2020 ID was established in July 2016 before

zines by segment and publication of special features on

the Rio 2016 Games began and information distribution

My TOKYO 2020 and the TOKYO 2020 official website

via email magazine started in August of the same year

also took place Approximately 900 000 tickets were

In July 2018 a promotion was started to promote thesold The supply‑demand balance was analyzed again

registration of TOKYO 2020 ID under the concept of “Be

the potential to sell‑out was calculated and nine types of

one of the miracle makers” As a result we fosteredregular demand were selected as the target of priority

momentum for the Games and a significant increase incommunication for first‑come‑first‑served

the number of TOKYO 2020 ID registrants and access toTOKYO 2020‑related sites was predicted The number

25

of registered IDs exceeded approximately 2 million as of

For the second Paralympic lottery PR activities were

Paralympic Games Second Lottery Sales Period

March 2019 enabling us to identify a significant number

conducted to build momentum for the Paralympics as aof potential spectators for the Tokyo 2020 Games before

whole and to promote the appeal of the Games digitalticket lottery sales

measures distribution of TOKYO 2020 email magazines
by segment and special features on the games on My

22

Olympic First Lottery and AdditionalLottery

TOKYO 2020 and the official Tokyo 2020 website

Sales Period

Approximately 370 000 tickets were sold Twelve types

An official ticket sales website was launched in
preparation for the first round of ticket sales PR eventsof regular demand were selected as the target of focusedcommunication for first‑come‑first‑served

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

189

Figure 2

Number of TOKYO 2020 ID Registrants

As of January 2020 after the second lottery washas collaborated with the public relations bureau chiefcompleted for the Paralympic Games TOKYO 2020 ID

media (Tokyo 2020 official website SNS) and the event

registrants exceeded approximately 8 2 million (Figure“One Year to Go” and sent positive messages for the2)This record far surpasses the 4 million people

Games As a result the opening rate of the email

registered for the London 2012 Games which was themagazine remained the same as before the postpone-

highest everment of the Gamesand the number of positive

comments increased significantly on social media
26

Postponement to Games TimePeriod

showing the strong impact of the Games on users

On March 24 2020 as the coronavirus disease 2019

During the Games Timeperiod daily competitions(COVID‑19) spreads worldwide the postponement ofsuch as “live blog” and “medalist interview” along with

the Tokyo 2020 Games for about one year wasathlete information“guidelines for the COVID‑19

announced and it will be officially decided to postpone

infection control” and “request to refrain from watching

until the summer of 2021 This decision less than fourroadside games” etcmonths before the opening of the Olympic Games wasInformation was provided

the first postponement in the history of the Olympic andOn the other handfor safe and secure competitions
the Tokyo 2020 Games also

The CRM communication was

strengthened collaboration with the IOC to enhance user

shifted from sales promotion to providing safe andconvenience by centrally disseminating information

secure opportunities to watch the games and the project

related to the Olympic and Paralympic Games A single

was restarted

sign‑on mechanism with the IOCʼs Olympic ID was

Paralympic Games

Information on “safe and secure Games operations”

introduced to the TOKYO 2020 ID in April 2021

“spectator and ticket handling policies” and “maximizing

From September 2020 the Organising Committee

spectator value” was disseminated through My TOKYO

commissioned the IOC to distribute an email magazine

2020 the TOKYO 2020 email magazine and the IOC

under the supervision of the Organising Committee toemail magazine for the Games periodTOKYO 2020 ID registrants and email subscribers

As the postponement of the Games has been decided

TOKYO 2020 ID registration information such as areainterest in the Games has diminished and cautious viewsof residence gender age interest in the games andhave increased So the TOKYO 2020 email magazine

ticket purchase information for some spectators during

190

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1

User
base

Percentage of Ticket Applications
Olympics
First Lottery
Sales Period

Olympics
Second Lottery
Sales Period

Paralympics
First Lottery
Sales Period

Paralympics
Second Lottery
Sales Period

My TOKYO 2020＋Feature Articles
Contribution CV rate
(excluding TOKYO 2020 Email Magazine
only)

34 6%

32 9%

23 0%

21 9%

My TOKYO 2020＋Feature Articles＋TOKYO 2020 Email Magazine
Contribution CV Rate

45 5%

38 1%

50 0%

47 2%

Table 2the Games was linked to disseminate targeted information A wide range of information was distributed
including emails focusing on specific themes such as

TOKYO 2020 Email Magazine Open Rates
Overall

Ticket‑RelatedInformation
PostedSpectator Experience
Related Information
Posted

49 6%

50 2%

48 9%

“Torch Relay” and “Countdown Event” as well as emails
covering multiple themes related to the Games such as

Averageopen rate“Athletes” “Competitions” and “Safe and Secure GamesManagement” During the Games period daily information was provided including information on competitions
and athletes such as “Todayʼs Highlights” and “Featured

events athlete information etc were informed There

Athletes” as well as information related to building

were several types of emails One is for all‑target

momentum safety and security such as “Guidelines foremails which were delivered to all email subscribers

the COVID‑19 Infection Control” and “Request forand the other is segment emails that were based on

Voluntary Restraint from Spectators Along the Road-

attribute information such as “gender” “age” “residen-side”

tial area” and preference information such as “favorite
competition”

3．My TOKYO 2020 and TOKYO 2020 EmailMagazine
31
311

32
321

Overview

Achievements
Ticket Application Ratio in Each Lottery
PeriodMy TOKYO 2020

Table 1 shows the results of ticket applications madeMy TOKYO 2020 was launched in January 2019 as avia My TOKYO 2020 and the TOKYO 2020 emailcommon My Page for TOKYO 2020 ID registrants It

magazine during each lottery sales period indicating

consolidated and disseminated information on official

that many users applied for tickets through the channels

Olympic and Paralympic Games ticket sales Tokyo 2020

where CRM was implemented

officially licensed products Tokyo 2020 competitions
events and athletes and TOKYO 2020 PASS allowing

322

TOKYO 2020 Email Magazine

TOKYO 2020 ID registrants to enjoy benefits at theTable 2 shows the average open rate of the TOKYO

National Federation partner events etc Contents were2020 email magazine The email magazine attracted

posted following the attribute information registered bysignificant interest from users throughout the periodTOKYO 2020 ID registrants such as “gender” “age”
and “area of residence” as well as their preferences

4．TOKYO 2020 ID

such as “favorite sports”
41
312

TOKYO 2020 Email Magazine

Overview

TOKYO 2020 ID is an ID authentication platform that

From August 2016 email magazine started to send

has been operating since July 2016 4 now we will

emails to those who had given their consent Similar to

mainly introduce the new ID infrastructure that started

My TOKYO 2020

operation in January 2019 (Figure 3)

ticket sales

Olympic and Paralympic official

Tokyo 2020 competition information

A significant increase in the number of TOKYO 2020

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

191

Figure 3

Overview of TOKYO 2020 ID Federation

ID registrants and a rapid increase in the number ofsocial login with other ID providers were planned theaccesses to the site during the critical period was

new ID platform uses OpenID Connect (hereinafter

expected from the forecast during promotion planningreferred to as OIDC)

It was also planned that TOKYO 2020‑related websites

consumer‑oriented services

which is more suitable forincluding ticket sales would be established and services

The 2020 ID system consists of SAP Gigya (IDwould be expanded sequentially in preparation for theauthentication provider) and the UID portal Each of theGames These issues were managed by constructing afederated sites (hereinafter referred to as “RP sites”)

new ID platform and data migration from the old ID

performs authentication using OIDC and various

platform was implementedchanges such as updating registration information via

This system provided single sign‑on to the following

the UID Portal (Figure 4)

TOKYO 2020‑related websites until late December
2021

43

Achievements

The service sites managed a large number of･･My TOKYO 2020accounts approximately 8 2 million and continuously

Official ticket sales for the Olympics and Paraly-

performed single sign‑on authentication during each

mpics

critical period The implementation of single sign‑on･

Official online store sales

with OIDC has improved user convenience and contrib-･Capacity limitation site

uted to improving services at each site by enabling each

･

2020

RP site to always retain the latest user information and･

Olympics com (social login linkage with Olympic

CARD application site

statusID)
44
42

System Configuration

ID Platform Migration

After an elaborate data design

two migration

The old ID platform used SAML as the authentication

rehearsals were conducted to ensure smooth data

protocol Since single sign‑on integration with many

migration from the old ID platform Approximately

sites related to TOKYO 2020 and implementation of

850 000 accounts were migrated in January 2019 and

192

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 4

TOKYO 2020 ID Login Sequence (Simplified Version)

Created Based on SAP Gigya Technical Information

the new ID platform began operation The following

implemented additional functions so that users can bepolicies were adopted to minimize the impact on users

re‑authenticated before specific actions such as pur-maintain a high level of security and enhance communi-

chasing to provide services with a higher security level

cation with users during the system migration

To resolve the items with differences in detailedness
between old and new platforms

･

･

･

･

Maintain the security level required from thedesigned with consistency

data definition is

RFC‑violating email ad-

userʼs perspective and configure the system UX‑

dresses which used to be allowed in the email service

consciously

provided by Japanese mobile companies were consid-

For more effective communication with users

ered an issue unique to Japan and needed to be

more details should be requested for some items ofaddressed Since the old ID platform allowed registra-

the registration information

tion with RFC‑violating email addresses the migrated

Minimize the procedures related to the migration

data included accounts registered with RFC‑violatingof the ID platform to prevent users from leaving theemail addresses The new ID platform restricts newsite in the initial login processregistrations with RFC‑violating email addresses andRetain the information registered in the old ID
platform to the possible extent

flags registered accounts enabling emails to be sent tothese accounts from a different environment that
supports RFC‑violating email addresses

By implementing a feature for processing the password hashing method of the old ID platform (algorithm45

RP Site Integration

salt/pepper number of stretches etc ) the difference in

The new ID platform provided each RP site withthe password hashing method between the old and new

single sign‑on authentication with OIDC（Figure 5) By

ID platforms was resolved In addition we have made it

returning the latest userinfo at the login process thepossible to unify the password hashing method with thelatest user information can be synced with each RP site

new ID platform by resetting the password in the new

Since data sync by userinfo response is only effectivein the RP sites in which users logged in data sync

ID platform after the first authentication
To prevent incidents caused by forgetting to log out at
each site we implemented a single logout function andbatches were executed daily to meet the requirements ofeach site

configured an appropriate value for the expiration ofaccess tokens

During the ticket sales period

weSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

193

Figure 5()

Overview of TOKYO 2020 ID Integration

Table 3My TOKYO 2020

Requirement : All item information of accounts updated on the day
Purpose : To maintain the latest information of all
accounts on My Page

Averageopen rate

IOC Email Magazine Open Rates〜Beforethe Games

Pre to Olympic
Games Period

Pre to Paralympic
Games Period

26 0%

18 3%

16 8%

Data sync method by batch : ETL sync (SFDC API)()

Ticket Sales and Online Shop Sales

Requirement : Email address change information andsubscription cancellation information
Purpose : To properly manage delivery destinations

effort to consolidate information related to the Olympic
Games and enhance user convenience starting with theTokyo 2020 Games and continuing with the Beijing 2022
and Paris 2024 Gamesfor notification emails sent from each site
Data sync method by batch : CSV file52

Achievements

The average open rate of the IOC email magazine is

5．Initiatives with the IOC
51

Overview

shown in Table 3

It remained at the same level

throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games periods
successfully attracting the same level of interest fromTo create new communication opportunities withusers

users for the Tokyo 2020 Games and promote sports inthe post‑Games period

we expanded our services

through various collaborations with the IOC such as
Tokyo 2020 Official Mobile Application social login

53

Data Synchronization

An overview of the data linkage from TOKYO CRM to
IOC CRM is shown below (Figure 6)

integration with Olympic ID and distributing email
magazines from the IOC
From August 2020 data synchronization between･･

TOKYO CRM and IOC CRM has started and it contains

Start date : August 2020
Scope of system development : Transfer andlinkage of contact information managed by TO-“email delivery permission” and attribute information

KYO2020 CRMʼs Service Cloud to IOC CRM

including “gender” “age” and “area of residence” and･

preference information such as “favorite sports” From

Email address First & Last Name Date of birth (dayItems to be linked :September 2020 Tokyo 2020 commissioned the IOC tomonth & year) Postal code Prefecture Address (1 &publish email magazines for e‑mail subscribers under

2) Phone number Gender Country Consent to receive

the supervision of Tokyo 2020 This is the first‑evercommunication Favorite language (email) Favorite

194

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 6

sports Olympic

TOKYO CRM IOC CRM Data Linkage

Favorite sports Paralympic

DirectMarketing Delivery

62
621

Purpose of Utilization
Fostering the Olympic and Paralympic Movement in Japan54

IOC Email Magazine TOKYO 2020 ID‑Olympic

To maintain the excitement of the Olympic and

ID Social Login Tokyo 2020 Official App

Paralympic Games during the Tokyo 2020 Games even

In October 2019 the service was changed so thatafter the Games are over and foster a movement toward

users who want to receive the email magazine from thefuture Olympic and Paralympic GamesIOC can indicate their choice Based on the discussions
with the legal staff of both TOKYO 2020 and the IOC

622

regarding the legal regulations and interpretations
associated with this service change we determined thesystem policy and designed the system
In 2021 TOKYO 2020 ID‑Olympic ID social login was
implemented which allowed users to log in to the IOCʼsSports Promotion in Japan and Contribution
through Sports

In addition to promoting sports in Japan the projectwill contribute to the development of Japanʼs volunteer
culture through sports and the resolution of social issues
such as disaster recovery assistanceofficial website olympics com with their TOKYO 2020
ID An official Tokyo 2020 application was also released

63

enabling users to receive the latest information appropri-

631

ately in the lead‑up to the GamesAim of Utilization
Utilization of Legacy Data for the Sports
Promotion in Japan

Our goal is to make legacy data available to sports‑

6．Legacy
The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee developed arelated organizations This will make it possible to reachpeople who have not been able to receive information
directly from the data held independently by the sports

basic concept and agreed with the IOC to utilize theorganizations

personal information managed by CRM during theregistration in sports organizations and sports events

Tokyo 2020 Games as a legacy that will remain in Japan

By integrating and mutually utilizing data that has been

thereby promoting participation andeven after the Games are over While it is necessary toheld individually by each sports organization even small

work out the details of the specific uses of the CRM data

and medium‑sized sports organizations will be able towith the concerned organizations the following sections

reach a wide range of users which will reduce thedescribe the future legacy use of CRM dataamount of data maintenance work that the organizations
have to do on their own

61

Targets and Scale of Legacy Data･

TOKYO 2020 IDs : Approximately 8 1 million
people･Volunteers (all field cast applicants): approx
200 000

632

Contribution of Sports to Solving Social Issues

By analyzing personal information collected in thewake of the Tokyo 2020 Games we aim to contribute tosolving social issues through sports by identifying users
who are willing to participate in disaster recovery
assistance and cultural events and promoting their
participation(Received on February 28 2022 ; Revised on March 10 2022)

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

195

FUEKI Nobutaka
Graduated from Keio University joined
Dentsu Inc in 2003 and worked as a consultant
mainly for CRM digital marketing and media
planning Seconded to The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2016 CRM Director ofMarketing Bureau Digital Marketing Officeand Innovation Promotion Office
ANDO Tatsuya
Graduated from the University of California
Irvine in 2005 Joined Atos K K as a technicalconsultant mainly for the systems of financial
industries in 2008 Started own business in2017 and joined the Tokyo2020 TSP project as
2020ID project lead Joined the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee Digital Marketing Office
as an advisor since 2019

SAITO Kazuo
Graduated from Hunter College of the City
University of New York in 1998 and joined
Fujitsu Research Institute in 2000 Working asa consultant for business innovation and new
business development Seconded to The Tokyo
2020 Organising Committee since 2014 SeniorDirector of Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Office Senior Director of Innovation
Planning and Innovation Promotion Innovation
Promotion Office
SEKIGUCHI Naohiro
Graduated from Musashi Institute of Technology in 2001 and joined Fujitsu Limited in2005 Working as a consultant for data utilization and digital marketing Seconded to The
Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2021
Director of Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Office㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

196

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

4 Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives

4‑1

Summary of Innovation Projects
for the Tokyo 2020 GamesSAITO Kazuo HIRATA Hideyo
TSUCHIYA Koichi OKADA Takahiro

We planned and implemented measures from three perspectives to realize “the most innovative Games ever in history
bringing positive change to the world” With the cooperation of partners we introduced the latest technologies (VRtechnology robots and 5G) and incorporated concepts unique to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Due tothe one‑year postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games caused by the coronavirus disease 2019some of the events were scaled back or partially cancelled However we hope that these first‑ever initiatives will be
carried on as a legacy not only for the future Olympic and Paralympic Games but also for the development of sports
Keywords：Innovation VR Robot 5G SNS

1．Introduction
The Innovation promotion office was established inby other departments of the Organising Committee andpartner companies This article focuses on the projects
implemented by the Innovation Promotion Office

April 2017 to realize the vision of “the most innovative
Games ever in history bringing positive change to the

2．Approach and Design Concept

world” at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic
Games (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”)

The Innovation Promotion Preparation Office was

The goal was not only to pursue the latest technologies

established in January 2017 before the Innovation

but also to make proposals that would lead to social

Promotion Office was established in April of the samechange and leave a legacy as the “most innovative Games

year The following basic policies were set forth based

ever in history” The innovative measures for the Tokyo

on discussions by the project members

2020 include not only the original initiatives led by the
Innovation Promotion Office but also those implemented･

To ensure directionality and consistency ofmeasures with the vision and brand image of theTokyo 2020 GamesSAITO Kazuo
Digital Marketing Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic GamesHIRATA Hideyo
Innovation Promotion Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesTSUCHIYA Koichi
Innovation Promotion Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesOKADA Takahiro
Innovation Promotion Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 197‑202 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers･

To collaborate not only with the Organisingcommittee but also with the Japanese Government
the Tokyo Metropolitan Government partners andexternal organizations･

To aim that the measures drafted and promoted
will lead to social transformation after the Tokyo
2020 Games･

To establish collaboration among multiple business departments to make the measures more

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020197

innovativecompetition venue such as those residing at remoteplaces or those with disabilities

to give them an

We gathered volunteers from Organising Committee

immersive experience and a sense of togetherness as if

staff and carried out an ideathon to propose measuresthey are watching the games from the spectator seats atthat satisfy these principles As a result we selected andthe competition venue The aim of the project was tofine‑tuned 28 ideas that had emerged through the

distribute live sports dome visuals captured by all‑sky

ideathon while gaining insights from external experts(360‑degree) cameras installed at competition venues(Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry Ministry ofby transmitting the visuals to planetariums across Japan

Internal Affairs and Communications

Ministry ofover a network The viewers at the screening sites can

Education Culture Sports Science and Technology

enjoy a birdʼs‑eye view of the entire competition venue

Cabinet Office Cabinet Secretariat Tokyo Metropolitan

rather than a flat screen cut out as in TV broadcasts

Government Technology Advisory Committee(Note 1)

They also can experience powerful visuals and sounds as

Economy and Technology Committee (Note 2) and Dentsu

if they were at the competition venue As a result theInc ) For technology‑related measures perspective welive broadcast at a dome theater was successfullyreferred to the recommendations (Note 3) by the Technol-completed for the first time in the Olympics although it

ogy Advisory Committee Finally we consolidated thewas limited to eight venues (four for general screenings

ideas into three perspectives and six projects

and four for limited screenings for stakeholders) and the①“Innovation in sports” which proposes new ways

of watching and enjoying sports②“Innovation in participation” which proposes new
ways to participate in and enjoy sports games

number of spectators was approximately 1 000 due tothe coronavirus disease (hereafter COVID‑19) Details
are described in “4‑2 Future‑oriented Sport Viewing
Project” (1)“Innovation to change the future of society” as an

Secondly this project offers a new spectator experi-

effort to build a barrier‑free society and to develop aence of watching the games by utilizing the 5th

safe and secure society

Generation Mobile Communication System “5G”③

The

purpose of this project is to symbolically showcase Japan

3．Achievements at the Games
31

Innovation in Sports

as a technological powerhouse by introducing the latest
communications technology ahead of the rest of theworld

While services utilizing 5G were showcased

In “Innovation in Sports ” new ways of watching andduring the Pyeongchang 2018 Games 5G commercial

enjoying sports are being pursued through the use ofservices were used for the first time at the Tokyo 2020

innovative technology The Olympic and Paralympic

Games High speed and large capacity of 5G wereGames could be watched only by spectators with tickets

utilized to the maximum extent for sailing and golf andinside the venue This innovation will enable spectators

low latency was put to maximum use for swimming

to enjoy watching the competitions from outside theshowing the possibility of practical use of 5G technology

venue in the same way they would enjoy watchingin the future Details are described in “4‑3 Innovation

inside the venue The following is an overview of the

Projects utilizing 5G Technology” (2)measures implemented and their key points
Firstly this project is for fans who cannot go to theThirdly children who are unable to watch the games
at the venue due to illness or other reasons were given
the opportunity to enjoy the games in a realistic manner
by utilizing technologies such as sports dome visuals 5G(Note 1) A third‑party advisory body with 6 experts for technology‑
related measures to be constituted in the future by the Organising
Committee(Note 2) An expert committee for examining actions related to“Economy and Technology Commission” from the “Tokyo 2020 Action andLegacy Plan” created by the Organising Committee in collaboration withthe concerned organizations (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Government Japan Olympic Committee Japan Paralympic Committee andbusiness community)(Note 3) Recommendations by the Technology Advisory Committee(Published on June 28 2018)https://www tokyo2020 jp/image/upload/production/kuvuiehqolfvvd
qgjnmj pdf

198

network and technology as described above as well as
robots (described below) In collaboration with theTokyo Metropolitan Government we offered a uniqueexperience of the games to children and students from
special needs schools across Japan (296 participantsfrom 13 schools) by combining three measures namely
VR theatre (Figure 1) game watching tour with themascot robots (Figure 2) and TOKYO 2020 hands‑on
event (Figure 3) with five facilities in Tokyo as the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 3

Experiencing the Unique Atmosphere of the Games byDirectly Touching Mascots Olympic Torches andOther Items Associated with the Olympic Games(©International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

interactive venues
All three projects implemented in “Innovation inSports” were the first‑ever attempts for the Olympic
and Paralympic Games Hence many issues had to be
Figure 1

Children in Wheelchairs and on Stretchers Experience
Realistic Visuals through the Use of a Dome‑shaped
360‑degree Projection Screen (©International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

solved in terms of technology operation and various
rights The realization of these projects was madepossible by the significant technical support of Tokyo
2020 marketing partners for the robots

AR

and

communications categories as well as the cooperation of
external organizations such as the Olympic Broadcast
Service (OBS) and the Japan Consortium (JC) The
ability of various stakeholders to work together in a joint
initiative has led to the provision of new ways to watch
and enjoy sports using cutting‑edge technology
32

Innovation in Participation

The “Innovation in Participation” program is an
initiative to promote the participation of young individuals by offering a new way of participation in the Tokyo
2020 Games which has never been done before with aneye toward the future Representative examples include
selecting the mascot through voting by elementary
school students producing medals using recycled metal
recovered from small home appliances and creating anddistributing Tokyo 2020 math drills (Note 4) for elementary
school sixth‑grade students

Figure 2

Remote Control of the Mascot Robot at the Competition
Venue Allows Visitors to Experience the Atmosphere of
the Competition Venue in Real Time (©International
Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)(Note 4) The drills that incorporated 33 sports in the Olympics and 22
sports in the Paralympics were distributed to all public elementary
schools (approximately 100 000 students) within Tokyo This initiative
was aimed at increasing interest in the Olympics and Paralympics
through the study of mathematics In addition in order to enhance thestudentsʼ understanding of the drills practical learning sessions were heldin which athletes were invited to the elementary schools to demonstrate
the content learned in the drills

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

199

On the other hand from the perspective of the use of

sports” We combined the 5G and latest technologies totechnology we introduce a project in which people fromoffer a new style of watching sports that fully demon-

all over the world participated by making full use of

strated the high speed and large‑capacity transmissionsocial media In this project cheering videos posted oncapabilities of 5G

SNS with the hashtag (#2020beat) are edited and

SNS which is familiar to the general public is utilized

combined into a single cheering movie that is shown on

for the “Innovation in Participation”

giant screens at the competition venues Since the Tokyo

messages posted by users are used to automatically2020 Games were held without spectators this contrib-

generate cheering videos through the use of AI

Videos anduted to “delivering cheers to the athletes” for encourag-In the “Innovations to Change the Future of Society ”

ing the players from outside the venue and for medalists

various robots were provided by the partners to support

to communicate with families and friends in their home

the Games operations staff including the correspond-

countries through the screens at the venue By the end

ence to COVID‑19of the Games there were 1 369 posts (of which 529 werevideo posts)

Eight videos were screened at the42competition venues and three videos were screened in

Other Technologies Used in the Tokyo 2020
Games

the Olympic and Paralympic village Collecting videos

In addition to the technologies introduced in 4 1 manyfrom social media and displaying them on giant screens

other innovative initiatives were implemented using

at the competition venues were the first‑ever attempts

technologies from other departments and partners

during the Olympic and Paralympic Games

These included Drones (Ceremony) Hydrogen‑powered Vehicles (Transportation)

33

Hydrogen‑powered

Innovations That Will Change the Future of

Torches (Torch Relay)

Society(Olympic and Paralympic Village) Face Recognition

Automatic‑driving Buses

A variety of robots appeared at the Tokyo 2020

System (Security) and Next‑generation Commercial

Games The objectives were to “show how robots can be

Wireless Systems (Technology) This article presents

useful to people in various situations” and to “promote

an overview of the two technologies from NTT

social implementation of robots through the Games”
At the Tokyo 2020 Game not only did we showcase
the robots the we also utilized robots in a variety of

421

Marathon x Ultra‑low‑latency Communication
Technology

situations with 12 types made up of 73 robots working

This technology provides real‑time video transmission

together with staff to provide hospitality In particularbetween the marathon course in Sapporo and thethe use of robots under the COVID‑19 showed that theycheering venue in Tokyo

can contribute to safe secure and sustainable Games

spectatorsʼ cheering from remote location to theoperations from the viewpoints of avoiding physicalathletes Since they do not need to gather in on place itThis technology delivers

contact and saving labor The details are described in “4‑provides a safety Furthermore it provides a sense of

4 Utilization of Robotics Technology in the Tokyo 2020

presence as if we are cheering along the roadside We

Games” (3) and “4‑5 Supporting the Tokyo 2020 Games

could feel a sense of unity between athletes andwith People‑friendly Robots” (4)spectators In conventional general video transmission
various delays occur These include optical propagation

4．Realized Technologies
41

transmission

video data compression

and media

processing delays The total delay time can be several

Technologies Utilized in the Six Projects

seconds round‑trip Due to these delays delivering the

Various technologies have been utilized in the projects

cheering to the players was impossible NTTʼs “Ultra‑

implemented by the Innovation Promotion Office All

low Latency Communication Technology (5)” has mini-sorts of technologies are being used to realize the mostmized the delay time for the transmission process toinnovative Games ever in history and the details of

approximately 100 ms each way Due to this technology

which are given in the following articles

the cheering to the athletes was delivered reliably

The 360‑degree video technology and NTTʼs ultra‑

A 50 m wide display at the Tokyo venue provided anrealistic communication technology Kirari! were used

immersive experience

to enhance the immersive experience for “Innovation inathletes were running right in front and could show their200

The spectators felt that the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS( a ) Spectators cheering from Tokyo for the women’s marathon
in Sapporo

Figure 5

Appearance of CUzo Card (©NTT)

gestures of the other person The “facility guidance”
application guides the visitors by adding visual annotations to the usersʼ surroundings Approximately 250
venue‑management staff members used the CUzo card
( b ) Cheering from Tokyo reaching the runners during thewomen’s marathon
Figure 4

Ultra‑low
LatencyCommunication
Technology（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights
Reserved）

to support attendees

including event officials andplayers at three venues in the Kanto region for a total of
28 days

5．Review Reflection and Future Legacy
51

Review and Reflection

support by clapping and waving flags On the other

The impact of the COVID‑19 outbreak in early 2020

hand on the marathon course in Sapporo the ultra‑low‑forced us to review the innovation measures We alsolatency communication technology allowed spectators to

had to revise the vision of “the most innovative everdeliver their cheers before the athlete passed byGames in history bringing positive change to the world”

Spectators were able to feel a sense of oneness with the

As a result measures were mapped out to realize theathletes at the Tokyo venue as well (Figure 4(a)(b))

new vision of safety and security cost reduction andsimplification without significantly changing the imple-

422

Venue Operation Staff x CUzo

The “CUzo Card (6)”(Figure 5) a handheld device witha transparent display

mentation content of the games
The first measure was “Innovation in participation”

was provided to the venue

which was planned to boost excitement at the venue

management staff This device provided a communica-

from many more people worldwide with the slogan

tion style that allowed visitors to be guided while“contribute to providing an environment where athletes

watchingtheir facial expressions of visitors The CUzo

can concentrate on the game with peace of mind” This

card is provided with applications to support “face‑to‑

was a safe and secure measure using SNS to boost theface translation” and “facility guidance”

mood at the venue eliminating opportunities for physicalThe “face‑to‑face translation” application in the CUzo

contact between event officials and spectators

card displays the conversation content like subtitles

The next measure was “Innovation in sports” whichallowing two people to have a conversation while

was positioned to “provide spectators with a greater

simultaneously watching the facial expressions andemotional experience through watching sports which isSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

201

the basic requirement of competitions” This measureshared the excitement from watching competitions with

References(

many people even when the games were held without
spectators(

The last measure was “Innovations that will change
the future of society” which was aimed at “management(

using advanced technologies as a precursor to coexist
with the COVID‑19” In addition to the use of robots for
reducing physical contact and remote services to avoid(

crowding 5G which was the core technology for these
services was introduced(

As a result the projects were implemented almost as
initially planned but we regret that some services werecanceled or scaled back due to lack of spectators and thatthe expected results could not be obtained Many ofthese initiatives at the Tokyo 2020 Games are the first in()

K. Koshiba and S. Kinoshita, “4-2 Future-oriented Sport Viewing
Project,” Journal of IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8 supplement, pp. 203-210,
Aug. 2022.
) Y. Ohto, S. Kinoshita, and N. Furuno, “4-3 Innovation Projects
utilizing 5G Technology,” Journal of IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8 supplement, pp. 211-219, Aug. 2022.
) T. Nakano, T. Toda, T. Moridaira, T. Nakayama, Y. Inagaki, and T.
Kuwabara, “4-4 Utilization of Robotics Technology in the Tokyo 2020
Games,” Journal IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8 supplement, pp. 220-231 Aug.
2022.
) K. Ogishima, Y. Uchida, T. Kurokawa, and R. Honda, “4-5 Supporting
the Tokyo 2020 Games with People-friendly Robots,” Journal of
IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8 supplement, pp. 232-237, Aug. 2022.
) S. Usui, S. Fukatsu, E. Matsumoto, M. Imoto, D. Shirai and S.
Kinoshita, “Marathon×Ultra-low-latency Communication Technology,” NTT Technical Journal, vol. 33, no. 10, pp. 30-34, Oct. 2021.
Available at https://journal.ntt.co.jp/article/15557) T. Kusafuka, Y. Maki, T. Goda, A. Suzuki, M. Tamaru, and T. Indo,“Venue Operation Staff×CUzo,” NTT Journal, vol. 33, no. 12, pp. 3133, 2021.
https://journal.ntt.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/JN202112.pdf

Olympic and Paralympic Games history and we believethat in the future these initiatives will contribute to thedevelopment of the sports industry not only in the
Olympics and Paralympics
52

Legacy of the Innovation Promotion Office

We believe that each project in collaboration with theJapanese government the Tokyo Metropolitan Government partners and external organizations should be
passed on to bring social change in the future In(Received February 9 2022 ; Revised March 16 2022)

SAITO Kazuo
Graduated from Hunter College of the City
University of New York in 1998 and joined
Fujitsu Research Institute in 2000 Working asa consultant for business innovation and new
business development Seconded to The Tokyo
2020 Organising Committee since 2014 SeniorDirector of Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Office Senior Director of Innovation
Planning and Innovation Promotion Innovation
Promotion Officeparticular the new experience of watching sports using
advanced technologies such as 5G and robots is the first‑
ever practical technology to be introduced in the
Olympic and Paralympic Games We hope to work with
our partners and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government torealize a legacy
The Innovation Promotion Office is an organizationthat was established for the first time at the Tokyo 2020
Games

Having faced various challenges under thesituation of the absence of IOC counter organization we
operated the office and implemented measures throughtrial and error In the end with the support of the IOC
and with the cooperation of partners and externalorganizations we were able to contribute to making theGames more attractive Innovative initiatives have thepotential to be required at future Games and we hopethat the experience and know‑how gained from theTokyo 2020 Games will be passed on as a legacy

HIRATA Hideyo
Graduated from Kyoto University in 1977 andjoined Fujitsu Limited in the same year
engaged in system development as a systemengineer in the public sector Seconded to The
Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2014
Head of Innovation Promotion Office Head of
Digital Marketing Office and Deputy Head ofTechnology Services Bureau
TSUCHIYA Koichi
Graduated from Tokyo Law Professional
Training College in 1992 joined the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government in 1993 seconded to
The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee since2017 Director of Innovation Planning Innovation Promotion Office
OKADA Takahiro
Graduated from the College of Liberal Arts at
International Christian University in 2015
where he studied the use of private finance inthe public sector (PFI) Joined the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government in the same year
Seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2018 Manager of Innovation
Planning Innovation Promotion Office㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

202

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

4 Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives

4‑2

Future‑oriented Sports Viewing Project
KOSHIBA Keiichi

KINOSHITA Shingo

With the Olympic Games new visual technologies such as color broadcasting satellite relay and high‑definition
television have been tested and put to practical use This games were held under the pandemic disaster and the challenge
was whether a live broadcast could provide the sense of presence and togetherness at the actual venues
The “Future‑oriented Sports Watching Project” in collaboration with partner companies NTT and Panasonic used
dome video streaming and Kirari! Technology to provide a live broadcast of the tension of the athletes at that moment thepower and beauty of their bodies the sense of unity between spectators and athletes and the unique Olympic atmosphereat the venues This is the first‑ever challenge to convey a sense of reality as it is in real life was undertaken (Researchedby Tokyo 2020 (cooperation of Prof Okyudo of Wakayama University an advisor to the Committee) and NTT)
Keywords：Dome image High realistic Kirari!

2．Immersive LIVE Viewing(Dome Video Streaming)

1．Introduction
This project aims to deliver experiences as if one werein the competition venue to someone who cannot visit

To achieve the vision of the Tokyo 2020 Games to be

first“the most innovative games in history” we set a target

technology that expresses the sense of presence of themeasure that would remain as a legacy after consideringvenue which cannot be expressed on a flat screen by

innovations in the field of Audio & Videothe venue

The technologies employed were

projecting it onto a dome screen and second NTTʼs

There are approximately 350 planetariums in Japanultra‑realistic communication technology which proj-

and no other country in the world has as many dome

This article

screens for the public as Japan Recently instead of thesummarizes the results of the “Future‑oriented Sports

conventional proprietary system for astronomical repre-

Viewing Project” implemented at the Olympic andsentation

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred toprojection system with a high‑luminance projector This

as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) with the above objectives insystem was recommended by Prof Okyudo of Wakaya-

mind

ma University for sport viewing (1)ects the players as they really are

there has been a trend to replace the

As a result of our research for various realistic image
expressions we thought that image expressions thatallow spectators to share the excitement and wonder ofthe game with each other are more promising as a new
KOSHIBA Keiichi
G1 company Inc
E‑mail kossi@genki‑1 com
KINOSHITA Shingo
NTT Human Informatics Laboratories NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION CORPORATION
E‑mail shin kinoshita@hco ntt co jp

style of sport infection in the future than methods of

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 203‑210 August 2022

the “Future‑oriented Sports Viewing Project : Immer-© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

individual enjoyment using VR glasses and the like
After many tests and negotiations with the support ofProf Okyudo we decided to plan promote and operate
sive LIVE Viewing”

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

203

Figure 1

Overall Structure of the Distribution System

The concept of this project was “to have spectators
experience a sense of presence and unity each other in asafe” secure and closer location In this project the goal
was to express the speed height and strength of sport
by projecting images of competitions on a 10 m classdome screen and to express the sense of presence andunity at the venue by installing cameras in the
spectatorʼs seats We thought that people can enjoy the(a) SLR camera with a fisheye lensFigure 2games with those close to them in the domes and cheer
together with others in the venue
21

System Configuration(b) Video signal image

Single‑lens Reflex Camera with Fisheye Lens andImage

has minimized
213

Screening System

The overall configuration is shown in Figure 1 The

Originally planetariums projected point images ofsystem is divided into the following sections dependingstars on a hemispherical dome screen by means ofon the location : venue‑dedicated line‑studio‑distribu-

specialized planetarium equipment In recent years

tion platform‑general line‑screening theatre In thishowever projectors have made it possible to projectproject the key point was to ensure that the system

images over the entire dome screen so that pictures

would remain as a legacy in the future i e to combine

representing constellations and simulated images forand utilize existing infrastructure and technologies withastronomy can be projected The resolution is improving

as little operational cost as possible

year by year and facilities that can project dome imagesof 8K in diameter using multiple 4K and 8K projectors

211

Camera Systemhave been launched Currently the systems vary widely

Considering that the screen is a hemispheric dome wedepending on the facility and the manufacturer How-

decided to use a consumer‑use 4K‑resolution mirrorlessever it is possible to project fisheye images (domesingle‑lens camera with a fisheye lens The focal length

master format) with a viewing angle of 180 degreesof the lens was chosen so that the fisheye image isinscribed in a square although the maximum possible

inscribed in the vertical position of the 4K format toresolution differs depending on the systemachieve the highest resolution possible (Figure 2)

Therefore in cooperation with the manufacturers of
the planetarium systems installed in each of the212

Distribution Systemplanetarium facilities participating we proposed the

The video format used for transmission was the 16 : 9

addition of a system that can cut out and project fisheye

4K video format also used in television broadcasting

images inscribed at the top and bottom of a 16 : 9 4K

This format doesnʼt need to construct a special system

image in dome master format

In addition considering the cost ease of operation andstability of the system we proposed using a best‑effort

22

Outline of the Experiment

general optical fiber line instead of a dedicated line

The outline of the experiment is as follows

Furthermore we decided to use an existing Internet TV
platform to distribute live and recorded images Thanks

221

Schedule

to this the screening operator at each planetarium can

The screening methods include live transmission andselect the program menu in STB by remote controller

reception with video‑on‑demand (VOD) of recorded

just as if operating a television then operational problems

images As a result it was decided that the shooting

204

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

dates were from July 23 to August 8 2021 and themunicipality and screening theatre As a result a total ofscreening dates were from July 27 to August 8 2021

11 live screenings and 44 VOD screenings wereconducted All scheduled programs were filmed trans-

222

Competitions

mitted and screened without any major problems even

The selected competitions were ceremonies volley-

though communication methods and procedures forball 3×3 basketball badminton and sport climbing

troubleshooting had been prepared in advance The

Three cameras (four cameras only for the opening andfacilities of the participating planetariums all differed inclosing ceremonies) were installed at each competition

the resolution of the dome master diameter from 2K tovenue to realize the concept of providing a realistic

8K the dome diameter from 9 m to 25 6 m and the dome

feeling of being at the spectatorʼs sheets

screen from horizontal to tilted (Table 1)

Audio equipment was installed in each camera and226

signals were mixed out

Online Survey

An online survey was conducted at the screening
223

theatres under the initiative of Wakayama University to

Camera Locations

It was decided to place the cameras in the spectatorʼsclarify the realism of this experiment All screeningseats rather than on the field to reproduce the concept astheatres distributed promotional flyers to visitors andmuch as possible As a result of negotiations with theasked them to access a web page using a smartphone orinternational federations and the like it was decided toother device to answer questions via a two‑dimensionalfilm the opening ceremony volleyball badminton 3×3

barcode printed on the flyer Iida City Museum of Art

basketball and sport climbing from three to four camera

conducted its independent open‑ended questionnaire

locations in the spectator stands Furthermore for sport

survey and exit interviews and Wakayama University is

climbing in which participants climbed a high wall itplanning to conduct research and analysis in the future

was decided to install one camera close to the23

competition stage since it was confirmed from pre‑test

Results

The original plan was to hold public viewing at 11

filming that the wall height could be expressed withvenues but there was a nationwide movement to refrainclose to the stage

from public viewing due to the coronavirus disease 2019224

(COVID‑19) then resulting in 4 venues that could

Program List

We decided a competition schedule to be filmed based

attract the general public 4 venues that became limitedon considerations from the spectatorsʼ perspective such

events for related parties and 3 venues that wereas the presence of Japanese national team athletes andcanceled As a result 969 people (851 for the general

medal games and operational considerations

public and 118 for related parties) participated in thisdemonstration experiment

225

Although subjective we have analyzed and organized

Screening Theatres

the three realistic sensations obtained through thisThe final screening schedule was left to each

Table 1

List of Theatres

Location
Planetarium

Capacity

Dome

Prefecture

Seats

DiameterType

Katsushika City Museum

TOKYO

172

18 m

TiltedFuchu City Museum

TOKYO

218

23 m

Horizontal

Iida City Museum

NAGANO90

12 m

Horizontal

Fukui City Museum of Astronomy(Seiren Planet)

FUKUI

160

17 m

Horizontal

Tsukuba Expo Center

IBARAKI232

25 6 mTiltedFukuoka City Science Museum

FUKUOKA

220

25 m

Horizontal

Ishigakijima Hoshinoumi Planetarium

OKINAWA

46

9m

TiltedMiraikan (The National Museum of
Emerging Science and Innovation)

TOKYO

112

15 24 mTiltedSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

205

experiment as below
231

Realism of SportWe believe that the most significant advantage ofimages projected on a dome screen is its expressive
power that encompasses the entire viewing angle of thespectator One of features is the expressive power for
vertical movement which is different from the ordinary
TV broadcasting
For example the athletes who dash up in sport
climbing with the fastest speed in the world and all of the
trajectory of the badminton shuttle of lob serve above

Figure 3

View of the Screening Venue (Location : The National
Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) Photo courtesy of Panasonic)(© 2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

the heads of athletes that takes over two seconds can befollowed perfectly This systemʼs ability to experiencesport as they are is a significant feature
On the other hand the ordinary 16 : 9 video can bedramatically directed to a high degree of perfection andtors it was not possible to verify the effect of the sense ofresolution by zooming and switching But the dome

unity between the cheering spectators at the competi-

screen video requires high‑performance cameras andtion venue and the cheering audiences at the screening

lenses and expensive infrastructure to deliver images oftheatrethe entire surface (hemisphere) in high‑resolution
Therefore the camera location that can deliver powerful

3．Transmission of Holographic Images of
Badminton Matches

images without its zoom function is very important It is
important to consider this point when installing cameras

We carried out technology demonstrations aimed atfor similar initiatives in the futuredelivering the experience of being at the badminton
232

venue of the Tokyo 2020 Games to those who could not

Realism of the Venue

The enjoyment of watching sport is not limited to theattend the actual event by using Kirari! ultra‑realistic

sport itself Especially in the Olympic Games competi-

communication technology to transmit holographic

tion venues are beautifully decorated without advertise-images of the event This section presents results ofments and with many flags of participating countries

demonstrations of a next‑generation immersive technol-

under the concept of “Clean Venue”

This time byogy for providing a sense of “being there” namely

setting up cameras near the spectator seats we decided

through the sense of presence and sense of unity by

to provide “memories of being there” by recording thetransmitting holographic images of the badminton

atmosphere of the entire venue the works of the event

matches
We initially planned demonstrations of live viewing bystaff and everything else (Figure 3)
Similarly by recording the sounds from the venue

inviting the general public However to prevent thewith microphones without adding the running commen-

spread of the COVID‑19

tary we could provide a surround sound experience that

demonstration and instead opened “Future‑oriented

we cancelled the public

makes the most of the 5 1 channel even though it picked

Sports Viewing Project” at the National Museum of

up various noises such as reverberations

Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) (Figure
4)233

Realistic Sensation of Entertainment

For the opening and closing ceremonies and sport
presentations between games we could convey a uniquesense of scale by capturing images of the entire

31

System Configuration

Figure 5 shows the overall system configuration for
the technology demonstrations

competition venue from a wide‑angle including fire-We set up 8K cameras at the Musashino Forest Sport

works paper airplanes descending and lighting effects

Plaza the venue for the Tokyo 2020 Games badminton

However since the event was held without specta206

competitions

and transmitted video images taken

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

during the badminton matches via a 1‑Gbit/s network to
the broadcast centre

We then used the real‑time(2)

to the remotely located Miraikan museum
We set up an approximately 100‑seater spectatorastand and a full‑size court equipped with holographic

component technology of Kirari! to selectively extract

projection equipment at the remote‑viewing venue toextraction of objects with arbitrary background

only the images of players and shuttlecocks from therecreate the actual venue The extracted images oftransmitted 8K images at the broadcast centre Using

players and shuttlecocks were holographically displayed

highly realistic media synchronization technology (Ad-by presenting players in their actual positions in front

vanced MMT (MPEG Media Transport)) (3) we thenand behind the net using the birdʼs eye‑view sports

synchronously transmitted the extracted images along

viewing multi‑layer aerial image display technology As

with multiple images that included video and audioa result we were able to create a space where theprovided by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS)

badminton players appeared to be actually present in the
remote‑viewing venue
32

Technical Elements

The following is a list of the technical elements thatcomprise the system described above
321

Real‑time Extraction of Objects with Arbitrary
Background

The real‑time extraction of objects with arbitrary
background is a technology for selectively extracting
only the specific objects in images such as players andshuttlecocks from the videos taken during a competition
Normally extraction of only the objects from videos
Figure 4

Kirari! Technology Demonstration Experiments of theTokyo 2020 Games Badminton Competition (© 2021‑
International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Figure 5requires using a green or blue background and erasing
the background color by chroma keying This technol-

Workflow of Object Extraction and Synchronous Transmission

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020207

ogy however enables extracting only the objects from()

the raw images of the competition venue in real time
without the need for any special background environment

Automatic Correction of Missing Parts in
Player Images

When the player at the back of the court overlapped

To apply this technology to the badmintonwith the net a black gap zone appeared on the player

matches we carried out the following five improve-

image Images were corrected by inferring the missing

ments on our previous system that is for less compli-

parts on the basis of the color information above andcated content

below the gap zone()

Individual Extraction of Each Player in the(

Front and Back Sides of the Court

Reproducing the playersʼ shadows appearing in the

Separately extracting the front and back players is not)

Automatic Generation of Playerʼs Shadow

actual venue and in the remote‑viewing venue enables

possible with the conventional technology To achieve

the creation of more natural player images

this we developed a deep learning model that can

extracted the shadows from the video based on thesimultaneously extract and infer front and back players

results of player‑image extraction

We

by inputting depth information simulating the badminton
court space This enabled the extraction of individual

322

players for a game like badminton where players areHighly Realistic Media Synchronization Technology

located separately in the front and back sides of the

The highly realistic media synchronization technology

court We therefore succeeded in stable and accurate(Advanced MMT) is NTTʼs proprietary technology

extraction of objects

developed by extending the media transmission standard MMT and enables the transmitting of various()

Improvement of Output‑image Resolution andFrame Rate of Playersʼ Images

We carried out multilayering of the image frames to becontinuous data (streams) such as video audio andlighting information

while maintaining their timesynchronization For this project we synchronously

processed and leveling of computing resources totransmitted multiple streams such as video of the

support images from 8K 60‑fps cameras As a resultcompetition taken at the venue audio images of players

we were able to produce smooth high‑definition images

extracted from competition videos extracted shuttle-of players at 930‑pixel resolution and 60‑fps frame rate

cock images

video obtained from OBS

etc

and

displayed the necessary data on the remoteviewing()

Stable Extraction of Subtle and Rapid Shuttle-

venue at the appropriate timing to create a highly

cock Movements

realistic spatial representation

We developed extraction algorithms specific for the
shuttlecock and succeeded in detecting its exact position

323

Birdʼs Eye‑view Sports Viewing Multi‑layer
Aerial Image Display Technology

and in accurately extracting its various contours To
detect shuttlecock position we devised a method for

To deliver the experience of watching as if viewers

learning the shuttlecockʼs position and movement

were at the competition venue we created a space that

information by inputting continuous frames in a convolu-

physically simulated the actual venue (Figure 6)

tional neural network (CNN) to eliminate the effects ofWith our technology a spectator stand at the same

small objects similar to the shuttlecock appearing in theheight as the actual competition venue was set up andvideo (such as seat guide lights) The position of thethe locations of the court net two half‑mirrors light‑

shuttlecock was determined on the basis of the roughemitting diode displays

position (heatmap) and correction value (offset) ob-

optimized to create a realistic appearance of the players

tained from the CNN Extraction of the shuttlecockin front and behind the net This enabled the holographi-

image was carried out by generating the image using acally displaying of the two players at their correct

background‑subtraction method and filtering with thepositions

extracted shuttlecock position and shape and predicted

and the projectors were

The use of two half‑mirrors however results in a

shuttlecock information (position contour and motion

discontinuous appearance of the shuttlecock

blur level) in the next frame

moves back and forth between the two mirrors Since

which

this problem is a structural issue arising from having two
208

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 6

Image of Equipment and Example of Multi‑layer Aerial Image Display

physically separated layers there is no perfect solution
to it

To produce a more natural appearance

experiment

we

repeatedly conducted trial‑and‑error experiments on

331

the timing for switching the shuttlecockʼs display layers

In terms of object‑extraction performanceand came to the conclusion that the best timing forsucceeded in real‑time processing of 8K 60‑fps videos

switching is when the player hits the shuttlecock To

There are issues that need to be addressed for extraction

determine the best timing for switching we combined

accuracy such as when images of the two players

Evaluation of Object Extraction Performancewemultiple approaches such as determining the shuttle-

overlap or extraction for doubles matches Neverthelesscock position through analysis of lateral court images

we succeeded in processing the images without missing

determining the timing when the shuttlecock is hit

parts or errors that could hinder proper viewing of thethrough detection of hitting sounds from the audio

games even for players wearing different uniforms forduring the match and human operators watching the

all the six live broadcast experiments We also confirmed

game manually switching the display layers

Thethat there were no errors in the correction of the black

combination of multiple approaches enabled the real‑zones caused by the net and in the addition of shadowstime switching of shuttlecock‑image display positions

For the shuttlecock images however more improve-

The highly realistic environment with a full‑size court
and net and life‑size holographic projections of players

ments are necessary due to considerable discontinuity
depending on the viewing position

apparently elicited a sensory illusion that the players
were actually in front of the participants This indicates332

the possibility of achieving an emotional connection at a

In terms of transmission performance the total end‑

Transmission Performance Evaluation

deeper level than when watching on television The

to‑end delay from the competition venue to the remote‑spectators were able to more easily feel the energy andviewing venue was less than 2 800 ms Table 2 lists thevibe during the competitions or the excitement oflag time details The MMT transmission delay included

players before the start of the matches and even the

network transmission delays of approximately 1 ms

emotions associated with winning or losing When Kento

between the competition venue and broadcast centre

Momota fell to his knees when he lost in the secondand approximately 0 1 ms between the broadcast centre

round of his match during the group play stage theand remote‑viewing venue Delays in object‑extraction

realistic sense of his presence in the remote‑viewing

processing included buffering that takes fluctuations invenue was very striking

processing time etc

into consideration but the actual

delay in extraction processing excluding the buffering
33

Results

The following are the technical results of thewas less than 400 ms
Since the demonstrations involved one‑way transmis-

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020209

Table 2

Details of Lag Timebetween competition and remote‑viewing venues andCamera system≤17 ms (≤1 frame)

conduct research and development on Kirari! and other

MMT transmission

1 600 ms (4K 59 94p BT 709
rate of encode : 40 Mbit/s FEC : 5%)

technologies for achieving the Remote World andExtraction of objects

1 000 ms(including input/output buffering)world using communication technologies

Presenting system〜120 ms (4 frames at 30 fps)

eventually make future proposals that will surprise theWe implemented this project working with Professor
Okudo and Researcher Yoshizumi of Wakayama University (the base technical research was supported by JSPS

sion of images from the competition venue to the

Grant‑in‑Aid 19K01141) partner companies people

remote‑viewing venue an approximately 3‑s delay did

involved in broadcasting competitions and conventions

not cause major problems However our future goal is tocompanies and organizations related to each system as

connect the two venues bi‑directionally and deliver thewell as local governments and JSCEs nationwide thatcheers from the audience in the remote‑viewing venue

have gathered citizens and related people and projectedback to the competition venue in which case significant

the images to them The projection was supported bylag times would become problematic making it neces-many people including local governments across thesary to further reduce processing time

country and planetarium facilities such as the National

We were able to confirm that the above performance

Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Mirai-of the demonstration system was sufficient in deliveringkan) which held projection events for citizens and othera realistic experience of the presence of the athletes ininterested parties We want to express our gratitude to

the remote‑viewing venue

them
References

4．Conclusion

(

)

(

)

(

)

The planned filming distribution and screening of all
programs could be performed without significant
problems with the dome image distribution

The

projection was sufficiently practical in operations sinceconsumer cameras and commercial best‑effort lines
were used to project images to planetarium systems
with entirely different specifications delivered to eachmuseum Clearly this approach was practical enoughand suggests the possibility of becoming a legacy in the

K. Nagai, “Evolution History of Broadcast Technology Boosted by
Olympic Games,” THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF IMAGE
INFORMATION AND TELEVISION ENGINEERS, vol. 70, no. 5,
pp. 363-371, 2016.
H. Kakinuma, J. Nagao, H. Miyashita, Y. Tonomura, H. Osada, and K.
Hidaka, “Real-time Extraction of Objects from Any Background Using
Machine Learning,” NTT Technology Journal, vol. 30, no. 10, pp. 1620, 2018.
Y. Tonomura, H. Imanaka, K. Tanaka, T. Morisumi, and K. Suzuki,“Standardization Activities for Immersive Live Experience (ILE),”
Journal of the ITU Association of Japan, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 14-17,
2017.
(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 24 2022)

future for the live relay of realistic images of various
events
We applied Kirari! to badminton matches and demonstrated that it can be used to deliver a realistic
experience of being at the competition venue Although
there are issues regarding accuracy of extracting player
images and in the method for displaying the shuttlecock
we succeeded in demonstrating the possibility of a new
sports‑viewing experience beyond what television can
provide for the Olympic Games an event that attracts
attention from all over the world
Going forward we will carry out improvements inextraction performance and other technical aspects aswell as deploy the technology to other games and areas
such as for music concerts We will also study methodsof minimizing lag time for bi‑directional connection

210

KOSHIBA Keiichi
He joined Matsushita Electric Industrial Co
Ltd in 1989 and was transferred from Panasonic to Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee in 2014
After implementing this project he left Panasonic then he is verifying and analyzing thisproject as a visiting fellow at Wakayama
University currently working on the projectʼslegacy as CEO of G1 company Inc
KINOSHITA Shingo
He received a B E from Osaka University in1991 and M Sc with Distinction in technology
management from University College London
in 2007 He joined NTT in 1991 Until recently
he had been in charge of NTTʼs Tokyo2020
initiatives including sports‑watching video
technology He has been in his current position
since 2021 where he manages R&D on
information and communication processing of
humans based on human‑centered principles

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

4 Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives

4‑3

Innovation Projects Utilizing 5G Technology
OHTO Yutaka

KINOSHITA Shingo

FURUNO Noriyuki

We planned and implemented a project utilizing “5G” (5th generation mobile communication system) one of the mostpromising technologies of the future “5G” has the features of “high speed large capacity” and “low latency” compared toconventional systems and we utilized these features to develop three measures to realize “a new style of spectating”
Unfortunately there were no spectators at the venues but the experience was well‑received especially by those involvedin the Games This new style of spectating including its application to other competitions is expected to take off in the
futureKeywords：Innovation 5G High‑speed Large capacity Low latency Highly realistic New style of spectating

1．Introduction
The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic Games has made several efforts to make the

new changes in industrial structures and its introduction is progressing worldwide The introduction of thesetechnologies is progressing around the world In Japan
commercial services were launched in 2020

Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (herein-

The measures utilizing “5G” the focus of worldwide

after referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) “the mostattention were made possible by the generous support

innovative Games in history” To provide an “innovativeand cooperation of associated partners Although the

new spectator experience” we have been working toprojectʼs goal was to “provide a new spectator experi-develop and realize measures that utilize one of the latestence” and unfortunately there were no spectators ; thetechnologies “5G”

project was able to appeal to Games stakeholders and the“5G” is an abbreviation for the 5th generation mobile

media

communication system a next‑generation communica-

This article describes three measures planned andtion standard used for cell phones and other communica-

implemented by the “TOKYO 2020 5G PROJECT”

tions Compared to “4G” which is currently in wide-(Figure 1)

spread use it has features such as “high speed and large

spectator experience utilizing “5G”

a project that provides a new sports

capacity” and “low latency” For example the maximum

Although there were many challenges in realizing thetransmission speed is expected to be10 Gbit/s with aservice each challenge was cleared through coordina-delay of about 1 ms (1) The combination of “5G” withtion with the Games stakeholders and the measuresother technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence)

were implemented mainly at three venues Among theand IoT (Internet of Things) is expected to bring about

features of “5G” the “high speed and large capacity”
measures for “Sailing” and “Golf” and “low latency”

OHTO Yutaka
Logistics Planning Department DOCOMO CS IncKINOSHITA Shingo
NTT Human Informatics Laboratories NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATIONFURUNO Noriyuki
Tokyo 2020 Business Office NTT DOCOMO Inc

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 211‑219 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

measures for “Swimming competitions” were designed
to make the most of these features The measures for“Sailing” and “Golf” were designed to take maximum
advantage of “high speed and large capacity” and “lowlatency” for “Swimming competitions” The project was
implemented under the following structure

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

211

Figure 1

Figure 2

Example of Live Video Transmission Via Offshore
Wide‑vision Display (©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Figure 3

Example of Video Transmission to Main Press Centre(©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights
Reserved)“Tokyo 2020 5G PROJECT” Logo (©2021‑International
Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Organizer : Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games
Cooperation : Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association (JBA)
Technical cooperation : Intel Corporation Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation NTT DOCOMO
INC

2．Description of the Measures
21

5G×Sailing×Ultra‑Realistic

Communication

Technology Kirari!
211

Overview of our Initiatives at the Sailing
Regatta

In sailing races

the event)
spectators usually have to use

binoculars to watch the races (from breakwaters etc )The ultra‑wide video images were also transmitted

because the races are held quite far from land At thelive to Tokyo Big Sight where the Main Press Centre

sailing regatta we took up the challenge of solving this(MPC) was located to convey the realism of the event

problem by using communication technology to create

to media personnel whose movements were restricted

an innovative style of spectating that goes beyond thewithin Japan because of coronavirus disease 2019

real world ; namely the spectators feel as if they were

(COVID‑19) pandemic (Figure 3)

watching the races from a special seat on a cruise ship

Although the sailing regatta was held without

Ultra‑wide video images of the races (with a horizontal

spectators we implemented a measure called a “virtual

resolution of 12K) were transmitted live to a 55‑m‑widestand” for sending support to the athletes from their far‑“offshore wide‑vision” display near the spectatorsʼ seatsaway families and friends (Figure 4)(Figure 2) by using the 5G and our ultra‑realistic
communication technology Kirari!

212

Initiatives at the sailing regatta for the TOKYO 2020
5G PROJECT are summarized below :Configuration of the Video Transmission
SystemThe configuration of the video transmission system forthe sailing regatta is shown in Figure 5 First the sailing･

Period : July 25 2021 to August 4 2021

action is captured from boats or a drone equipped with･

Venue : Enoshima Yacht Harbour

multiple 4K cameras The captured video images are

Kanagawa

Prefecture･

Total number of participants : about 4 000 (onlyathletes and related people were allowed to watch

212

synthesized as ultra‑wide video images with 12K
resolution and transmitted in real time by using Kirari!
and 5G

which enables highspeed

large‑capacity

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSmatrix is calculated from feature points extracted from areference still image

Next

during the synthesis

process video frames were combined using a projection‑transformation matrix calculated for each video
frame to correct disparities and find appropriate seamlines in the video images (i ea process called “seamsearch”)②

Ultra‑realistic Media‑synchronization Technology (Advanced MMT) (3)The video images generated using the ultra‑wide
Figure 4

Remote Cheering from the Virtual Stands (©2021‑
International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

video‑synthesis technology are divided into multiple 4K
images for transmission so that they can be handled bygeneral display devices encoders and decoders In thiscase the image on the display was 12K wide and 1K

transmission The transmitted images were displayed inhigh so it was divided into three 4K images

real time on a 55‑m‑wide offshore wide‑vision display
floating in front of the viewing area at the regatta venue()

Wireless Communication Technology

The races of the sailing regatta at the Olympic and213

Technology(

Ultra‑realistic)

Kirari!

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 were held on six race
Communication

Technology(2)

courses (Figure 6)

Ultra‑wide video images were

captured from three camera boats for the Enoshima

In this project we implemented two technologicalcourse and ultra‑wide images were captured using aelements of Kirari! video transmission using ultra‑wide

drone camera in addition to three camera boats for thevideo‑synthesis technology and ultra‑realistic media‑

Zushi course

synchronization technology
The configuration of the network used in this project is①

Ultra‑wide Video Synthesis Technology

shown in Figure 7 For uplinking video from the boats toFirst the optical axes of each of four cameras are

shore and downlinking from the video‑editing base toaligned as much as possible and the cameras are set up

the barge‑mounted offshore wide‑vision LED display

so that their shooting ranges overlap adjacent captured

NTT DOCOMOʼs 5G line was used as the core inimages by 20‑40% Before the actual synthesis process

conjunction with multiple wireless communications withas a pre‑processing step to correct the disparity

different characteristics such as bandwidth distance

between each cameraand directionality NTT DOCOMOʼs 4G line was used fora projection‑transformation

Figure 5

Overview of the Video Transmission System (©2021‑All rights reserved NTT)

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213

Figure 6

Map of the Race Courses for the Sailing Regatta (©2021‑All rights
reserved NTT)

Figure 7

Network‑configuration Diagram (©2021‑All rights reserved NTT)

flight control of the drone backup video and control ofthe server located on the camera boats

214

Results

Although the regatta was not attended by spectators
hundreds of people mainly athletes and related support

For the wireless equipment it is necessary to keep the

people watched the video transmission every day of theantenna surface facing the drone all the time To ensure

regatta We received comments from many people ofmore‑stable wireless communication we developed athose that expressed their surprise excitement andtechnology that automatically controls the direction ofhopes for the future of sailing Some comments were “I

the antenna by using real time kinematic (RTK) GPS

was surprised by the high sense of realism that I have

(Global Positioning System) information so that thenever experienced before” “It made it easy to under-

antenna always points in the direction of the drone

stand the race situation” and “If this style of spectating
becomes common

214

the number of sailing fans will

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

increase rapidly” For our aim of creating “a sense ofrealism as if the race was being held in front of you” wewere able to create the experience of “warping into therace space itself” by fusing the powerful actual‑size race
images displayed on the offshore wide‑vision display
floating on the sea with the actual surface of the sea sky
and other real spaces
215

Conclusion Remarks

Using commercial 5G and our in‑house ultra‑realistic
communication technology Kirari!

we successfully

Figure 8

Image of a Spectator Wearing an AR Device at a
Swimming Competition (©2021‑All rights reserved
NTT DOCOMO)

Figure 9

An example of the Image that Can Be Viewed with an
AR Device (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑
All Rights Reserved)

transmitted live ultra‑wide video images (with 12K
horizontal resolution) via a 55‑m‑wide offshore wide‑
vision display installed at the Enoshima Yacht Harboursite and a similar but smaller display at the MPC at
Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo At both sites the live video
transmissions were highly evaluated by athletes officials

and international media

The communication

technology used in this project will enable live viewing
not only within a competition venue but also to remotelocations including overseas ones Even during the
COVID‑19 pandemic this project can be ranked as ashowcase for achieving a remote world that NTT isaiming for From now onwards we will promote further
research and development on communication technologies mainly in the fields of sports and entertainment
using 5G and the All‑Photonics Network of IOWN
(Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) as an
infrastructure
･
22
221

5G×Swimming Competitions

Games)

August 27 to 29

2021 (Tokyo 2020

Paralympic Games)

Project Overview
the means to obtain･“competition information” such as athlete information･

In swimming competitions

Period : July 25 to 27 2021 (Tokyo 2020 Olympic

Venue : Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Total number of participants : Tokyo 2020 Olym-“times and standings” for spectators watching on‑site is

pic Games : 129 people

limited to electronic bulletin boards

Games : 242 people (spectators were athletes andmaking it achallenge to provide appropriate information To solve

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic

stakeholders only)

this problem we have realized a measure to transmit
athlete information standings times and other informa-

222

System Configuration

tion in real‑time to Augmented Reality (AR) devices

The following is an overview of this project First

worn by spectators via low‑latency communication

stats data such as the times of each athlete and athleteusing 5G so that they can obtain competition information

information are obtained processed by the AR system

without changing their line of sight and feel a sense of

prepared by the project processed into UI content andpresence and unity at the competition venue Figure 8transmitted to the network The contents are transmit-

shows an image of a spectator watching a competition

ted in real‑time via 5G to spectators wearing AR

and Figure 9 shows an image of the user interface (UI)

glasses Up to now when such content was transmitted

that can be viewed on the AR device

over a telecommunications network delays inevitably
occurred for example when information to display the

An overview of this project is given below

world record line is transmitted it is delivered to the AR

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

215

Figure 10

System Configuration (©2021‑All rights reserved NTT DOCOMO)

glasses later than the actual time making it extremely

past rather than the world record line on the AR

difficult to match the world record line with the athlete

glasses)seen through the AR glasses It was challenging tomatch the world record line with the athlete seen

224

through the AR glasses The use of “5G” in this project

The measures were implemented without any signifi-

reduced the delay to nearly “0” so the time gap between

cant problems during the Games period Although thethe actual race and the displayed content was virtuallyGames were held without spectators and for a shorteliminated allowing spectators to enjoy watching theduration a total of 371 people mainly parties related torace without any discrepancies in content such as thethe Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the Tokyo 2020

finish time

Results

Paralympic Games participated in the project Many
people commented “It will be a next‑generation way to

223

Technology

watch the games” “It was an excellent idea” “It was a

A commercial 5G base station was installed at thevery good idea to be able to see the world record line”

Tokyo Aquatics Centre where the swimming competi-and “The fireworks display when a world record wastions of the Tokyo 2020 Games were held and content

achieved was the best” etc We received many positive

was transmitted to the AR devices via the base stationcomments

The system configuration used in this project is shownand some people who experienced thesystem once said they would recommend it to others On
the other hand we also received comments such as “Iin Figure 10
Since 5G alone is insufficient to process stats datadonʼt want to do this because it would ruin my hair” “Myathlete information etc and ultimately deliver them toeyes get tired” and “I would like to see more images

the AR glasses the data was obtained directly at thefrom underwater”

venue rather than via the Internet to get as close toimproved in the future Regarding our goal “obtain thereal‑time as possible

necessary information as if you were watching TV atwhich indicate the issues to be

Future challenges include handling the data provided

home while feeling the presence at the venue” we(e g when the number of items increases) developing

believe that we were able to provide a new spectator

algorithms to select the required items from a large

experience based on the praise we received from theamount of data and process the contents without delay

many people who experienced the systemand developing more attractive contents in combination

Although we had some technical issues such as somewith other technologies (e g displaying e reproduction

missing stats data by creating the necessary informa-of the actual image of swimming competitions in thetion based on other information we produced results

216

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

that satisfied the spectators who experienced theAn image of the screen is shown in Figure 11

project Although there are still issues to be addressed in

An overview of the project is given below

the future we were able to achieve excellent results in･an environment that demands a very high level of
performance such as the Tokyo 2020 Games
225

Conclusion

Period : July 31 to August 1 2021 (men) August
6 to 7 2021 (women)･

Venue : Kasumigaseki Country Club･

Number of Users : Family lounge users : 90 (Actually the number was higher because some people

We provided a new spectator experience using AR
glasses by utilizing commercial 5G A total of 371 people

voluntarily tried the tablets (spectators wereGames stakeholders only)

experienced the system which was highly praised The
communication technology used in this project can be

232

System Configuration

applied within the same competition venue and in otherAmong the 18 holes we targeted videos from six holes

competitions In the future we expect further develop-

from 13 to 18 which were expected to be very exciting

ment of services by combining 5G with other technolo-

We obtained multiple videos (2K high‑definition im-

gies while taking advantage of its real‑time featuresages) for TV broadcasting installed at the venue andselected the footage that everyone most wanted to see

23
231

from among the multiple camera videos at each hole

5G×Golf

such as the athletes in action and transmitted them

Project Overview

Golf competitions are held on 18 holes so following

together over the network

This large volume ofoneʼs favorite player requires to walk a considerable

information was transmitted to tablets set up in the

distance and it isnʼ t easy to see what is going on at otherlounge using the high‑speed large‑capacity features ofholes The difficulty increases during competitions in the

5G Users could simultaneously view six videos fromsummer months such as July and August when theholes 13 to 18 and tap one of them to view the video ofTokyo 2020 Olympic Games were held Based in above

their favorite hole on a larger screen In addition

we took advantage of the large‑capacity transmission

information on the players such as their rankings andfeature of 5G to implement a measure that allows users

scores of player at the time

to watch high‑quality videos of competitions acrosssimultaneously for the enjoyment of the audience

multiple holes in a comfortable environment such as a

Furthermore live information such as “▲▲ player has aloungechance of birdie” was also created by project members

By operating a tablet installed in the lounge specta-

is also transmitted

and transmitted for the enjoyment of the audience

tors can view videos from multiple holes simultaneously

Figure 11

Image of the Screen (©2021‑All rights reserved NTT DOCOMO)

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

217

Figure 12

233

Network Configuration (©2021‑All rights reserved NTT DOCOMO)

Technology

A commercial 5G base station was installed at the

problems during the Games period

Although theimplementation period was short since the Games were

Kasumigaseki Country Club where the golf competition

held without spectators

for the Tokyo 2020 Games was held and users can enjoy

mainly to stakeholders over four days at the total duringservices in the lounge while receiving the signal

the Olympic Games including the final rounds of thethe service was provided

The configuration of the network used in this project ismenʼs and womenʼs competitions Many people com-shown in Figure 12 where camera images from the OBS

mented favorably on the service saying “Itʼs good to be(Olympic Broadcast Service) were obtained directly

able to choose which hole to watch” “Itʼs easy tofrom the venue and the video to be played from each

operate” “The videos are smooth and easy to watch”

hole at that time was selected Information on athletesand “Itʼs good to be able to watch in a cool room” On theand live information obtained via the Internet wasother hand there were also comments such as “I felt it

converted into content and transmitted to the 5G

was inconvenient that I could not turn the page by

networkswiping” and “How about including more detailed match

Because there were no spectators this time thedata such as “how many yards of rough on the firstservice was provided only on loaner tablets but up to

swing” and “green putt” data” and “When two or more

now the service was envisioned to be provided to thegroups are on the hole the video is not displayed” This

spectatorsʼ own 5G‑compatible devices In this casemade clear the issues that need to be improved in thevisitors must follow procedures such as downloading thefuture Regarding our goal “High‑quality images ofapplication and accessing the website to use the service

competitions can be viewed simultaneously without

Therefore having a more comfortable UI/UX (Userleaving the room” we believe that we were able toExperience) is one of the challenges In addition since

provide a new spectator experience based on the praise

spectators do not necessarily own devices with large

we received from the many people who experienced thescreens such as tablets providing content that can be

event

enjoyed on smaller screens will also be challenging

By the way although cable TV was installed in thevenue our service transmitted videos via 5G and the234

Results

The measures were implemented without significant
218

videos were delivered to the tablets faster than cable TV
because of the real‑time feature of 5G The video of the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

putt‑in in front of the lounge could be viewed in real‑other sports and there are possibilities for services

time at almost the same time as the actual competition

suited to those sports The features of 5G have been

while the video shown on the cable TV had a slightembodied in a tangible form and the practical application

delay which revealed a new feature of this service : itsof 5G is expected not only in sports but also in otherreal‑time naturefields and further development is expected

Technically there was not enough time for rehear-

Finally we would like to thank the many people whosals and we had to go through some trial‑and‑error andprovided tremendous support and cooperation in plan-

could not provide the service to individual devices

ning and implementing the TOKYO2020 5G PROJECT

which we had initially purpose to do because there were

We want to take this opportunity to express our deepest

no spectators Although there were other issues wegratitude We would also like to thank Mr Yoshiyuki

achieved excellent results at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic

Mihara of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Games an environment that demands a very high leveland Mr Yusuke Kobayashi of NTT DoCoMo Inc forof performance

their support in writing this article We thank you all

235

Conclusion

References

We provided a new experience of watching the Games(using tablets using commercial 5G A total of more than90 people experienced the service and it was highly
praised The communication technology used in this(project can be applied within the same competition
venue and in other competitions In the future it isexpected that 5G will be combined with other technologies and further developed into services while taking
advantage of its features such as high capacity and real‑()

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, “Fifth Generation
Mobile Communications System (5G) Now and Future Prospects,”
2019.
https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000633132.pdf) T. Yamaguchi, T. Sato, M. Ono, Y. Tonomura, K. Namba, Y. Kikuchi,
T. Hoshide, T. Morisumi, A. Ono, and K. Minami, “Surround Video
Stitching and Synchronous Transmission System for Immersive Live
Viewing Services,” The Journal of The Institute of Image Information
and Television Engineers, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 402-411, 2020.
) Y. Tonomura, H. Imanaka, K. Tanaka, T. Morisumi, and K. Suzuki,“On standardization activities for Ultra High-Reality Live Experience(ILE),” ITU Journal, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 14-17, 2017.

time performance(Received February 28 2022)

3．Review Reflection and Future Legacy
To realize one of the goals of the Tokyo 2020 Games“the most innovative Games in history that will bringpositive change to the world” we planned and implemented measures utilizing “5G”

one of the mostpromising technologies of the future The environment
surrounding the Games changed drasticallyas theGames were postponed for one year due to the effects of
the COVID‑19 and there was much discussion regarding the implementation of this project However the
project membersʼ desire to implement these measures topromote “Japan as a technological powerhouse” and theencouragement of the staff at each venue to entertain
spectators by providing new experiences prompted the

OHTO Yutaka
He received his B Eng from Kyoto University in 1987 M Eng from Kyoto University in
1989 and joined NTT in 1989 He joined NTT
docomo in 1992 and has been involved in many
projects such as visioning He is a member of
the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee Innovation Promotion Office In 2021 he became theHead of DOCOMO CS Logistics Division
KINOSHITA Shingo
He graduated from Osaka University in 1991
with a B S in Engineering Science He
graduated from UCL the University of London
in 2007 with an M S in Management ofTechnology He joined NTT in 1991 where he
was in charge of creating new spectator
experiences for the Tokyo 2020 Games Currently as Director of NTT Human Information
Laboratories he is in charge of research anddevelopment related to information and communication processing for “humans”

resumption of discussions in the direction of implementing the measures

Unfortunately

there were “nospectators” at the venues but a sizeable number ofpeople involved in the Games experienced the projectand responded positively Although further study isneeded to make the service more attractive we believe
specific results were achieved this time Regarding a

FURUNO Noriyuki
After graduating from the University ofTokyo in 1990 and joining NTT in the same
year He later worked at NTT holdings Nishi‑
Nippon COM He worked for DOCOMO in2017 and Vice President Tokyo 2020 Business
Office In addition to the 5G project planned
and implemented measures for the Holy Fire
Relay and Athletesʼ Village

new style of spectating the project could be applied toSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

219

4 Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives

4‑4

Utilization of Robotics Technology
in the Tokyo 2020 Games
NAKANO Tomohiro TODA Takahiro MORIDAIRA Tomohisa
NAKAYAMA Takahiro INAGAKI Yuji KUWABARA Takeshi

Various projects were implemented for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 to realize the Gamesʼ vision of“the most innovative Games in history bringing positive change to the world” This article introduces the various
initiatives implemented by Toyota Motor Corporation in the “utilization of robotics technology” which is a part of theseprojects
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Autonomous mobility Remote control Communication network

1．Introduction
The Tokyo 2020 Robot Project Working Group wasestablished by TOCOG

(

)

(

)

Planning for spectator support using the
Human Support Robot (HSR)

Toyota Motor Corporation

Field Sport Support Robot (FSR) to support
competitions

Panasonic Corporation and experts to communicate to
the world how robots will accompany people and be11

helpful in various situations at the Olympic and

The T‑TR1 and the T‑TR2 are telepresence robots

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred tothat project images of a person from a remote location

as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) This article introduces thethat are realistic enough to make that person appear

technical outline of each projectright in front of you The robots combine communication

Torch Relay Project by T‑TR1 and T‑TR2

devices such as a camera microphone display and()

Torch relay project by telepresence robots (T‑TR1 and T‑TR2)

your own alter ego from a remote location The concept()

is to provide an opportunity for those who cannot comeTokyo 2020 mascot robot (MR) to support
spectators

speakers with a mobility platform to move around as

to the venue or those with a special interest in the event
to participate virtually and communicate with eachother As a specific project we aimed to connect the

NAKANO Tomohiro
Frontier Research Center TOYOTA Motor Corporation
E‑mail tomohiro̲nakano@mail toyota co jp
TODA Takahiro
Frontier Research Center TOYOTA Motor Corporation
MORIDAIRA Tomohisa
Frontier Research Center TOYOTA Motor Corporation
NAKAYAMA Takahiro
Frontier Research Center TOYOTA Motor Corporation
INAGAKI Yuji
Frontier Research Center TOYOTA Motor Corporation
KUWABARA Takeshi
CV Management Div TOYOTA Motor Corporation

torch in the torch relay as if the runners who could not

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 220‑231 August 2022

(T‑HR3) and to provide a new way to enjoy the Games© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

220

participate in the event at the site were there
12

MR‑based Spectator Support Project

The basic concept of this project was to achieve
realistic remote spectating by utilizing the technology
cultivated through the development of a humanoid robot
without mobility restrictions

This is based on the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

“school collaboration spectating program” that would
provide opportunities for all public and private schools inTokyo wishing to watch the Games at the venues
On the other hand some children are not eligible forthe spectating program due to mobility restrictions suchas severe disabilities or illnesses We aimed to provide
these children with the opportunity to feel the atmosphere of the venues through robotics technology
During the reexamination of the event planning due tothe postponement of the Games by one year we had anin‑depth discussion about what MR could do to make thechildren smile who are restricted in many aspects such

Figure 1

as school events due to the coronavirus disease 2019

Spectator Support by HSR(COVID‑19) As a result we made significant changes
in the MR specifications aiming to significantly improve
the quality of the user experience such as having theGames mascots “Miraitowa” and “Someity” pop out fromthe digital world in a realistic size and dance with thechildren()

Static display in the athletesʼ village()

Seats‑for‑future‑stars project (venues ⇔ special‑needs schools)

13

Spectator Support Project by HSR

Figure 2

The HSR spectator support project was designed toCompetition Support by FSR (©2021‑International
Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

provide a stress‑free spectator experience for wheelchair spectators at the National Stadium The project
combines the robotʼs autonomous motion technology

make the games run more smoothlywith human remote‑control technology to guide the

The system consists of a Lidar cameras batteries

robot from the entrance to its seat collect trash takeand other components with an autonomous driving

commemorative photos

mode

and solve other problems

a person‑following modea mode to avoid(Figure 1) The robot is characterized by its ability tocollisions with objects a manual driving mode and an

operate in large areas where many people pass by andemergency stop modethe fact that multiple robots combining autonomous

For the Tokyo 2020 Games the following two points

operation and remote control can operate simultane-

were emphasized in the development and operation ofously

the system

14

Competition Support Project by FSR①

quickly as possible

The FSR was developed as a robot to assist thethrowing and rugby sevens while working close topeople (Figure 2) In the track and field events FSR

To return objects that are thrown to athletes as②

To reduce the distance for the officials by even asingle step

used AI and robotics technologies to carry andautonomously transport the objects that were thrown

2．Communication Infrastructure

and recovered by officials thereby helping to reduce
recovery time and reduce the physical burden of theofficials and in the rugby sevens the FSR autonomously

21

Overall Overview

In the robot projects () () and () mentioneddelivered and dropped the ball by a mechanism at theabove it was necessary to operate the robot from acenter of the field immediately before kick‑off to help

remote location via a communication network so with

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020221

Figure 3

Figure 4

Complete Overview

Overview of Communication Infrastructure Technology in the T‑TR1/T‑TR2 Project

the cooperation of the NTT Group we built a dedicatednetwork using a closed area optical network andcommercial 5G mobile network services

22

OverviewofCommunication

Infrastructure

Technology in T‑TR1 and T‑TR2 Planning

In places

The plan to remotely control a robot on the wheelchair

where commercial 5G mobile network services werefrom a hospital in Aichi Prefecture to run as aunavailable we used a 4 9 GHz band wireless accesstorchbearer was realized by connecting the operator

system (JRC JRL‑849AP2/E) in combination with aside o a bandwidth‑guaranteed optical fiber line and the

local radio (Figure 3) Project () used LTE mobile

robot side to a commercial 5G mobile network Video

network service and a 169 MHz band radio developed foraudio and control data were communicated using an

this competition as local wireless communication

external connection service that supports the WebRTC

222

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 5

Overview of Communication Infrastructure Technology for the MR Project

Figure 6

Overview of Communication Infrastructure Technology in the HSR Project

protocol via a security gateway (Figure 4) A 5G/LTEside to the robots to realize remote control

gateway terminal (IDY IR‑730B) for small embedded

A compact 5G communication modem (TELIT FN

products was built into the robot to ensure high

980 m) and a dedicated antenna were installed in thereliability in high‑temperature environments An accessrobotspoint for the 4 9 GHz wireless access system was also
installed as a backup line on the Toyota Motor
Corporation Head Office Factory side24

OverviewofCommunication

Infrastructure

Technology in the HSR Project
The robots at the National Stadium from Aichi

23

OverviewofCommunication

Infrastructure

Technology in MR Project
Remote viewing using robots was realized by connect-

Prefecture (Toyota Motor Corporation Head Office) andTokyo (Toyota Motor Corporation Kudan Office) wereremotely controlled by connecting the venues with aing schools/hospitals in Tokyo to the Games venues

bandwidth‑guaranteed optical line

connecting the control devices at the schools/hospitals

Stadium the necessary number of access points for theusing closed optical fiber lines and connecting the robots

4 9 GHz wireless access system was installed to coverinstalled at the Games venues using commercial 5G

the entire area within the robot moving area of the 1F

mobile networks (Figure 5) Video data from the robot

concourse (Figure 6) In addition due to the decision tocamera were sent from the Games venues to the school

make the entire stadium spectator‑free due to theside and control commands were sent from the school

declaration of a state of emergency as part of theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

In the National

223

COVID‑19 infection control measures a small LTE

Although the number of high‑speed large‑capacity

gateway terminal (IDY IR‑720B) was built into theand low‑latency means of communication will increase

robot and usedwith the evolution of communication technology we

The WebRTC protocol was used for bi‑directional

believe that further innovation is required to stabilize thecommunication for video audio robot control sensor

remote operation of robots and we plan to promote

information etc

research and development for the same

25

OverviewofCommunication

Infrastructure

Technology in the FSR Project

3．Key Technological Elements of Each Robot

We used the proprietary 169 MHz radio system for

31

robot control and emergency stop This radio system311

could operate 10 units/ch and four radios on the control
side and four radios on the robot side were all operated

Key Technologies in T‑TR1 and T‑TR2
Development to Enhance the Sensation ofBeing in Remote Locations

A system was constructed to enable a user to operatea robot using the wheelchair usually used by the user

on the same frequency and used jointly

The system configuration is shown in Figure 7 The
26

Summary of Communication Infrastructure

wheelchair speed is identified by outputting parallel

we built a dedicated closed network

values from the left and right encoders positioned on theconsidering security aspects and the communication

chassis are converted to angular values by an interface

necessary for remote control/operation

emergency(I/F) device and input to the Portal‑PC at the remoteof the robots were successfully and securely

location via the Web USB protocol The client application

This timestoprunning on the Portal‑PC generates straight movement

operateda dedicated closed network was con-and turning commands based on the values obtained bystructed considering security and the communication

the I/F device A TWILIO API is used to transmit thesenecessary for remote control/maneuvering and emer-

commands to the robots via the internet

This time

gency stop of the robot was successfully and securely

Next on the robot side the robot application runningon the Upper‑PC for communication mounted on theoperated
However since the line quality of the communication

upper part of the main unit obtains these command

there was a lack ofvalues which are converted to Robot Operating System

consideration for fluctuations on the robot system side

2 (ROS2) Topic via the WebSocket protocol andwhich posed some problems with stable operationtransmitted to the Lower‑PC for mobility control

network fluctuates constantly

Figure 7224

System Configuration for Wheelchair Operation

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 8

System Configuration to Enhance the Impression That a Person in a Far‑away Location Is Present

mounted on the lower part of the main unit Lower‑PC

the top of the robot at the front and rear The images

then converts the command values to the CAN Openfrom the front‑facing camera are shown on the rear‑

protocol and transmits the values to the motor amplifier

facing display while the images from the rear‑facing

With the above hardware and software configuration
we could confirm that the robot can move forward andturn via the internet

Howevercamera are shown on the front‑facing display
The remote side also had two cameras installed

when confirming

Portal Cam1 and Portal Cam2 to capture images of theoperations using the actual robot it was found thatfront and rear sides of the remote user The Portal‑PC

delicate control of the robot using only the remoterecognizes and extracts the user from the images

Portal‑PC was difficult due to delays in internet

obtained from Portal Cam1 and Portal Cam2 based oncommunication the responsiveness of the motor ampli-

the Background Matting method (1) to improve thefier the condition of the road surface and other factors

accuracy of compositing the image of the remote user

As a resultwith the background image

control from a remote location wasrestricted to movement in a straight line only If the

The images displayed on the robot are captured by the

robot strays off course a safety operator close to thetwo cameras mounted on the robot via the GStreamer

robot will override the remote control with a signal fromframework to the upper‑PC At the same time thethe 920 MHz wireless controllers to correct the robotʼs

images of the front and rear of the user captured by the

position

Portal Cam1 and Portal Cam2 cameras on the remoteside are acquired via the internet On the front display of

312

Development to Enhance the Impression that a

the robot the image behind the robot is cropped andPerson in a Remote Location is Present

used as the background image for the front display andWe have developed a system that composites images

the front view of the user at the remote site is

obtained from the cameras mounted on the robot withcomposited and displayed On the rear display theimages of the remote user to effectively project theimage in front of the robot is cropped and used as the

remote user onto the robot and enhance the impression

background image for the rear display and the backthat the remote user is present In particular since theview of the user is composited and displayed

T‑TR2 is equipped with displays on the front and rearsides of the robot by synthesizing images of the remote

32

Key Technologies in MR

user with images obtained from the robot cameras we

321

aimed to create the impression as if the user were

In the new model we aimed to significantly improve

Emotional and Facial Expressions

running in the torch relay The system configuration is

the physical expressiveness and the quality of appear-

shown in Figure 8

ance of the mascots (Figure 9) while maintaining the

The displays are mounted on the front and rear

mascotsʼ lovability Each arm and leg has 6 degrees of

surfaces of the robot and two cameras are mounted on

freedom enabling a variety of bipedal walking andSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

225

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Soft Skin of MR (©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Figure 12

MR Maneuvering (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Appearance of MR (©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved)

Various Emotional Expressions by Stationary Display(©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights
Reserved)

piece which enables various movements even in areas
where three degrees of freedom are concentrated such

dancing steps For further improvement of expressive-as the hip joint and a wide range of motion while

ness we increased the number of joints on the waist andmaintaining the outlines of “Miraitowa” and “Someity”

neck and the mascotsʼ height was increased by only

In addition superior high‑performance polyester fabric

about 5 cm despite adding a total of 8 degrees ofis used as soft skin over the entire body covering thefreedom

joints to achieve a realistic appearance (Figure 11)

In addition to physical expressions with a wide range

The use of soft shells and soft skins not only improvesof DOFs the mascot robots also feature emotional

the appearance of the robots but also allows for aexpressions by animating the eyes (Figure 10)

maximum range of motion of the joints despite the

The eye area is designed to be prominent on the
robotʼs face with high curvature Flexible OLED displays

extremely short leg length

resulting in the robots

having a high level of physical expressivenessare bent into a two‑dimensional curved surface andmounted on the robotʼs face to display natural eye

322

expressions A thin acrylic lens protects the display

In pursuit of realistic motion for the mascot robots asurface with a two‑dimensional curved inner surface

special remote‑control method was adopted where theand a three‑dimensional curved outer surface

robot reflects the operatorʼs movements in real‑timeIn

Remote Control System

addition to the excellent color reproduction of the(Figure 12)

display the curved surface provides a wide viewing

position and posture of the upper body based on theangle to enhance the visibility of emotional eye

position and posture information from the VR equipment

expressions(11 tracker devices including the headset) worn by theThis control application converts the

The exterior uses a soft shell made of Agilus30 a

operator handling the differences in physicality (sizerubber‑like material fabricated by a 3D printer The

and joint range of motion) between a human and thehardness of the soft shell varies depending on the part ofrobot Furthermore the position and posture commands

the body with the hard and soft parts molded as a single

are corrected according to the robot shape to prevent

226

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 13

Conversion Process from Human Motion to Robot Motion

Figure 14

System Configuration for Self‑position Estimation

self‑interference and transmitted to the robot side as a

Lidar face a problem in that the accuracy of self‑position

target command (Figure 13)

estimation is significantly reduced in a dynamic environ-

The robot autonomously performs feedback control toment where many people pass by For this reason we

maintain its balance while following the instructed joint

developed a method for stable self‑position estimation byposition and posture information in real‑timepointing the camera to the ceilingThe

operator can intuitively operate the robot as if they werewhich is lesssusceptible to dynamic objects (Figure 14)

controlling it from within since the operator receives

Self‑position estimation is performed by mapping theaudiovisual information recorded by the robotʼs onboard

feature points obtained from the images of the stereo

camera and microphone that is reproduced through thecamera pointed at the ceiling to a map which is a set ofhead‑mounted display In addition the headsetʼs eye

feature points The odometry calculated by combining

tracker acquires information on the operatorʼs pupil

the outputs of the HSR wheel encoder and IMU is fused

movement and eye‑opening and closing

which iswith an extended Kalman filter and output as the final

reflected in the robotʼs eye animation in real time Whenself‑position The following improvements were madethe robot spots a person it first follows the person withregarding feature point‑based Visual SLAM (2)its eyes and then turns to face the person enablingnatural interaction

These remote‑control functions()

To eliminate the influence of dynamic objects

allow the operator to act as a performer and control thesuch as people during mapping the self‑position

mascot robot

estimation results from 2D Lidar are highly
accurate in static environments and were input as

33

Key Technologies in HSR

331

Mobility Technology

General autonomous mobility algorithms using 2D

reference values for the optimization process()

Maps created at different times were synthesized to cope with changes in lighting due to time

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

227

variations Combinations satisfying the criteria

and carriage using a mouse or device connected to a PC

for self‑location estimation performance were

for remote control (Figure 18)

selected and synthesized from test data multiple
times
(

)

The remote‑control screen features an autonomous
movement function and a 3D view When moving along a

To improve the recovery rate when self‑

predetermined route the robot moves autonomously byposition estimation fails only a certain area from

specifying a destination

the map was used for matching centered on the

movement within the concourse of the National Stadium

self‑position immediately before the failure

On the other hand the game controller is used toThis function is used for

maneuver the robot around the wheelchair spectator
A map of the actual National Stadium is shown inseats

The 3D view displays a composite of static

Figure 15 The blue dots in the figure are feature points

structures such as pillars and dynamic information suchobtained from the ceiling stereo camera Figure 16

as surrounding obstacles and people recognized by theshows the relationship between the movement locus androbot (Figure 19) The robot uses a wide‑angle camera

the self‑position estimation error and Figure 17 shows amounted on the robot while maneuvering to see

histogram of the estimation error The root mean square

wheelchair spectators and a 3D view to grasp obstacles

error (RMSE) of the self‑position estimation wasin the vicinity The viewpoint in the 3D view can be

0 084 m and the 3σ range of the error was 0 19 m

freely moved allowing the user to zoom in to see

indicating that a highly accurate self‑position estimation

obstacles near the robot in detail or to see thewas achieved

approximate location of obstacles using zoom out(Figure 20)332

Remote Control System

The remote operator controls the robotʼs head arm

The robot is equipped with the following safety
features to prevent collisions with people due toerroneous operation allowing the robot to be remotely
controlled with peace of mind ① An imitation function

Figure 15

Map Created by VSLAM

Figure 17

Figure 16

228

Relationship between Movement Trajectory andEstimation error

Histogram of Estimation Error

Figure 18

Remote Control System

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 21

34

Lidar

Key Technologies in FSRThis section introduces “Autonomous driving” andFigure 19

Control Screen Used by the Remote Operator“Person‑following” from among the five modes of“Autonomous driving” “Collision avoidance” “Person‑
following” “Manual driving” and “Emergency stop”
341

Autonomous Driving

At the return position the official working with the
FSR covers the touchless switch at the top of the FSR byhand to activate autonomous driving mode
In autonomous driving mode information about the
distance travelled obtained from the vehicle speed
sensors installed at the rear wheels information about
the location of the FSR obtained by comparison between
a prepared map of the Competition Venue and the shapeof the Competition Venue measured by lidar during FSR
operation and Real Time Kinematic-Global Navigation
Satellite System (RTK-GNSS) information are combined
to estimate the position of the FSR and guide it to thetarget destination
The New National Stadiumthe venue for thethrowing events at the Tokyo 2020 Games

has amaximum distance of approximately 130 meters between the walls of the competition field Therefore the
FSR was equipped with a 200‑meter‑class Lidar toensure reliable measurements (Figure 21)
Vehicle speed sensors of the hall integrated circuit(IC) type are attached to the FSR rear differential joint
Figure 20

3D View of Obstacles in the Vicinity

cups These sensors are synchronized with the tire
rotation to output four pulses per rotation The FSR
speed is calculated from the sensor information on boththat automatically adjusts the direction of movement so

the left and right wheels to improve accuracy and realizethat the robot follows the shape of the obstacle This

fail‑safe operation

function is mainly effective for static obstacles ② A

The FSR is capable of nine degree‑of‑freedom (DOF)

virtual bumper function automatically stops the robot

acceleration

before physical contact with an obstacle that thesensor installed on the vehicle control interface board

imitation function cannot avoid This function is mainly“Moab” kept in the rear ECU box

effective for dynamic obstacles

This function utilizes an acceleration

The Moab board is the most important control board

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020229

Figure 22

Vehicle Control Interface Board “Moab”

Figure 24

Boundary Box Formed by AI

created by the horizontal Lidar beam in the horizontal
angle region defined by the boundary box is used as the
distance to the competition official

The processdescribed above is carried out for each frame and the
FSR is controlled to remain at a distance of three metersfrom the competition official (Figure 24)
By combining a web camera with AI and Lidar we
Figure 23

Heat Map Created by AI Analysis

could realize the following function with compact andagile processingin the FSR since it connects the drive control steering

4．Conclusion

and autonomous driving systems It was designed toemphasize reliability and features a simple microcom-

The Robot WG was able to carry out its plans albeit

puter and input/output (I/O) devices To prevent thewith some modifications in scale and content in the face

FSR from rolling over when steered the Moab boardof repeated adversities including the first‑ever post-

also incorporates an algorithm restricting the maximum

ponement of the Games due to the COVID‑19 criticalsteering angle following the vehicle speed (Figure 22)

public opinion and the fact that the Games were held

In autonomous driving mode the FSR operates along

without spectators

This was due not only to thea pre‑set route The driving route was studied using AI

members of the Robotics WG but also to the support anddeveloped by Toyota Motor East Japan Inc A heat map

cooperation of the Organising Committee and Gamesof the positions of the competition officials and camera

volunteers and we must thank all of them for theircrews was created using AI analysis of images taken byefforts

fixed‑point cameras Based on this heat map the routes

The participation and cooperation of the volunteerof the FSR were designed to avoid interaction withstaff members in all of the planning sites resulted frompeople as far as possible (Figure 23)

their shared desire to enliven the Games and make themeven better We believe that we were able to realize a

342

Person‑following

In person‑following mode the FSR uses AI to drive on
the field behind a event official

project filled with smiles because we could look forward
together
Again a large‑scale demonstration event cannot be

The FSR is equipped with a commercially available

accomplished by an individual It can only be realized

C930 web camera manufactured by Logicool Co Ltd In

with the cooperation of all parties involved so finding as

this mode the AI recognizes a competition official frommany people as possible to work together is desirable

RGB images obtained by the camera and creates a

What we feel is necessary for this is to recognize theboundary The target angle to the competition official isdiversity of ideas (tolerance and respect) to remember

calculated using the center point of the boundary box

the spirit of cooperation (mutual aid) and to remember

Next the point closest to the FSR from a point groupthe spirit of gratitude and consideration Finally we

230

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

would like to thank everyone involved for theirunderstanding cooperation and guidance in progressing with this grand project Thank you very much
References()

S. Sengupta, V. Jayaram, B. Curless, S. Seitz, and I. K-Shlizerman,“Background matting : The world is your green screen,” Proc. IEEE
Conf. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2020, pp.
2288-2297, Seattle, USA, 2020.
( ) R. Mur-Artal and J.D. Tardos, “ORB-SLAM2 : An open-source SLAM
system for monocular, stereo and RGB-D cameras,” IEEE Trans.
Robotics 2017, pp. 1-8, 2017.
(Accepted March 18 2022 ; Revised April 4 2022)

NAKANO Tomohiro
He graduated from Nagoya University in2001 completed the masterʼs course at thesame university in 2003 and joined Toyota
Motor Corporation in the same year He wasengaged in analytical work related to next‑
generation battery materials Currently heworks in the Socio‑informatics ResearchGroup R Frontier Department where he isengaged in research on solutions to life issues
necessary for citizens to enjoy happiness insocial activities
TODA Takahiro
He graduated from the University of Mie in1999 completed a masterʼs course at the same
university in 2001 and joined Fujitsu Computer
Technology Limited in the same year He joined
Toyota Motor Corporation in 2009 where he
was engaged in the development of partner
robots Currently belongs to the Connected
Advanced Development Department He iscurrently engaged in the development of next‑
generation vehicle cockpits

NAKAYAMA Takahiro
He received his B S M S and Ph D
degrees in electronic engineering from Tohoku
University Sendai Japan in 1998 2000 and2003 respectively From 2003 to 2007 he was a
Research Associate at New Industry Creation
Hatchery Center (NICHe) Tohoku University
where he researched algorithms circuits andsystems for image compression transmission
and recognition In 2007 he joined Toyota
Motor Corporation Aichi Japan He is currently engaged in research and development of
telepresence robot systems Dr Nakayama is amember of the IEEE Signal Processing Society
and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society
INAGAKI Yuji
He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering Department ofElectronics in 1991 and joined Toyota Motor
Corporation in the same year Since then hehas been engaged in product design andproduction technology development of in‑vehicle electronic components Currently heworks at the Robotics Research Unit R
Frontier Department Toyota Motor Corporation He is engaged in research and development to realize remote service by robots using
next‑generation communication technology
KUWABARA Takeshi
He graduated from Keio University in 1992
completed the masterʼs course at Keio University in 1994 and joined Toyota Motor Corporation in the same year He was in charge ofchassis design mid‑to‑long‑term R&D strategy planning Toyota Motor Europe and FSR
development leader Currently he is engagedin overall technical development at Toyota
Auto Body Co Ltd

MORIDAIRA Tomohisa
He graduated from the Tokyo Institute ofTechnology in 1996 completed the masterʼscourse at the same university in 1998 andjoined Sony Corporation in the same year He
joined Toyota Motor Corporation in 2008
where he was engaged in humanoid robot
development Currently he is engaged in thedevelopment of avatar robots and remote‑control systems as a manager of Dynamic
Robotics G R Frontier Department㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

231

4 Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives

4‑5

Supporting the Tokyo 2020 Games
with People‑friendly Robots
OGISHIMA Keiji UCHIDA Yoshifumi
KUROKAWA Takahiro HONDA Renji

Various new initiatives have been implemented at the Tokyo 2020 Games by The Tokyo Organising Committee of the
Olympic and Paralympic Games the national government the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and partner companies(Panasonic Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation) to realize the vision of being “the most innovative Games inhistory” bringing positive change to the world Among the initiatives Panasonic supported the Games by utilizing Power
Assist Suits and robot vacuum cleaners This article introduces the details of these initiatives
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Robot project Power assist suits Robot vacuum cleaner

1．Introduction

robots using the Games as an opportunity to passthem on as a legacy to the future

The Tokyo 2020 Robot Project implemented various
initiatives with the following objectives :･To show that robots can be helpful in various

This article introduces the details of the initiatives
11

Power Assist Suit ATOUN MODEL Y (Figure 1)

situations during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic andHere 20 units of the ATOUN MODEL Y were used toParalympic Games (hereafter referred to as “Tokyo

reduce the workload of the operational staff during the2020 Games”) which is attracting the attention ofGames The ATOUN MODEL Y was used for transport-

people around the world

ing heavy food and beverages waste materials etc and･

To demonstrate to the world that a safe secureand sustainable operation of the Games is possible
through using robots in the face of the COVID‑19
pandemic･To promote the social implementation of these

OGISHIMA Keiji
Business Development Office Panasonic Holdings Corporation
E‑mail ogishima keiji@jp panasonic com
UCHIDA Yoshifumi
Business Development Office Panasonic Holdings Corporation
E‑mail uchida yoshifumi@jp panasonic com
KUROKAWA Takahiro
Business Development Office Panasonic Holdings Corporation
E‑mail kurokawa takahiro@jp panasonic com
HONDA Renji
Living Appliances and Solutions Company Panasonic Corporation
E‑mail honda renji@jp panasonic com

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 232‑237 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

232

Figure 1

ATOUN MODEL Y

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

for loading the luggage of Games officials onto buses

shows an example of its use by a spotter loader The

The specifications of ATOUN MODEL Y are as
follows :organising committee and Games officials operated thePower Assist Suits from battery recharging andreplacement to installation and spotter loaders highly

ATOUN MODEL Y specifications :rated the suits The WPPO commented “The model･

Weight : 4 5 kg

used in this competition was the best one as we had･Assist force : 10 kgf max

been testing and devising it since 2017 Thanks to･Operating duration : approximately 4 hours (as-Panasonic we had the most innovative competition” Hesuming that work is performed using ATOUN)

also stated that they were pleased with the results･

Ideal operator height : 150‑190 cm･

Features : The sensor detects the movement of112

the lower back of the person wearing the suit andthe motor reduces the burden on the lower backwhen holding a heavy load

Application 2 : The Olympic and Paralympic
Village

The cleaning and food and beverage departments
have used the Power Assist Suits since mid‑July in the
Olympic and Paralympic Village The cleaning depart-

111

Application 1 : Para Powerlifting

ment used it to clean trash (Figure 3) and the food andAfter a successful track record of use in past national
and international competitions World Para Powerlifting

beverage department used the Power Assist Suits
especially for carrying beverages (Figure 4)(WPPO) has decided to adopt Power Assist Suits for the
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in 2019 and Panasonic113

has signed a partnership agreement with WPPO to
become the official supplier

Application 3 : Haneda Airport and Narita
AirportAt the airports the Power Assist Suits were used for

The suits were used by spotter loaders (assistantsloading and unloading the luggage of athletes and related

who change weights) in all 20 weight classes of thepersonnel Figure 5 shows an example of the use of

powerlifting competition held at the Tokyo International

ATOUN MODEL Y This model has been used by theForum for five days from August 26 to 30 2021 Figure 2

airlines and was evaluated to be effective for up‑and‑down transportation such as stacking and unloading
12

ATOUN MODEL Y＋kote

This variation helps with arm support (Figure 6) The
motor unit attached to the upper frame of ATOUNMODEL Y winds the wire that connects to the wrist
holder and pulls up the arm for support with power andFigure 2■

Assistance for Para Powerlifting Competitions

Terminology

LiDAR
Light Detection and Ranging A sensor thatemits pulsed laser light onto an object and measures the
distance based on the time it takes for the reflected scattered
light to return
SLAM
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping A
technology that simultaneously estimates self‑location andmaps the environment■

Figure 3

Application in the Olympic and Paralympic Village(Cleaning Section)

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

233

Figure 6

Figure 4

ATOUN MODEL Y＋kote

Application in the Olympic and Paralympic Village(Food and Beverage Section)

Figure 7

Olympic Stadium Athletics (Shot Put)

thereby providing powerful and speedy support

Figure 5

Application at an Airport (Transportation Division)

121

Application : Shot Put

The officials utilized the Power Assist Suits in the
Olympic and Paralympic Athletics to retrieve the shot in
the Shot Put Figure 7 shows an example of the system

speed

being used The officials gave positive feedback “It was

The specifications of ATOUN MODEL Y＋kote are as
follows

effective when standing up after bending over and I wasable to lift the menʼs shot with one hand easily”
However some commented that it was too hot to wear

ATOUN MODEL Y＋kote Specifications :the Power Assist Suits for a long time as it was worn for･

Weight : 5 8 kg

more than two hours under the scorching sun at theAssist force : For arms‑12 kgf (max) ; For lower

Tokyo 2020 Games･

back‑10 kgf (max)･Operating duration : approximately 2 5 hours(assuming that work is performed using ATOUN)

･
･

13

Power Assist Suit ATOUN HIMICO

The wires connecting the motors to the knees are

Ideal operator height : 150‑190 cm

mounted on the waist housing to support and help users

Feature : The finger sensors detect motion andmove their legs while walking (Figure 8)

the motor unit attached to the frame of the ATOUN

The specifications of ATOUN HIMICO are as follows

MODEL Y will wind the wires to lift the arms
234

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSATOUN HIMICO Specifications :pending on the walking situation )･

Weight : 2 5 kg･

Wire tension : Max 10 kgf･

Operating duration : Approximately 2 hours (de-

･

Ideal

operatorsize : Height

155 cm‑190 cm ;waist‑max100 cm (measured with cloth)･

Feature : ATOUN HIMICO supports the userʼswalk Wires connecting motors on the waist to theknees support pulling and lifting the userʼs legs

131

Application 1 : National Stadium

With the cleaning department of the Olympic Stadium the Power Assist Suits were used for long walks
inside the facility and for moving up and down stairs
Figure 9 shows an example of device usage
The following evaluations were received : “The device
was very effective when it fits” “It was especiallyeffective when climbing stairs” and “I felt the range of
motion of my knees narrow but this was resolved bygetting used to the knee supporter and the way it fits”
14
Figure 8

ATOUN HIMICO

Development Model of Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Figure 10 shows the development model of the robot
vacuum cleaner It is equipped with a camera and
LiDAR (light detection and ranging) (Terminology) toautomatically recognize the cleaning environment of
MPCʼs (main press centre) common areas and automatically clean every corner In addition “nanoe TM X (Note 1)”
sanitizes the dust collection box (Note 2) to provide a clean
and comfortable facility space
The functions are as follows
Equipped function ① : SLAM (Simultaneous Localiza-

Figure 9

Olympic Stadium (Cleaning Section)

Figure 10(Note 1) The “nanoe” mark is a trademark of Panasonic Corporation(Note 2) The sanitization effect may differ depending on the conditionof the dust in the dust collection box

Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

235

tion and Mapping)(Terminology) technology
The MPC is equipped with a high‑precision LiDAR
and utilizes SLAM technology for mapping the environment to generate a map of the MPC common area whichis the space to be cleaned The map‑based driving
enables driving in a wide area of space
Equipped function ② : Human/object recognition
Conventional robot vacuum cleaners are designed tooperate in spaces with few people This time a camera‑
based recognition technology was installed to operate in

Figure 11

Application of Robot Vacuum Cleaner at MPC

spaces where people are present enabling the robot tomove in response to people and objects①

If there is a person in front of the robot it stops

2．Conclusion
This project aimed to show that the robot vacuum

and greets the person
If there is an object in front of the robot it

cleaners and the Power Assist Suits are helpful incontinues to avoid the obstacle and cleans the area

everyday work and that many people can see them We②

believe that the results of their use by many people haveEquipped function 3 : Sanitization of dust collection
chamber by nanoeTM

contributed to the Tokyo 2020 Games and advanced thesocial implementation of robots On the other hand we

The health hazards caused by dust during garbage

also received comments on issues and improvements

collection are reduced by equipping the robot with athat should be made using the robot We want to makefunction to sanitize the garbage by performing nanoeTMsterilization in the dust collection chamber after
cleaning

the most of these suggestions for future development
In carrying out the Tokyo 2020 Robot Project wethank the Organising Committee the Innovation Promotion Office and many other stakeholders involved in the

Testing organization : TECHNO SCIENCE CO LTD

project for their assistance in making the robots

Test method : Measured the number of bacteria

available in many places during the Tokyo 2020 Gamesadhering to a piece of cloth in the dust collection box in atest room (approximately 6 tatami mats)
Method of inhibition : nanoeTMreleased

Object : Adhered bacteria

We express our deepest gratitude to all of them
We would also like to thank everyone who operated
and used our robots
Thank you very much for your cooperation

Test result : 99% or more suppression in 2 5 hours(No 20070646‑001)
Date of test report issued : March 5 2021 (test was
conducted on two types of bacteria) not effective for all
bacteria
141

Utilization : Main Press Centre (MPC)

From July 19 to September 5 2021 the common area
floor of the Main Press Centre at Tokyo Big Sight wascleaned to reduce the workload of the cleaning crew
during the Games Figure 11 shows an example of theuse of this system
The robot vacuum cleaner was handy during theGames
In addition there were requests at the Games for the
robot to clean the meal and rest areas for volunteers
instead of just the lobby
236(Received on March 18 2022 ; Revised on March 29 2022)

OGISHIMA Keiji
He graduated from the Graduate School of
Systems Information Science Kyushu University in 2002 He joined Matsushita Communication Industrial Co Ltd the same year and wastransferred to the Tokyo Olympic & Paralympic Enterprise Division in 2016 where heparticipated in the Tokyo 2020 Robot Project
He is in charge of leading the promotion of robot
vacuum cleaners and the Power Assist Suits foruse in the Tokyo 2020 Games
UCHIDA Yoshifumi
He graduated from Kobe City College ofTechnology in 1985 He joined Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co Ltd in the same year
He was transferred to the Tokyo Olympic &Paralympic Enterprise Division in 2014 where
he was in charge of creating new businesses
around accessibility as the head of the Paralympic Division

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

KUROKAWA Takahiro
He graduated from the Tokyo Institute ofTechnology in 1994 He joined Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co Ltd in the same year
He was transferred to the Tokyo Olympic &Paralympic Enterprise Division in 2015 where
he was in charge of creating new businesses
related to accessibility and robotics His goal is
to create a society where everyone can use
robots starting with the Tokyo 2020 GamesHONDA Renji
He graduated from the Graduate School of
Science and Technology Kumamoto University in 2001 He joined Matsushita ElectricIndustrial Co Ltd the same year and wastransferred to the Appliance Company in 2016
where he was in charge of advanced development for cleaners He was involved in thedevelopment of the MC‑GRS1M (RULO Pro)
commercial robot vacuum cleaner HE was also
the development leader for the development
model of a robot vacuum cleaner demonstrated
at the Tokyo 2020 Games

㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020237

4 Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives

4‑6Drone Light Shows Activation for the Olympic
Games Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony
Tapio LIUSVAARA

Shilpa PATEL Andreas JALSOVEC
NAGASE Jun MATSUDA TakaIntel Corporation was honored to be the Official Drone Light Shows Partner for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 As
millions of viewers worldwide came together to watch the Opening Ceremony on July 23 2021 thousands of Intel (Note 1)
drones took to the skies above the Olympic Stadium This was an unforgettable performance that celebrated the athletesʼ
inspiring achievements and the triumph of the human spirit
Keywords：Intel Drone Light Shows Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony

heartfelt accompaniment Sung by John Legend Keith

1．Introduction

Urban Beninese singer‑songwriter Angelique Kidjo

The breathtaking globe high above the Olympic

Spanish performer Alejandro Sanz and the Suginami

Stadium (Figure 1) was an unforgettable moment fromChildrenʼs Choir

the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo

soundtrack to the performance that quickly became a2020 Intel launched 1 824 drones into the sky in asocial media sensation

the rendition provided a stirring

spectacular performance that began with the Olympicsʼ
Kabuki‑inspired checkered emblem As the emblem
hung large in the night sky it seamlessly transitioned
into a blue and white orb before morphing into the now‑
iconic globe While the stunning image of the world
hovered over the stadium John Lennonʼs beloved song“” arranged by Hans Zimmer

provided a

Tapio LIUSVAARAIntel Drone Light Shows Intel Corporation
E‑mail tapio liusvaara@intel com
Shilpa PATELIntel Drone Light Shows Intel Corporation
E‑mail shilpa r patel@intel com
Andreas JALSOVEC
IDI‑Intel Drone Light Shows BU Intel Corporation
E‑mail Andreas Jalsovec@intel com
NAGASE Jun
MSO GSEM Intel Corporation
E‑mail jun nagase@intel com
MATSUDA Taka
Cloud Solution Architect Group Sales and Marketing Group Intel Corporation
E‑mail taka matsuda@intel com

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 238‑243 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

238

Figure 1

A globe Performed by Intel Light Show Drones FloatedHigh above the Olympic Stadium during the Opening
Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020（©2021‑
International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）(Note 1) Intel the Intel logo and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel
Corporation or its subsidiaries

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

2．Intel Drone Light Shows Overview
Intel Drone Light Shows is an innovative form of art
and storytellingbranding

or advertising

becomes your largest canvas

billboard

The skyor movie

screen This is a smoke‑free and noise‑free way foraudiences to enjoy 3D animated stories and dynamic
formations choreographed to music There can be 100s/
1 000s of pre‑programmed drones flying in unison‑allcontrolled by one pilot Intel Drone Light Shows uses
state‑of‑the‑art technology Designed specifically forlight shows Intel drones are lightweight incorporate

Figure 2Intel Premium Drone a Purpose‑built Drone for Light
Shows（©2021‑Intel Corporation）

Figure 3Intel Premium Drone Luminosity with High Ambient
Light in Tokyo（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

key safety features and are engineered to be moretolerant of real‑world performance conditions
The innovative Intel launch pad simplifies shippingstorage deployment charging launch and auto‑landing Built to hold six drones each the launchpad reduces
airfield footprint acts as a wireless communications hub
for the drones during performances and provides a
stackable secure and robust transportation enclosure
In addition to hardware the customized performance
control software developed by Intel enables a single
computer to manage an entire fleet of up to 10 000
drones From setting geofences to running fleet checks
before flights

this robust software allows Intel toefficiently conduct safety and risk assessments drone
tracking and regulation compliance3．Preparations for Drone Light Show Activationin Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony
31

Purpose‑built Light Show Drones

32

Drone Light Show DesignIntel light show drones have dazzled audiences acrossDuring the initial design phase safe flight areas

the globe for years For the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

spectator positions and optimal viewing angles wereIntel built the next generation of light show drones As aidentified At the same time the Intel creative team in

resultclose collaboration with the Tokyo 2020 Opening

the Intel Premium Drone (Figure 2) was

launched
fasterThe Intel Premium Drones are brighterand have improved positional accuracy for

Ceremony team worked with sketches and storyboards
to bring the show narrative and vision to life

crisper animations With four LEDs their increased

The logo of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games byluminosity makes them perfect for settings with high

TOKOLO Asao served as the basic concept for the firstambient light such as Tokyo (Figure 3) They also haveelement of the drone show The pattern TOKOLO used

an increased wind tolerance and require less air andin these emblems was a nod to Ichimatsu Moyou aground spacetraditional Japanese checkerboard pattern that became

It was not only the technology that was required topopular during the Edo period (1603‑1867)

While

perform a crowd‑wowing light show experience duringsending a message of unity and hope

the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony but it also required

transitioned from the TOKOLO emblem into a Globe

the drones

a lot of advanced preparations in operations infrastruc-high above the Olympic Stadium highlighting the mottoture art creation and safety planning to deliver theof the Olympic Games : Faster Higher Stronger‑To-

spectacular drone light show experience

getherSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

239

The drone show started with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic

needed to allow the artists to implement changes in the

Games logo in the night sky high above the Olympic

shortest possible time With the assistance of our Intel

Stadium Based on a spherical basic shape the design

Light Show Editor (Figure 4) it would be possible toconsisted of 120 rectangles unfolding into the Tokyo 2020

make potential simple edits in real‑time In addition thisOlympic Games logo The three different sized rectan-

allowed us to test a wide variety of ideas before on‑sitegles represented diverse cultures countries and ways

rehearsalsof thinking

The color palette consisted of pure white with subtle

This spherical base shape also represented the second

traditional Japanese indigo blue accents to underline thesection in the drone performance The transition fromthree‑dimensionality of the forms and thus the depth

the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games logo to the sphericalshape allowed the initial geometric construction of thelogo visible to the audience

33

Technical Challenges of Show Design

Along with the design and creative tasks the teamThe drone show was intended to underline thehad to contend with limited airspace as well as thediversity represented in the logo with the sphericallylocations and line of sight of the broadcast video

arranged rectangles morphing into a globe in the thirdcamerassection of the drone show For the globe itself Fibonacci

In February 2020 the team conducted a site survey ofSphere was chosen as the base body In this way wethe Japan National Stadium Since the drone operations

achieved an optimal and optically harmonious distribu-

airfield was 300 meters (about the height of the Empire

tion of the drones

State Building in New York City) away from the actual

The simplicity elegance and graceful flowing move-center of the drone show it was important that thements of the drone show presented special challenges forvirtual models also corresponded to the exact dimen-

the show design Usually the customized Intel Light

sions on site Too large a deviation in position or heightShow Editor calculates the transitions between two

would have resulted in part of the show not being fully

choreographed pieces of content Here however thesevisible When we saw the drones appearing at thetransitions had to correspond to the construction of the

anticipated point in the sky during the first rehearsals

logo as well as a specific temporal pattern and a manual

we had confirmation that our plans corresponded to theanimation was simply impossible because of the large

actual conditions on‑sitenumber of drones
To meet the customer‑needs during the design
process

The feeling is indescribable when at the end of such a
project you can finally look at your work in the night sky

the creative team accommodated frequent

requests for changes to ensure alignment to accompany-

34

ing music that was still being fine‑tuned So it quickly

To put on a drone light show using 1 824 drones in the

Drone Light Show Planningbecame apparent that a semi‑procedural approach wascenter of an urban environment such as Tokyo before alive broadcast with such a high‑profile audience
required months of collaborative working sessions withnumerous local authorities The focus for all agencies
was safety before during and after the flight and an
unforgettably positive audience experience
The biggest challenge facing the world was thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) pandemic which
delayed the games by one year

Due to travel

restrictions the team had to develop unique solutions to
obtain all the necessary approvals before the teamarrived in Tokyo
35

Safety and Security Consideration

Safety is a priority when operating a drone light show
Figure 4

240

The Logo of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Intel
Light Show Editor（©2021‑Intel Corporation）

It all begins with technology powered by Intel : purpose‑built drones state‑of the‑art animation and perform-

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

ance control software including the firmware control

running fleet checks this robust software also allows thesoftware animation and simulation design software toteam to implement emergency protocols such as return

protocols intended to promote safety

to home and immediate controlled descent The drones

The Intel Premium drones are more aerodynamic

are constantly reporting back to the pilot their status via

than previous generations meaning they can fly fasterthe control system to keep the pilot always informed onmake quicker

and have an

the fleets health The flight control system is also

increased tolerance for wind Purpose‑built for safety

designed with redundancy which means if one system

the premium drones weigh just 340 grams and are

fails another system will keep the drone flying without

designed specifically to not carry a payload They are

any disruption

more agile transitions

also constructed with a frame made of flexible plastic

To fly the drones within restricted airspace the teamand foam with guards surrounding quadcopter propel-

correspondingly secured approval from Tokyo 2020 tolers

deregulate the airspace over the Japan National Stadium
the teamfor two weeks The deregulation approval also communi-

reviewed the historical temperatures for the summer

cated to other activations in the area to be aware of theseason in Japan Based on the data the team added toairspace restriction during the drone light show at theDuring the drone development phasethe plan how to address high ambient temperatures To

Opening Ceremony Once the deregulation was ap-

prevent the drones from overheating special attention

proved Intel applied for an aviation permit from thewas focused on the thermal design of the drones With

local civil aviation authority This was also not without

innovative cooling solutions in the drone and launch pad

challenges as the regulations for the exclusion zone andsystems all systems were kept cool both on the groundthe maximum height for drone flights had a significant

and in flight

impact on the allowable airspace and animation design

Before any Intel drone could fly in Tokyo Intel had to

The last step was to notify the local community fireapply for radio certification to operate the drones indepartment

Japan Once the team was on‑site an inspection andperformancevenue owners without revealing theaudit of the equipment and communication system wasAnother concern for Tokyo 2020 was the potential

conducted by local authorities to complete the registra-noise or buzzing hum of 1 824 buzzing drones flying nexttion and certify the drones as Tokyo 2020 licensed radio

to the residential area To reduce any probable noise

devices The audit also established frequencies used

pollution Intel sent the drones to a laboratory for soundduring the Opening Ceremony and confirmed that key

level measurements during the engineering productsafety protocols were working

build Although the team specifically‑built a quiet drone

Next the Intel Premium drone system security was

the on‑site testing confirmed the minimal soundreviewed by Tokyo 2020 Technology Service Officials

produced by the drone fleet would not be detected

for safety and intrusion protocols to check whether any

outside of the stadium area

outside entity could easily gain control over the drone

Ceremony the music aptly drowned out the soft buzzing

light show system To avoid outside interference allsound during the performance

During the Opening

communication between the drones and flight controller

Planning for the drone light show took place during

is encrypted The firmware and all the flight records are

the COVID‑19 pandemic complicating an alreadyalso encrypted to protect the systems

complex process The most significant impact was the

To fly nearly two‑thousand drones in an urban area of

reduced number teammates approved to enter and work

Tokyo Intel performed a live demonstration of the Intel

the show by Japan border‑control authorities Working

drone system conducted flights and presented key

with half the desired number of workers Intel built

safety features to the local police The Intel animation

redundancy among the staff to support the daily

software enables the creative team to design test andoperations As a precaution before the team arrived insimulate the 3D imagery The customized software

Tokyo the drone team divided into two groups before

promotes safety by automatically mapping collision‑freeentering the country The teams worked split shifts to

trajectories between the drones during flight andsupport day and night shifts The day shift performed

physical obstacles such as buildings The Intel perform-

maintenance and applied any updates to the fleet before

ance control software enables a single computer tothe night shift conducted test flights and addressed any

manage the entire fleet From setting geofences totechnical issues

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

241Figure 5

36

Meiji Jingu Stadium Baseball Field Served as the Drone
Airfield（©2021‑Intel Corporation）

Setup Test and Rehearsals

Intel and Tokyo 2020 explored multiple locations

Figure 6

The Intel Drone Light Shows Team at the Olympic
Games Tokyo 2020（©2021‑Intel Corporation）

trained and skilled in risk management

worldwide

aviation regulations weather and airspace awarenessaround the Japan National Stadium for a suitable drone

Another challenge the team had to overcome was theairfield that would be feasible for the Opening Ceremony

radio frequency interference experienced by the system

performance During the site survey in February 2020in the stadium area in the middle of Tokyo during test

Meiji Jingu Stadium was identified to be the best site forflights Because the Opening Ceremony is such a large

drone airfield from an art safety and logistics point of

productionviewnearly every vendor was using radio

communication as part of their setup causing interfer-

As part of standard operations Intel stocks additional

ence with the drone communications With redundancy

drones to support test flights and to secure the exact

optimized radio protocol in the drones and careful radio

number of drones available for the final performancetransmitter box locations

Intel apportioned 2 700 drones on the airfield to support

electromatic frequency interference and executed a

the Opening Ceremony and the animation for the Tokyo

successful drone light show for the Opening Ceremony

the team managed the2020 social media campaign The Intel team worked with

The final and the most critical challenge wasa local vendor to acquire the necessary infrastructure tosynchronizing the drone light show to the live perform-

support the daily operations of the drone team It took 18

ance of the elements of the story choreography inside thehours to build the airfield with all the infrastructure andJapan National Stadium For the live performance it

set up the airfield (Figure 5) and conduct safety andwas critical that the drone flight trajectories lighting

power checks The stadium would be the home of theand music choreography matched precisely to engage

team for the next two weeks

the audience and to send a message of unity and hope toEvery drone flight includes a wide range of safety

all the viewers across the world

measures including geofences with generous buffers
multiple trained visual observers and built‑in emergency protocols It was no different for the Tokyo 2020

4．Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony except for the movements of the

The team arrived early as there was an area lockdown

participants and the parade of athletes scheduled to be indue to security and safety protocols for anyone entering

the area during the drone light show performance To

the restricted area on the day of the Opening Ceremony

ensure the safety of people within the flight area IntelAs you might expect on show days the team often has acollaborated with Tokyo 2020 authorities to develop

higher level of stress and anxiety as they focus on flying

safety protocols to confirm there would be no materiala best‑in‑class show

breach of the exclusion zone by placing security officers

watching worldwide the stress levels skyrocketed

but with millions of people

around the flight area The Intel drone operators for the

As the sunset on the night of July 23 2021 the pilots

Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony were highly trained andand professional show controllers ran through the final

licensed pilots with years of aviation experience expertly

safety and equipment checks and then launched the242

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

show The Intel drone performance has been widelycelebrated as one of the highlights of the ceremony
From glowing newspaper and magazine reviews toextensive television broadcast coverage and social media
engagement this magical performance has become oneof the most talked about events of the Tokyo 2020
Olympic Games
Acknowledgments We would like to thank everyone
involved with the Intel Drone Light Show at the Olympic
Games Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony We are incredibly fortunate to have had such a talented team ofcreative artists

software and hardware engineersoperations logistics and local authorities to perform an
amazing show for the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony(Figure 6)

Andreas JALSOVEC
Andreas JALSOVEC studied graphic designin Linz Austria Attracted by the possibilities
of computer graphics he deepened his knowledge in digital modelling 3D animation andvisual effects Based on these skills he becamea key researcher in this area of the Ars
Electronica Futurelab shortly after its founding
in 1996 As early as 2012 as part of the Ars
Electronica Spaxels project he had the privilege of realizing the worldʼs first drone lightshow Artistically exploring the possibilities ofdrone light shows and pushing the boundariesof their application is his current focus at IntelNAGASE Jun
NAGASE Jun received his diploma in Law
from Meiji Gakuin University in 1995 Prior tojoining at Intel in 2005 Jun established his Sales
career in the semiconductor industry He has
participated to Olympic Program Office at Intelin 2018 to support projects in relation to Tokyo
2020(Received March 18 2022 ; Revised April 15 2022)

Tapio LIUSVAARA
Tapio LIUSVAARA received his M Sc in
Mechanical Engineering from Tampere University in 1998 He is a Principal Engineer at Intel
Corporation Tapio has R&D experience inmobile phones tablets wearables and lightshow drones

MATSUDA Taka
MATSUDA Taka received his B S in
Mathematics from University of Nevada Reno
in 1997 and M S in Information Science andTechnology from The University of Tokyo in2014 He is a Principal Engineer at Intel
Corporation

Shilpa PATEL
Shilpa PATEL received her B S in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University
in 2006 She is a Program Manager at Intel
Corporation㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

243

4 Innovation Projects Innovation Initiatives

4‑7

Utilization of Projection Mappingin the Tokyo 2020 GamesOOMARU Yoshihisa

MIZUSHIMA Tetsuro ICHIKAWA Masaki
MATSUKI Daizaburo SAKANISHI Yasuaki

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 utilized projection mapping to stage the opening and closing
ceremonies and competitions This article introduces the technology and efforts focused on Japan National Stadium where
the opening and closing ceremonies and athletic competitions were staged
Keywords：Projector Projection mapping Tokyo 2020

1．Introduction
Panasonic has supported the Olympic and Paralympic
Games for 30 years

which started by delivering

broadcasting equipment for the Barcelona 1992 Gamesusing the latest video and audio technologies Panasonicprovided projection mapping for the opening and closing
ceremonies starting with the London 2012 Games thenRio 2016 Games and Pyeongchang 2018 Games Taking
advantage of its high staging potential and the possibilityof direct visual effects on the competition field we have

Figure 1

Projection Mapping at Japan National Stadiumprovided projection mapping for the opening and closing
ceremonies and the competition venues
In the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games

expanding the range of its use This article introduces(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020”) projection

the technology and efforts of the Tokyo 2020 Games

mapping was provided to multiple competition venues

focusing on the projection mapping at Japan National
Stadium (Olympic Stadium) where the opening andclosing ceremonies and athletic competitions were

OOMARU Yoshihisa
Media Entertainment Business Division Panasonic Connect Co
MIZUSHIMA TetsuroMedia Entertainment Business Division Panasonic Connect Co
E‑mail mizushima tetsuro@jp panasonic com
ICHIKAWA Masaki
Media Entertainment Business Division Panasonic Connect Co
MATSUKI DaizaburoMedia Entertainment Business Division Panasonic Connect Co
SAKANISHI Yasuaki
Media Entertainment Business Division Panasonic Connect Co

Ltd
Ltd

National Stadium

Ltd
Ltd

2．Projection Mapping Technology and EffortsLtd

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 244‑248 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

244

staged Figure 1 shows the projection mapping of the
opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games at JapanThe Tokyo 2020 Games aimed “the most innovative
Games in history bringing positive reform to the world”

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSas stated in the Games Vision Communication from

0 8 m 2 equivalent to a conventional model with half theeitire Venuse at Opening and Closing Ceremonies andlight output thanks to a more efficient cooling mecha-

Innovation for Athletics were requested Also it wasnism The use of this projector has realized a 1 7‑foldnecessary to reduce the total cost and respond to theincrease in image projection area and a 1 2‑fold increase

long period

in illumination intensity while reducing the number ofincluding rehearsals

and to deal with

Covid‑19 issues

projectors to approximately 60 nearly half the number

The following technologies and approaches wereapplied to meet these requirements

used at the Rio 2016 GamesThe projectors can express 4K resolution and a wide
color gamut by newly adopting red lasers which have

21

Development of an Ultra‑bright Projector

higher color purity than lamps and phosphors as the

For the opening and closing ceremonies of the Tokyo

light source This projector enables realistic presenta-

2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games projection map-tion for 4K international broadcasting which has been

ping was required for an area of approximately

adopted from the Games of this year

10 000 m

2

inside the competition track to enablecommunication and staging from the entire venue The

22

Overall System Designarea for projection mapping for the Tokyo 2020 GamesThe overall system design for the projection mapping

was approximately 1 7 times larger than the Rio 2016of the opening and closing ceremonies was based on the

Games making it the largest‑scale projection mapping

following two points in addition to the projection area

compared to previous sporting eventsand support for international broadcasting

Large‑scale projection mapping requires high‑power
light and the use of multiple projectors In Rio 2016①

Reduction of shadows of casts and structures

Games approximately 110 projectors with a luminance②

Redundancy of the system against the risk of lossof 20 000 lm were used However using a large numberof imagesof projectors requires man‑hours for installation andadjustment as well as space for installation To solve
this problem

Many casts and structures are used in the opening and

we developed the PT‑RQ50K ultra‑

closing ceremonies In normal projection mapping ofbrightness projector Figure 2 shows a photograph of thebuildings light is projected from one direction resulting

projector and its main specifications This projector has

in shadows on the opposite side To avoid this problem

a high luminance output of 50 000 lm and a compact

we adopted a design in which images are projected fromchassis with a footprint (width×depth) of less thanfour directions by installing four projection towers
Figure 3 shows the projection layout of the projectors
and Figure 4 shows a photograph of the projection

Figure 2

Projector RT‑RQ50K Used at Japan National Stadium

Figure 3

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

Layout of Projectors

245

Figure 4

Projection Tower

Figure 5

towers In addition to address the risk of loss of images

Athletics Projection Mapping

the same images were projected from four different
directions and stacked to ensure redundancy
The redundancy of the system design includes power
supply backup

a redundant control system

andredundant video signal lines in a ring configuration for

National Stadium more than six months before theGames and provided production support for content
preparationdifferent paths The projector also has a function that

The projectors used for the track and field events

switches to the backup input signal in 0 3 seconds when

were also used for the opening and closing ceremonies

the primary input signal is interrupted

The same projectors were used for the different areas ofenabling

seamless restoration of images

the opening and closing ceremonies and the track and

The total number of projection towers was reduced tofield eventsand the installation was designed toapproximately 60 units reducing installation space andminimize conversion adjustments This minimized costs

weight compared to past Games The reduction in theand ensured smooth transition and rehearsal between

number of projectors also made it possible to reduce thethe athletics staging and the closing ceremony

number of subsystems and cabling
The design and initiatives enabled capturing the video

23

Operational Support

presentation with sufficient brightness and color from

Our company provided total solutions for the video

any broadcasting camera and the presentation could be

and audio systems at the Tokyo 2020 Games including

enjoyed from any of the audience seats The total systemdesign consulting equipment procurement installation

cost was also reduced by reducing the number ofadjustment operation and maintenance
For Japan National Stadium in addition to projectors

projectors
As innovation in athletics at the Tokyo 2020 Games

we provided cameras for staging

video switchers

projection mapping was used to introduce the finalists ininternational broadcasting from video servers large

the opening performance of the menʼs and womenʼsvideo equipment within the stadium video distribution

100 m finals Figure 5 is an image of the introduction

to the production teams and a sound system These

Projection mapping can be used directly on thevideo and audio systems supported a total scenographycompetition field to expand the staging area in track andsolution for the opening and closing ceremonies not only

field events where competitions are held in succession

by integrating the movement of the performers andFor performing a series of competitions and shows it isprojection mapping but also by linking the projectednecessary to adjust the lighting system to darken theimages and soundfield and light the field after the show LED lighting is

Figure 6 shows the main projection control room We

used at Japan National Stadium and an unprecedented

also constructed and operated the video and audio

staging could be realized by coordinating the immediate

control room system

Since

For the opening and closing ceremonies the installa-

projection mapping on the reddish track surface wastion and operation of the projector and video distribution

requiredsystem began more than two months before the event todarkening and brightening of the stadium

246

we conducted a projection test at JapanTHE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

accommodate rehearsals Because the projectors werefrom working on large‑scale events

installed in a semi‑outdoor location it was necessary to

workflow that included personnel allocation and role

take measures against rain and wind caused by Tokyoʼsassignment

developing aand conducting simulations and otherunique weather conditions such as the rainy season
typhoons and sudden downpours A remote monitoring
system was utilized to carry out manpower‑saving
operations in the face of the coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID‑19) A wide range of work was handled
including on‑site equipment maintenance

Figure 7

shows the implementation of on‑site repair and maintenance support
Heavy transport equipment such as cranes could not
be used to install the projector from the perspective ofprotecting the stadium facility

Howeverthe PT‑

RQ50Kʼs compact one‑piece body and handle made it
possible for the projector to be carried by a person
thereby reducing the work time
For video coordination and operations the experienced members of the operation team from Japan and

Figure 7

On‑site Maintenance of Projectors

overseas responded quickly and flexibly to the production teamʼs requests by utilizing the know‑how gained

Figure 6

View of the Projection Control RoomFigure 9

Figure 8

Projection Mapping Adjustment

Opening Ceremony of Tokyo 2020 Games

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020247

preparations Figure 8 shows the adjustment of the
projection mapping The team also adjusted the images
differently from the original plan by changing theunevenness of the stage and other forms and the setting
positions as needed
Although the projection mapping was operated on‑

OOMARU Yoshihisa
He joined Panasonic Corporation in 2012
where he was in charge of subject matter andmarket development in the projector‑related
business division and management of project
managers for Expo 2015 Milano and 2017
Astana Rio 2016 Games Pyeongchang 2018
Games and Tokyo 2020 Games Opening andClosing Ceremonies

site over four months including rehearsals which wererequired to reduce the workforce due to the COVID‑19
we were able to complete the production of thecompetition through preliminary simulations workflow
improvements and our long experience in projection
mapping

3．Conclusion
This article describes the technologies and approaches
for using projection mapping in the Tokyo 2020 Gamesfocusing on the example of Japan National Stadium
Based on our know‑how

we developed projectors

suitable for large‑scale projection mapping and provided
total solutions

including projection layout

systemdesign installation and operation We were thereby
able to reduce the total cost and support manpower‑

MIZUSHIMA Tetsuro
He graduated from the University of Tokyoin 1997 with a bachelorʼs degree in materials
science and engineering He completed his
masterʼs degree in materials science andengineering from the same university in 1999
He joined TDK Corporation in 1997 andPanasonic Corporation in 2004 and was engaged
in developing laser projectors and other products He received the Optical Design Incentive
Award in 2008
ICHIKAWA Masaki
He graduated from Waseda University in1991 with a law degree He joined Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co Since then he has been
engaged in product planning and marketing ofprofessional audio equipment RAMSA After
working as a project manager for the Beijing
2008 Olympics he served as the project leader
for the Opening and Closing Ceremony Acoustics Project and as the project leader for
Panasonicʼs public relations project at theTokyo 2020 Gamessaving operations of the Games that were required dueto the COVID‑19
The opening and closing ceremonies of the Tokyo 2020
Games were delivered to people worldwide as symbolic
scenes of the worldʼs largest sporting events We believethat using projection mapping to create a vividly colored
space contributed to this success We want to express
our sincere gratitude to those involved in the Tokyo 2020
Games and the production team for their cooperation

MATSUKI Daizaburo
He graduated from Keio University in 1997
with a bachelorʼs degree in electrical engineering and completed a masterʼs degree inelectrical engineering at Keio University in1999 He joined Matsushita Electric Industrial
Co Ltd He has been engaged in the researchand development of optical systems using
optical lenses and free‑form mirrors He was
the primary SE in charge of the projection
mapping for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Tokyo 2020 Games

Figure 9 shows a scene of the Tokyo 2020 Games
Opening Ceremony in which the color red was expressedvery vividly We will continue to develop our projectors
and projection mapping technology to improve the image
quality and the workflow including production andoperation and to provide solutions for these improvements We intend to make further contributions to total
space production through projectors and projection
mapping technology in Japan and the world

SAKANISHI Yasuaki
He graduated from Nagoya Institute ofTechnology in 1987 with a bachelorʼs degree inelectronics He joined Matsushita ElectricIndustrial Co Ltd in the same year Since
then he has been engaged in the development
and design of high‑definition TVs projectors
displays and other products He was in chargeof projection mapping SE for the opening andclosing ceremonies of the Tokyo 2020 Games
Currently he is the manager of the System
Architect Section Business Development Center Panasonic Connect Co(Received March 29 2022 ; Revised April 13 2022 )㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

248

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

5 Cyber Security

5‑1

Summary of Cyber Security Activities
at the Tokyo 2020 Games
SAKA Akira

IBAYASHI Hiroaki

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the focus of worldwide attention and are subject to a wide variety of cyberattacks at every Games On the other hand the increasing use of various IT technologies such as the expansion of cloudcomputing environments is progressing year by year making it difficult to control cyber security risks This article
introduce how Cyber Security Team of the Organising Committee managed the cyber security risks for the entire system
related to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 including the environment of the Games officials and how thegovernment and related parties contribute to the future legacy of the Games for Japan
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Cyber attacks Security governance1．Foreword

security measures to be an important issue since its
establishment it formed the Cyber Security Depart-

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

ment an independent division with dedicated members(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) had toand established the Security Operation Centre (SOC)be held without spectators at most venues due to theheaded by the CISO which coordinates the various

effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19)

bureaus of the Organising Committee across the board

HoweverIn this and following articles the Cyber Security

as announced by the IOC (International

Olympic Committee)

3 05 billion unique viewers

worldwide watched the Games on TV and digital

Department and SOC are referred to as the Cyber
Security Team

platforms and new technologies and digital innovations

As attack methods become more sophisticated andenabled more fans to “interact” with the games The

their objectives more diverse and attackers are said toGame was the most engaged Game to date (1) Cyberbe dominantsecurity was indispensable for the Games to be held withactivities in order to protect systems and ensure theparticipation from all over the world via digital platforms

success of the Games As a challenge for the Tokyo 2020in the COVID‑19 There were many cyber attacks forGames

the past games which could affect the operations andappropriate risk controls with proper understanding of

the Tokyo 2020 Games got a total of 450 million security

the characteristics of the Games and on the construction

events and blocked them during the Gamesand maturation of the system operation for these risk

The Organising Committee had considered cyber

it is important to surpass attackersʼ

we had worked on the implementation ofcontrols This article and this special issue “5‑2 Cyber
Security Governance of the Tokyo 2020 Games” (2) “5‑3Solutions for Cyber Security Challenges of the Tokyo

SAKA Akira
The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic GamesIBAYASHI Hiroaki
The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

2020 Games” (3) “5‑4 Cyber Security Operations for the

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 249‑253 August 2022

Attacks during the Tokyo 2020 Games” (5) will introduce© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

Tokyo 2020 Games” (4) and “5‑5 Responding to Cyberthe approach of how the Cyber Security Team thoughtSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020249

about prepared for and organized the system
In addition a list of terms used in the chapter five (5‑1
to 5‑9) of this special issue and their explanations areprovided after this article (page …) for your reference

3．Approach to the Tokyo 2020 Games
Based on these threats we the Cyber Security Teamdecided approaches to security measures
First we clarified the targets to be protected There

when reading the chapters 5

were very large and diverse targets including the

2．Cyber Threats to the Games
Before introducing our efforts we introduce the cyberthreats related to the Games

environment managed by the Organising Committee
which was the core of the Games operations

theenvironment of partners and suppliers related to theGames operations and the critical infrastructure envi-

First cyber crimes targeting economic interests areronment that supported the Games It was necessary tomentioned Fake tickets unauthorized websites selling

clarify who protect where and how to ensure that all

related goods phishing through fake websites andenvironments were protected properly in each of theseinformation theft through fake access points had beenenvironments Second we thoroughly established gover-frequently observed in the past Games The Organisingnance system to ensure that security measures were

Committee could not ignore these activities so it had to

implemented without fail and that a quick response forconstantly gather information and take action as soon as

the incidents were enabled at the Games time

it found them In addition targeted ransomware attacks

For the environment managed by the Organising

became active in 2020 requiring thorough protection

Committee which was the core of the Games operation

including the supply chain as well

we analyzed threats and selected various security

Another example is the obstructive activities for thesolutions that utilized advanced technologies to prevent

purpose of political propaganda In the past most ofadvanced attacks Furthermore we established security

these attacks were access interference and falsification

operation team early and trained them to maximize thefor the official websites of the Games sponsors hostuse of the solutions and matured the operational quality

cities and other related organizations However as

through practical exercises and daily incident response

attack methods have become more sophisticated they

to the wide variety of incidents The following is ahave changed and evolved to include system and datasummary of these efforts

destruction through intrusion and hijacking of Gamessystems as was the case at the PyeongChang 2018

31

Games

there is an

To protect the Games from cyber attacks not only theincreasing number of methods that target the supply

systems built by the Organising Committee but also thechain first compromising the systems of parties andenvironment of the related parties and the criticalthen using them as foothold to attack the main systems

infrastructure supporting the Games must be compre-

To protect the systems from these attacks zero trust

hensively protected The Organising Committee itself

designs and thorough protections that include thewas a large organization consisting of a total of 52 Games

Organising Committeeʼs systems and related criticalmanagement functions and the systems used by each of

infrastructure environments are demanded

these functions were becoming increasingly complex due

In terms of intrusion routes

Thorough GovernanceIn addition to the above attention must also be paid toto the diverse use of IT such as cloud computing

attacks on new technologies introduced in recent Games

environments So penetration of security were verysuch as those aimed at tampering with IoT devices

important In addition as attacks became more sophisti-(drones robots facial recognition surveillance cam-

cated countermeasures based on the zero‑trust secur-

eras etc ) The methods and objectives of attacks are

ity design became essential for a wide range of targets

constantly changing and various new types of attacks

without omission To address this issue the Cybersuch as Emotet and PetitPotam were launched during

Security Team had developed a number of security

the preparation period for the Games It is essential forpolicies and standards to ensure a certain level of

security operations to keep up with new risks andsecurity quality Furthermore the team had establishedcontinuously add appropriate countermeasures

a governance structure to ensure that security measures
were implemented without omissions by making application of security policies and standards mandatory at

250

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

various phases of system development and by providing

The details of this policy are introduced in this special

security checks and security reviews to confirm theirissue “5‑3 Solutions for Cyber Security Challenges of theapplication status Details are presented in this special

Tokyo 2020 Games” (3)issue “5‑2 Cyber Security Governance of the Tokyo 2020
Games” (2)33

Maturity of Security Operations

Security solutions are not meaningful if they are32

Selection of Security Solutions

merely implemented It is also essential to set up a

The environment managed by the Organising Com-mechanism to appropriately coordinate each solution

mittee which is central to the operation of the Games

optimize the settings to maximize the performance of

had a special and complex configuration there were 4

each solution and mature the operation team to masterdomains known as Backoffice Network (hereinafter

the use of each solution

referred to as “BON”) used by the Organising Committee members for their work

As a mechanism to link solutions we had utilized

Competition Network

SIEM and other means and set up the environment that

(hereinafter referred to as “CPN”) connecting the

could detect the signs of the attack immediately ThisvenuesOlympic Technology Network (hereinafter

enabled real‑time monitoring and visualization of risks

referred to as “OTN”) that accommodated various

and cyber attacks and also enabled prompt response toservices such as the dedicated VLANs of the people

any incidents that might occur during the Games In

involved in the Games and a group of Web sites locatedaddition an operational infrastructure was created toon the Internet Based on the characteristics of eachenable the smooth deployment of IoC (Indicator of

domain optimal security solutions were selected andCompromise) obtained from the partner organizations to

implemented

operation teams

In the BON and CPN domains important systems

In order to mature the operation team we improved

directly related to the Games operation were located andthe technical capabilities of team and sophisticated ourmany PCs of related parties were connected Therefore

security solutions through a combination of actual

many solutions were implemented from the viewpoint ofoperations and practical exercises during the Pre‑Gamessophisticated communication control inside the network

periodand defense in depth design In addition to them basedphishing campaign targeting Games officials occurred inon the zero‑trust approach we implemented thoroughJanuary 2020 which was a preparatory activity of the

One example of the actual operations is aauthority hierarchization and minimization systematic

attackers

blocking of attacker behavior and malicious operations

reaffirming the effectiveness of the solutions imple-

installing EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) andmented and reaffirming the awareness of the operation

NDR (Network Detection and Response) to detectteam for the Games It was important to be aware that

suspicious behavior and SIEM (Security Information

attack methods are constantly becoming more sophisti-

and Event Management) to correlate and analyze thosecated and brushed up the security measures andlogs

operations of the Games operating environment by

This was a very useful experience inIn the OTN the balance between convenience andkeeping up with global incident cases and the latest

security was necessary because various devices brought

attack methods The breaches of enterprises and cloudin by the parties concerned

service providers were often reported By learning from

For the network we adopted a blocking list method

such incidents and repeatedly evaluating how eachthat blocks known malicious communications rather

solution would react to a similar attack on the Organisingthan a permission list method that allows the minimum

Committee and whether the current configuration would

necessary communications For endpoints we focused

be sufficient to protect us we were able to improve ouron promptly detection and response rather thanability to detect new threats and keep the risk underblocking

control By repeating these evaluations we improved

For the Web site domain we adopted a policy of

our ability to detect new threats and kept controllingensuring uniform security by utilizing a CDN (Content

risks In addition we used practical exercises to mature

Delivery Network) and its optional functions such as

the system for events that would not occur on a daily

WAF (Web Application Firewall) while each site would

operation Cyber war games were conducted to simulate

implement security measures tailored to its own needs

possible attacks on the Tokyo 2020 IT systems during

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020251

the Games disaster recovery exercises were conductedpromoted maturity of security operations

to confirm recovery procedures under the assumption of

Although there was a seven‑year preparation perioda large‑scale failure and technology rehearsals were

between the establishment of the Cyber Security

conducted to simulate actual Games operations throughDepartment and the Tokyo 2020 Games the time andvarious scenarios The participants were able to confirm

resources were always limited due to cost constraints

their preparedness for a large‑scale security incident

Even in such a situation the success of the Games was

At Tokyo 2020 Games 450 million security eventsfrom external network were detected

due to the fact that we aimed to control cyber security

but theserisks within the expected range developed a threat

preparations enabled us to successfully protect the

information sharing structure over the extensive ICTGames environment Details are presented in this special

environment for the Games constantly addressed theissue “5‑4 Cyber Security Operations for the Tokyo 2020

early signs of attack and made maximum preparations

Games”(4)and “5‑5 Responding to Cyber Attacks during

to surpass the attackers who evolve every day

the Tokyo 2020 Games” (5)5．Japanʼs Efforts and Legacy
4．Review of the Tokyo 2020 GamesThe IOC took an unprecedentedly high level of

The Cyber Security Team prepared utmost for theinterest in cybersecurity and provided a variety ofcyber threats and approached the Games with minimal

support in response to concerns that the systems of theassumed risks through thorough governance implemen-

Organising Committee and partner companies weretation of optimal solutions based on the characteristics of

disrupted at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games This

the Games environment and efforts to enhance opera-

includes Cyber Assurance Programme which covered

tional maturity

the domains that were assessed due to their criticality to

During the Games various events occurred including

the delivery of the Games such as Energy CATV

website attacks receipt of suspicious e‑mails zero‑day

Website/Mobile App

vulnerabilities

Transportation IoT and Autonomous vehicles

large numbers of login attempt toOrganising Committee staff accounts

suspicion ofrelated organizationʼs account breaches

In 2013OMS/ODS

Omega Systems

the Japanese Government also held thesuspicious“Liaison Conference of the Ministries and Agencies

websites distributing competition recordings websites

concerned with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic

selling counterfeit goods and the publication of entranceGames” (Note 1)

websites leading to suspicious websites However we

Secretary (Administrative Affairs) and in 2015 thewere able to successfully complete the Games without“The Headquarters for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic andany incidents that would have affected the operation of

Paralympic Games” (Note 2) chaired by the Prime Ministerit

was established In 2014 a Security Executive CommitThe biggest success factor was the early establish-

chaired by the Deputy Chief Cabinet

tee chaired by the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary forment of a security governance system and the prepara-

Crisis Management was establishedand a Cybertion based on the zero‑trust design for a wide range of

Security Working Team chaired by the Councillor

environments related to the Games Governance is based

Cabinet Secretariat (Deputy Director General ofon three basic principles : visualization of risks minimi-

NISC (Note 3)) was set up under the Security Executive

zation of uncontrollable risks and elimination of unex-

Committee to ensure cyber security of the Games inpected risks and assurance of business continuity whencooperation with relevant ministries and agencies In

faced with imminent risk In addition to these principles

2017 the Security Information Center was established in

the Cyber Security Team paid close attention toconfirming that what was designed to protect the Gameswas correctly implemented This policy was based on
the fact that the dependencies between systems were
becoming less visible due to the use of cloud environments and other factors which were increasing risks
that could not be controlled This careful confirmation
increased awareness among the parties involved and252(Note 1) Based on the decision of the Chief Cabinet Secretary on
October 11 2013
(Note 2) Basis for establishment is Article 2 of the Act on Special
Measures for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the Paralympic Games
2020 Tokyo (Act No 33 of 2015)(Note 3) Cabinet Cyber Security Center The English name is National
center of Incident readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity(Note 4) “Basic Security Strategy for the Tokyo 2020 Games ” Decisionof the Security Executive Committee March 21 2017

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the National Police Agency to provide necessary

be utilized throughout Japan in the future

information to relevant organizations including theOrganising Committee (Note 4) In April 2019 the Cyber
Security Response Coordination Center

which wasReferences
(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

operated by the NISC was established in the Cabinet
Secretariat and it was decided that threats and incidents
related to cybersecurity at the Games would be shared
incident response etc would be carried out in cooperation among the relevant organizations in cooperation
with each other And they conducted the monitoring tohandle incidents for the public infrastructure and related
environment around the Games to cooperate with otherrelated organizations (6) The Cyber Security Response
Coordination Center coordinated support for response toincidents conducted cyber incident response exercises
shared cyber threat informationand provided an

information sharing platform (JISP : Japan cyber‑security Information Sharing Platform)

The Organising

Committee also participated in these efforts

andpromptly shared information with government agencies
security‑related organizations

critical service pro-International Olympic Committee, “Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
watched by more than 300 million people,” December 8, 2021.
https://olympics.com/ioc/news/olympic-games-tokyo-2020-watchedby-more-than-3-billion-people (viewed January 31, 2022)
H. Ibayashi, K. Tamai, M. Onishi, and Y. Nojiri, “5-2 Cyber Security
Governance of the Tokyo2020 Games,” Journal of IEICE, vol. 105, no.
8, supplement, pp. 255-263, Aug. 2022.
K. Tamai, Y. Nojiri, N. Hosoda, and H. Ibayashi, “5-3 Solutions for
Cyber Security Challenges of the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Journal of
IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8, supplement, pp. 264-271, Aug. 2022.
M. Onishi, N. Hosoda, K. Nakanishi, and H. Ibayashi, “5-4 Cyber
Security Operations for the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Journal of IEICE, vol.
105, no. 8, supplement, pp. 272-278, Aug. 2022.
M. Onishi, N. Hosoda, K. Nakanishi, and H. Ibayashi, “5-5 Responding
to Cyber Attacks during the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Journal of IEICE,
vol. 105, no. 8, supplement, pp. 279-284, Aug. 2022.
NISC Tokyo 2020 Group, “Cyber Security Measures for the Tokyo
Games and Future Action Policies.”
https://www.nisc.go.jp/active/2020/index.html (viewed February 2,
2021)“Cyber Security Strategy,” Cabinet Decision on September 28, 2021.
https://www.nisc.go.jp/materials/index.html (viewed February 2,
2022)(Received February 9 2022 ; Revised March 23 2022)

viders sports‑related organizations and others through
JISP(For details

see “3 3 Organising Roles with

Government Agencies” in this special issue “5‑2 Cyber
Security Governance of the Tokyo 2020 Games” (2))
The Cyber Security Strategy approved by the Cabinet
on September 28

2021

describes the efforts of

information sharing and collaboration by the public andprivate sectors in cooperation as part of the framework
development of the National CSIRT (CSIRT/CERT)

SAKA Akira
Akira SAKA joined the National Police
Agency in 1981 He was a visiting fellow at
WCFIA Harvard University and a professor
at Graduate School of Media and Governance
Keio University from 2008 to 2010 He served
as CISO of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic andParalympic Games Organising Committee He
is CISO of the Digital Agency Director of theJapan Cybercrime Center (JC3) and Executive Director of the Public Policy ResearchInstitute (CPP)The strategy aimed to raise the overall level of Japanʼscyber security not only during large‑scale international
events but also during normal times by utilizing theknowledge and know‑how gained from the operational
experience and risk management activities for the
Tokyo 2020 Games It also included the sharing of
knowledge gained from the Tokyo 2020 Games tocontribute to the international community (7) The cyber

IBAYASHI Hiroaki
Hiroaki IBAYASHI has been working in theservice development of cloud and security
businesses at NTT Communications Corporation since 2014 and has been seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Director of Cyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau During the Games hewill be responsible for the overall security
operations in the SOC

security measures taken at the Tokyo 2020 Games will㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

253

Terminology
A list of terms used in the five chapters of this special issue (5‑1 to 5‑9) and their explanations

Technology Operation Centre
An organization that
remotely monitors controls and troubleshoots all technologies including convention‑related systems It includes the
Security Operations Centre
Security Operation Centre
An organization that detects analyzes and responds to cyber attacks and develops
countermeasures to stop them The structure and operational design varies depending on the organization and pleaserefer to each featured article for definitions in the Tokyo 2020
Games
AD (Active Directory)
A system developed by Microsoft to centrally manage user accounts and other information
In addition to on‑premise type cloud type services are alsoavailable in recent years
Azure AD
It is a type of centralized management
system for user accounts and other information developed byMicrosoft which is provided in the cloudPassword Spraying Attack
A type of attack in which
login attempts are repeatedly made with different IDs andpasswords to find a valid combination To avoid detection
the process is carried out slowly changing the ID and the IP
from which the connection is madeUTM (Unified Threat Management)
A solution that
integrates various functions such as firewalls IPS/IDS andsecurity measures for the Web and e‑mail Since some
applications require too much functionality the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee uses single‑function solutions in
combination with themOpen Resolver
A device that is configured to respondto DNS inquiries from the Internet If the function is abused
there is a risk of being involved in cyber attacks
Rule Based Filter
A function that checks the contentsof traffic and detects suspicious session based on a set of rulesthat determine whether they correspond to characteristics
recognized as attacks
Rate Based Filter
A function that checks the frequencyof access and detects as suspicious session when the accessfrom a specific source to a specific destination exceeds apredefined threshold
Reputation Based Filter
A function that evaluates theconnection source of communication based on attack cases
etc and judges it to be distrustful when it has a bad
reputation For example the connection source that has been
involved in attacks in the past
Credentials
The information required to log into asystem or get appropriate privileges such as IDs passwords or other electronic information used internally by thesystem for authentication

254©2022 IEICE

Vulnerability
When used as a security term it means
security weakness including software bug and inappropriate
configurations It may also mean defect of operation
procedure lack of security implementation and so on In thisarticle vulnerability mainly means software bug andinappropriate configurations
Zero‑day Vulnerability
Known security bugs in software for which no update have been provided Attacks thattarget the period until the update is provided are called zero‑
day attacks
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) AttackAnattack in which malicious traffics are simultaneously sentfrom a large number of sources to exhaust various resources
such as communication capacity and computing power todisturb the victimʼs service DRDoS (Distributed Reflection
Denial of Service) is also known for reflection attacks
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A service thatdelivers Web content to end users from delivery servers
distributed around the world Often deployed to improveaccessibility it is also effective as a security measure
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
A solution that detects attacks or the threat of attacks bycentrally aggregating logs and data output from security
equipment and other devices and by combining andanalyzing them Many of them have advanced visualization
functions as well
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
Regulations applied in May 2018 (after the PyeongChang 2018
Games) to strengthen and integrate the protection of all
personal data within the European Union (EU) The systemsof Tokyo 2020 Games are offered to users in the EU and
therefore must comply with GDPR
Zero-trust
The concept of preventing threats by
evaluated all access to system without distinguishing
network boundaries taking into account the possibility thathas already been compromised
OWASP Testing Guide
The documents describing
procedures and tools for web application security testing by
OWASP (the Open Web Application Security Project) aworldwide community on the web security
OSINT (Open Source Intelligence)
A method ofcollecting target data from publicly available information
sources
Ambush marketing
Marketing activities by an organization that is not an official sponsor by misleading consumers
into believing that it is an official sponsor or by using
intellectual property without permission

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

5 Cyber Security

5‑2

Cyber Security Governance of the Tokyo
2020 GamesIBAYASHI Hiroaki

TAMAI Kuniharu

ONISHI Masaki
NOJIRI Yasuhiro

In the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 each of the 52 Games management organization constructed andoperated the wide variety of systems in cooperation with various Games stakeholders Comprehensive risk control needed
to be implemented for these wide‑ranging targets while thorough security measures based on the zero‑trust premise
were required Based on this issue we introduce the security governance implemented by the Organising Committee
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Security governance Security policy Security architecture

1．Prefacehorizontally to the Organising Committee and the Games
stakeholders

The nature of the Olympic and Paralympic Games
made it difficult to control security policies at an
appropriate level and security incidents had occurred
frequently in the past Games In addition as the IT

2．Characteristics of the Olympic andParalympic Gamessystem environment became more advanced and was

Before introducing the governance efforts the charac-

more widely used Functional Areas (FAs) actively

teristics of the Games are summarized as a precondition

making it even moreFirst of all as the worldʼs largest sporting event thedifficult to control risks due to the wide range andGames are the target of various cyberattacks andvariety of objects to be protected The governance based

crimes As described in this special issue “5‑1 Summary

on organizational collaboration was being increasinglyof Cyber Security Activities at the Tokyo 2020 Games

important to protect a complex and wide‑ranging

Part 2 : Cyber Threats to the Games” (1) the Games must

environment

be appropriately prepared not only for cyberattacks that

selected cloud environment

In this report the cyber security team introduces the

directly affect the operation of the Games but also for

security governance efforts that were implemented

attacks that indirectly affect the reputation of the Gamesby destroying its credibility and value (reputation risk)

IBAYASHI Hiroaki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesTAMAI Kuniharu
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games
ONISHI Masaki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesNOJIRI Yasuhiro
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 255‑263 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineersand for crimes targeting economic benefits In particular when dealing with the attacks intended to disrupt
the operation of the Games it is important to gather
background information on the attack activities and it isalways necessary to consider peripheral informationsuch as anti‑doping issues and the national prestige In
some cases a message such as “We are fully prepared
for the Games and have a complete security defense
system in place” may trigger the attack

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

255

Having the large number of the Games stakeholders is

Another unprecedented challenge was the drastic

also one of major characteristics of the Games In thechanges required to deal with the Games postponement

current attack trend the attackers often target thoseand the need for no‑spectators due to the coronavirus

stakeholders who have weak security measures first

disease 2019 (COVID‑19)

and then attack the main target in a chain reaction

environment of increased complexity for an additional

starting from there

year on a limited budget more insight was required in

We need the protection that

included all stakeholders involved to successfully leadterms of security measures

the Games About the situation of cyberattacks at theAgainst this background

In order to protect an

we had to protect the

PyeongChang 2018 Games was announced by the U S in

operation of the Games from cyberattacks and we had to

October 2020 There were reported cases of attacks thatlead the Games toward successoriginated from companies with weak security measures and it can be said that this supply chain risk had
indeed turned out to be a reality
In addition to the diversification of the IT system
environment the Tokyo 2020 Games saw the progress a

3．Games‑related Systems and Organization
Structure
31

Games‑related

Systems

andDevelopment

Structure

more global operation and a wider range of venues for
the Games so it was the important and significant

The systems supporting the Olympic and Paralympic

challenge to establish how to ensure the thoroughGames Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo

governance and protection against the diversity of2020 Games”) were in an extremely various environ-organization and environment

ment Each FA determined the system requirements

This diversity of IT system environment was also theneeded for the Games and were contracted out thesame situation within the Tokyo 2020 Organisingdevelopment of these systems to various companies

Committee The Organising Committee included em-

Some systems were deployed in the data centre of theployees seconded from various sponsor companies staff

Organising Committee while others were deployed in

hired by the Organising Committee contractors andthe cloud and the domains that housed them varied For

many volunteers from different cultures in the 52 FAs

thesewhich resulted in the large variation in IT literacy

mented in cooperation with each FA and developer toFurthermore there was the special nature of the event

ensure that the details of the system were fullyin that several thousand people were recruited at once

understood and that security measures were imple-

for the event from three months prior to the Games In

mented for themappropriate governance needed to be imple-

terms of the systems the Back‑Office Network (BON)

In addition it was not only the systems developed byused by the Organising Committee members for theirFAs that needed to be protected The same security

work the Competition Network (CPN) connecting thegovernance was also required for the systems managed

venues and the Olympic Technology Network (OTN)

by the Games stakeholders to prepare for attacks on theconnecting various services such as the dedicatedsupply chain environment

VLANs assigned for the Games stakeholders and thewebsites such as the official website

ticket sales

32

Complexity of Games‑related Systems

website and the Games information distribution system

In the Rio 2016 Games all systems were constructed

for the media etc located on the Internet were existed

in the data centre of the Organising Committee but inas four domains to protect from cyberattacks Each ofTokyo 2020 Games 70% of the systems were con-the four domains required security measures based on

structed by using cloud services and outsourcing

completely different policies

services Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) from theIt was also characteristic that the Tokyo 2020 Games

viewpoint of cost reduction The optimal configuration

was the first Games to be held under the EU Generaldiffered for each system so various external services

Data Protection Regulation which was also one of thewere selected In particular in the case of BPO the

characteristics of the Games and a sensitive mattersystem environment was prepared by the BPO provider

More than the past Games we were required to clarify

making it difficult to grasp the details and increasing thethe confidential information held by the system and to

number of uncontrollable risks

manage it thoroughly
256

The considering these situations the cyber security

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

team expedited security check and review for all
systems in the Organising Committee to comply with the
IT security policies and architecture concurrently withthe definition these policies and architecture that should
be referred to for security implementation Of course
these activities were included the aforementioned cloudservices and BPO The security checks consisted of asecurity review to confirm that the security functions
were properly incorporated in compliance with thepolicy and architecture based on detailed interviews
according to the check sheets and security tests toconfirm that the finished system would function properly

Figure 1

Organization of Roles with Government Agencies

against the assumed threats As the governance control
these were the important activities to ensure visibility ofrisk and a security baseline against cyberattacks
In recent years not only IT systems but also control

indicator information was extremely importantsystems such as central monitoring systems power
equipment and air conditioning monitoring systems in

4．Risk Control

the venues have become targets of cyberattacks A
penetration test was also conducted for control systems

The systems that supported the Games were diverse

such as power and air‑conditioning systems at key

and large‑scale numbering more than 200 systems The

venuessecurity risks associated with these systems needed tobe controlled

33

Organizing Roles with Government Agencies

For risk control

it was needed to conduct : theWith the roles of government agencies are describedvisualization of risks based on assumed threats ; thebelow The Organising Committee was responsible forminimization of uncontrollable risks and the elimination

the environment procured and operated by the Organis-of unexpected risks ; the assurance of business continu-

ing Committee and the environment prepared by

ity in the event that the risk become apparent

partners and suppliers related to the operation of theGames

For monitoring/incident handling of critical

There were a wide range of threats that needed to be
assumed

The threats included : theft of confidential

infrastructure social infrastructure of the host city andinformation by Advanced Persistent Threat ; PC termi-

sports‑related organizations

nal outage by ransomware attack ; malware infection via

the government was

responsible for promoting efforts to strengthen counter-e‑mailWeb

external storage media

etc ; loss ofmeasures in each entity and for risk assessment andavailability by wiper‑type malware ; service down by

information coordination (Figure 1) Regarding venue

denial‑of‑service attack ; falsification of information

facilities it was decided that existing facilities would beassets ; information leakage by internal fraud

treated as social infrastructure

but that additional

phishing campaign by spoofed e‑mails etc ; and dataetc ;facilities and systems to be constructed exclusively forloss due to malware infection via e‑mail Web external

the Tokyo 2020 Games would be managed by thestorage media etc ; confusion by fake website/fakeOrganising Committee

mobile application/fake ticket‑sales site etc and were

The role of the government in cyber security

too numerous to list In response to these threats it wasmeasures for the Games varies by country For thenecessary to implement appropriate security solution

Tokyo 2020 Gamesand system hardening

in addition to the role andresponsibility mentioned above we also shared threat

It was not enough to simply implement a solution It

information of the Internet space and exchanged

was essential to mature the security operation that could

indicator information which was information on traces

use these solutions And we needed to enhance theof cyberattacks

capability to triage quickly in the event of the various

Recently

zero‑day attacks

whichtarget vulnerabilities of programs which have not been
updatedoccur frequently

so sharing threat andattacks
However even with these efforts there were still risks

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020257

that could not be controlled These uncontrollable risks

which defined the security requirements to be followed

included zero‑day vulnerabilities and attacks thatby IT suppliers providing systems and services

targeted them as well as cases caused by configuration

The Information System Userʼs Guideline defined themistakes and operational errors It was also important topolicies that the members of the Organising Committee

formulate and prepare the availability plan to ensure themust follow in terms of security when using IT systems

continuity of the Games even if such risks happened At

in their daily work The Organising Committee mem-the PyeongChang 2018 Games a cyberattack just before

bers were a diverse group of people from different

the opening ceremony brought the consequence of many

cultures and their IT literacy varied widely It wasservers and PC terminals unavailable but they werereleased in July 2015 with the aim of resolving this issue

temporarily recovered overnight to avoid any impact on

It had been used until the end of the Games with

the next dayʼs competition This was made possible byrevisions made each time as the IT system expanded

the posture that the team had an appropriate under-

The IT Security Policy was a document that defined

standing of the uncontrollable risks that an attack

the requirements for risk controls to be implemented inbeyond expectations could occur and had prepared a

the four domains for the Organising Committee systems

recovery plan in advance In addition to preventing

In the past Games the system environment of thecyberattacks it was necessary to enhance resilience

Organising Committee and the Games systems con-such as the ability to recover quickly and maintainstruct by Atos and Omega

business continuity in the event of an attack

different policies and it made the governance difficult

Furthermore the effective use of cloud services andwere operated under

To solve this problem we worked with Atos a sponsor

BPO increased in the Tokyo 2020 environment and thein the IT integrator category to define four domains

number of uncontrollable risks also increased As the(BON

countermeasures against these risks in addition to thebaseline and specific policy followed by each domain

three measures mentioned above we had to periodically

The IT security policy also formulated documents that

conduct Audit Table Top Exercise practical exercise

provide detailed guidelines such as information classifica-

by Red team called Cyber War GamesvariousRehearsals such as Technology rehearsal and vulner-

CPN

tion policy

OTN

and websites)and establishedaccounts and passwords policy

management policy

patch

and security incident response

ability assessments as security check and test Then wepolicy These policies were widely deployed not only

took scrupulous care of the verification and confirmation

within the Organising Committeethat the security designs to secure the Games fromsuppliers who constructed and operated the system

assumed threats were correctly implemented and thatenvironment

security function worked as expected

Moreoverbut also to IT

the Organising Committee

conducted security reviews of all systems and thisThrough these efforts we minimized the risks that
could not be controlled prepared the various plans tobrought increasing the awareness of IT system suppliers
and reducing the variation in security quality

maintain business continuity against remaining risks
repeated improvements and remedial actions

andestablished the security system to overcome the Games
in a perfect condition52

IT Security Architecture

The IT security architecture was developed with Atos
according to the requirements of each four domains
which were different in characteristic in order to meet

5．Security Governance of the Organising
Committee

the IT security policy establishment and further clarify
the specific implementation image of the policy However even during the seven‑yearsʼ examination period

In section 5 we will introduce the governance efforts

the evolution of security technologies had made great

implemented by the appropriate cyber security team forprogress and effective solutions had changed fluidly

the various systems supporting the Games

Catching up with these changes and updating the IT
security architecture continued until just before the51

IT Security Policy

Two security policies were issued : the Information
System Userʼs Guideline which served as a guideline of
the Organising Committee and the IT Security Policy
258

Games

Flexibility and continued technological andmaturity enhancements were key factors in the successof the GamesAt the point of selecting solutions for the architecture

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the team also ensured to clarify the mapping for theimportant issue for the Tokyo 2020 Games and theidentified security threats and the selected solutions

decision was always difficult

This was not only to prevent the omission and leak ofsolutions but also made it easy to verify which solutions

53

Security Check

would work how the attack would be successful if a

In order to maintain the security level of the entire

similar one was to occur in the Organising Committee

Organising Committee system above a certain level

environment by using the compromised cases on othersecurity checks were made mandatory at each milestoneorganizations This was one of the factors that supported

toward system implementation

the maturation of security operations

At critical points before planning

designand

The basic concept of implementing solutions wasoperation security reviews were conducted to ensure

multi‑layered defense Details are described in thisthat the IT security policy and IT security architecture

special issue “5‑4 Cyber Security Operations for thewere applied without omissions

Tokyo 2020 Games” (2)After operation IT security audit and IT configura-

From the perspective of cost efficiency and operation-

tion audit by the third‑party perspective were con-al standardization we also organized the implementa-

ducted to confirm that the policy and architecture weretion of common environment that could be shared byproperly implemented and operated

each domain

CPN and OTN

above the structure of the Tokyo 2020 Games systemfollowings were examples that some core network

tended to be opaque due to the use of cloud services andsections and authentication functions were shared a

BPO making it difficult to control risks

Regarding to BON

common endpoint security solution was adopted and an
integrated security information and event analysis

As mentioned

Therefore it was important to visualize the results
through the periodic audits

environment called Security Information and EventManagement (SIEM) were shared However shared531

implementation could also pose a security risk Origi-

Security review was conducted not only for system

Security Review

the architecture was designed based on theservice established or used by the Organising Commit-

assumption of zero‑trust (3) and the BON CPN andtee but also for cloud services and system services used

OTN did not affect each other even if the compromised

by BPO as a concrete measure of the outsourcing

event happened but the PyeongChang 2018 Games

management

nallyallowed the internal spread of malware infection(Lateral Movement) which required a stronger aware-

The review was conducted at each important milestone before operation as shown in Figure 2

ness of network isolation Although the shared points
that were ultimately adopted were scrutinized based on①

these considerations it was decided to manage them as

Confirmation that security requirements were in-the potential risk

Before RFP Distribution

cluded in the RFP

Unfortunately there was the domain that had strayedon an application of the architecture

The OTNenvironment which was set up just before Games had arisk to be connected by and the system devices withinadequate security measures or in some cases PC②

Before Completion of Basic Design

Confirmation that security requirements were included in the basic design③

Release Judgement before the Operational Commencement

terminals already infected with malware as the Games

Confirm that security requirements were properly

stakeholders brought various systems In fact incidents

implemented in the system/service and that no security

occurred at every Games To implement solution in view

issues remainedof this risk was considered

but the Director ofTechnology Service and the network team didnʼt make a

Security requirements were likely to be the firstdecision to implement the solution due to cost reason

target in the cost reduction

However just before the Games the IOC directed theimportant to review the RFP at the time of ① in order topolicy change of this architecture and the firewall on theclearly state that the Organising Committee required

OTN was implemented to visualize and block unauthor-

solid design implementation and operation The check-ized traffic in a hurry Cost efficiency was also anlist used in the review was an original version for theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

It was particularly

259

Figure 2

No
Item

Key Milestones for Security

Item

Compliance1

Reporting and Auditingof Performance Statususing Check Sheets

External service providers shall comply with domestic and foreign laws regulations and rules of the
Corporation in their entrusted work The external service provider shall comply with domestic and foreignlaws and regulations and the rules and regulations of KICR in the commissioned work The external
service provider shall fill in the check sheet for the information systems (including all information systems
for data linkage) to be used in the entrusted work and information security measures to be taken in theimplementation of the entrusted work and submit it at the time of proposal After the contract isconcluded the check sheet shall reflect the status of implementation of information security measures
including those of subcontractors etc and shall be reported to the Corporation periodically (at least oncea year) at the time of release judgment as determined by the Corporation and after the release
Furthermore the information security audit conducted by the Corporation shall be conducted at therequest of the Corporation If there are any findings in the report or audit results corrective actions are to
be taken

2

Management System for
Information Security

After the contract is concluded the external service provider must designate one information handlingmanager who is in a position to supervise information handlers and information handlers including
subcontractors (hereinafter referred to as “information handlers etc ”) and report the contact
information roles and responsibilities of information handlers etc to the Corporation In addition any
changes in the information handlers etc must be promptly reported to the Corporation

3

Information Security
Training

After the contract is concluded the external service provider shall formulate a plan for education andawareness of information handling and prevention of information leaks for information handlers etc
record the results of such education and awareness and submit the plan to the corporation at least once ayear

4

Incident Response
Training

External service providers must comply with requests to participate in incident response training
conducted by the corporation

Establishment ofInformation HandlingRules and Managementof Confidential
Information

External service providers shall establish and comply with rules for handling information handled in
information processing operations In addition the External Service Provider shall record the management
status of confidential information in a ledger etc and submit the ledger upon request from the
Corporation In addition when confidential information is to be disclosed or provided to a third party or
when equipment containing confidential information is to be taken out of the managed facility priorpermission must be obtained from the Corporation However this excludes cases in which the Corporation
recognizes that confidential information can be mutually provided among multiple businesses that havesigned a non‑disclosure agreement (NDA) with the Corporation in advance and in which confidential
information labeled “For Project Use” is shared among such businesses

5

OM : Measures for OS and middleware
Do not install or activate
services that are not
OM‑01 required for the operationor maintenance of thewebsiteIf services other than those originally required for website operation maintenance etc are enabled
there is a possibility of an attack using those services Also since the administrator is not aware of
security measures for services that are not used patches are not applied and vulnerabilities may be
exposed
Therefore unless there is a special reason it is important to stop all services other than those that are
originally necessary
Figure 3

260

Security Check Sheet

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Tokyo 2020 Games which created by extracting theducted by the Organising Committee test items innecessary elements to comply with the IT security

accordance with the OWASP Testing Guide (4) werepolicy and the IT security architecture from the National

implemented to keep test quality Moreover tests andInstitute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP800

the improvement following‑up of all systems wereseriesconducted as the policy of presenting detailed proce-

PCI DSSand various guidelines issued by
The

dures (reproduction methods) for finding vulnerabilities

checklist shown in Figure 3 was not only created once

Corrective measures based on vendor test results varied

but had to be continuously updated to meet the needs of

between vendors but the addition of testing by theeach era and organization

Organising Committee achieved a uniform baseline

security organizations and groups in Japanas attack methods andTests by the Organising Committee were required the

security requirements changed with the times
The security review was also very useful for the cyber

implementation to a very large number of systems In

security team to visualize the risk of each application

order to conduct tests agility and with mobility to a large

Especially the Tokyo 2020 Games was the first Games

number of test targets we decided as our policy toto be held under the EU General Data Protection

establish a permanent test team within the Organising

Regulation Appropriately grasping possession situation

Committee This structure enabled parallel testing to beof the personal information through this review andcarried out even during peak testing periods such as

following up with compliance officers based on thiswhen many systems were released at the same time

information helped us to ensure proper information

Due to the wide variety of systems in each FA the
total number of hours spent by the testing team wasmanagement
The number of reviews was 838 in total as a formal

59 840 for the pen test and 8 320 for the vulnerability

meeting and more than 1 000 including informal pre‑assessment (The total number of hours for the pen test

conferences The fact that the review functioned as thewas 7 5 times that of the Rio 2016 Games (8 000 hours) ;standard process of the Organising Committee helped tono comparable figures were available for vulnerability

increase the security levelassessment ) The success of these testing teams was
one of the factors that contributed to the success of the532

Security Testing

Games as they were the last line of defense before theIt was very important to verify that the security
measures specified in the design are properly imple-

release to ensure the security of the systems andservices

mented and that the implemented functions worked as

In addition to the above‑mentioned security tests DoS

expected Cases frequently occur are that implemented

simulation test to verify and enhance DDoS resistancesecurity functions do not work properly or unintended

and Cyber War Games which was the practical exercise

security bugs (vulnerabilities) remain Security testing

were conducted The former is introduced in this special

was a very effective way to check these issues

issue “5‑3 Solutions for Cyber Security Challenges of the

The Organising Committee made it mandatory toTokyo 2020 Games 5 2 : DoS Simulation” (5) and the

conduct penetration test (pen test) and vulnerability

latter in “5‑4 Cyber Security Operations for the Tokyo

assessments and conducted web pen test platform and2020 Games 4 1 : Cyber War Games” (2)application vulnerability assessment and infrastructure
pen test (including brute‑force test) to meet the domain533

and system These tests were supposed to be conducted

As attack methods were constantly evolving it wasby the vendor before site release as a part of system

necessary to keep up with them and continue to enhancedevelopment In addition to these vendor‑side test thesolutions and operations even after the system was

Organising Committee decided to conduct thorough thereleased In order to confirm that this approach wasinspection by adding web pen test before site release tofunctioning properly and to confirm that there were nocontrol the risks For the servers located in the BON andomissions in the risk identification by a perspective

CPN the Organising Committee conducted post‑releasedifferent from the security testing IT security audit byvulnerability assessment on a quarterly basis

andthe third‑party was conducted to visualize the risks

carried out the cycle of taking necessary remediationeven after operation However same as the security

actions

test the audit required a large number of operations

In the pen test and vulnerability assessment con-

Audit

Therefore the audit was conducted in order of priority

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

261

for significant assets such as those that could affectincluding forwarding to such e‑mail accounts and freehuman lives the operation of the Games economic

storage were prohibited in both the policy and theimpact and confidential information

system settings

IT Configuration audit were also conducted for the

Followings were also restricted in detail : the use of

BON and CPN environments which housed a large

executable files ; scripts ; commands

number of considerable systems and were prone to

As they were often used for cyberattacks the function ofmacro files ; etc

cause slack of setting by frequent configuration changes

browser extensions tethering Bluetooth communica-

On the other hand since each system shared the sametion between terminals USB connection and so on

basic configuration following the common architecture

These restrictions provided the environment which

it was possible to verify the configuration collectively by

prevented the incident even if an unauthorized operation

auditing the IT Configuration at one time Considering

was performed by the mistake

we conducted a follow‑up to

Software installed on PC terminals was also prohibited

remediate any problems that were detected andby both the policy and the security settings to preventthese characteristics

confirmation by audit This activity was conducted on

the adding of suspicious software

the regular basis and continued until just before theinstallation of additional software was often essential for

HowevertheGames Especially this audit was very useful to detect

the work of each FA For such cases we set up a flow

uncovering problems such as the failure to disable

called “exception request” to allow the installation of

unnecessary applications and loose hardening on thesuch software after the review by the cyber security

server leaving unnecessary communication permissions

team The number of sponsors of the Tokyo 2020 Gameson the network and leaving accounts with excessive

was the largest ever and we had to cover many different

authority which greatly contributed to the correction of

topics of the system requirements so the number ofloose architectural implementation“exception request” from each FA was more than 1 000
resulting in a large number of reviews And also the54

Strict Security Settings and Checks of Exception Handlingprocess did not end with the approval of the software
installation As with existing standard software vulner-

The Organising Committee was characterized by theability management was required For vulnerability

fact that it was an assembly of various members frommanagement we collected and analyzed information

widely different cultures and also it was an organizationfrom multiple sources in addition to open source

which was constantly changing with the number of

information and reinforced the monitoring of update

members increasing rapidly just before the Games In

application status by using a vulnerability tracking tool

the busiest situation just before the Games education

to ensure prompt update response

and training for the increased members were notprovided enough and there was the risk that compliance

55

Security Awarenesswith the IT security policy could not be expected With

Although we mentioned in 5 4 that human behavior

this in mind the security settings of the system wereshould not be expected it was important to enhance themeticulously configured and our system was createdlevel of maturity in order to prepare utmost for theand implemented to thoroughly visualize and detectedsuccess of the Games It was also important to observe it

suspicious behavior thereby creating the environment

at a fixed point These meant that we conducted to raisethat did not rely solely on the efforts of cyber security

security awareness for three perspectives : ① the user

team members and the literacy of the Organising(staff/executives) perspective ; ② the business ownerCommittee members Userʼs behavior was one of theperspective of each FA ; and ③ the operator perspective

most difficult risks to control but the implementation ofof the Security Operation Centre (SOC)

strict security settings and the visualization structure

The three main efforts are as follows :were the success factors of the Games because we wereable to achieve the minimization of risks①

User perspective

Particularly the use of the free cloud environment had

Targeted e‑mail training e‑learning by using incident

been a target of attacks in past Games To protect thecases of the global and the Organising Committee andOrganising Committeeʼs information and minimize theuser hearing through alert detection

risk of information leakage the use of free e‑mail262②

Business owner perspective

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Periodic IT security audit table top exercises DoS
testing of important web sites③

Operatorʼs perspective

Table top exercise

Cyber War Games

Disaster

Recovery Rehearsals Technology Rehearsals periodic
vulnerability assessment (check preparations for zero‑day)
Activities to enhance security awareness from theoperator perspective are described in detail within “5‑4Cyber

Security

Operations

for

the

Tokyo

2020

Games” (2)The activities described in ① were widely deployed
not only to the staff of the Organising Committee but
also to the Games stakeholders and were conducted
repeatedly and continuously The activities in ② and ③
enhanced the maturity of the operation and helped tobuild a face‑to‑face relationship with the cyber security
team in terms of information collaboration

6．Conclusion
In this article we have described how we promoted
the security governance activities to appropriate risk
control for the object to be protected from cyberattacks
The sequent sections“5‑3 Solutions for Cyber

Security Challenges of the Tokyo 2020 Games” (5) and “5‑4 Cyber Security Operations for the Tokyo 2020
Games” (2) will be described in detail how we implemented Defense in depth solution enhanced operational
maturity and dealt with various cyber events
References()

A. Saka and H. Ibayashi, “5-1 Summary of Cyber Security Activities
at the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Journal of IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8
supplement, pp. 249-253, Aug. 2022.
( ) M. Onishi, H. Hosoda, K. Nakanishi, and H. Ibayashi, “5-4 Cyber
Security Operations for the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Journal of IEICE, vol.
105, no. 8 supplement, pp. 272-278, Aug. 2022.

()

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020, “5. ʻTerminologyʼ Zero trust,” Journalof IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8 supplement, p. 254, Aug. 2022.
( ) Special Issue on Technology and Innovation in the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020, “5. ʻTerminologyʼ OWAST Testing
Guide,” Journal of IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8 supplement, p. 254, Aug.
2022.
( ) K. Tamai, Y. Nojiri, N. Hosoda, and H. Ibayashi, “5-3 Solutions for
Cyber Security Challenges of the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Journal of
IEICE, vol. 105, no. 8 supplement, pp. 264-271, Aug. 2022.
(Received 28 February 2022 ; Revised 18 March 2022)

IBAYASHI Hiroaki
Hiroaki IBAYASHI has been working on
cloud computing and security business at NTT
Communications Corporation since 2014 andhas been seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the Director of Cyber
Security Department Technology Services
Bureau During the Games he was in charge ofoverall security operations at the SOC
TAMAI Kuniharu
Mr Kuniharu TAMAI is a Director of Cyber
Security Department Technology Services
Bureau seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee in 2018 During the Games he
was in charge of security solution operations at
the SOCONISHI Masaki
Masaki Onishi is a security manager at NTT
Communications Corporation and has been
seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2018 He has been seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee since 2018
where he was the Security Operations Section
Chief of the Cyber Security Department of theTechnology Services Bureau During theGames he was in charge of security incident
response at the SOC
NOJIRI Yasuhiro
Mr Yasuhiro Nojiri is engaged in CSIRT
establishment support and education at NEC
Solution Innovators He was seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee where he
was in charge of security solutions in the Cyber
Security Department of the Technology Services Bureau During the Games he oversaw theoperation of security solutions at the SOC㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020263

5 Cyber Security

5‑3

Solutions for Cyber Security Challenges of
the Tokyo 2020 GamesTAMAI Kuniharu

NOJIRI Yasuhiro

HOSODA Naofumi
IBAYASHI Hiroaki

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 have been managed by a large number of systems In order to protect
the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 it was necessary to strengthen security by hardening each system andimplementing defense in depth solutions for detecting preventing and responding to attacks as a security solution This
article describes how system hardening and security solutions have been implemented
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Cyber attack Security solution

the Games This article introduces the details

1．Introduction
The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) utilized

2．Common Security for All Domains

a large number of systems to manage the Games and

In Section 2 we introduce the common issues for allthese systems were located in various domains depend-domains and examples of countermeasures implemented

ing on their purposes The specific domains included theto solve them

Back Office Network (BON) used by Tokyo 2020

First a typical issue was the prevention of leakage ofOrganising Committee members for their work thecredential information such as authentication IDs andCompetition Network (CPN) that connects the venues

passwords as well as confidential information Ideally

the Olympic Technology Network (OTN) which was asystems should be implemented and operated in

network to accommodate various services

such ascompliance with predefined rules but unfortunately indedicated VLANs for games stakeholders

and thesome cases the rules could not be fully complied withwebsite domain in the Cloud By implementing security

because many organizations and companies were

solutions for the characteristics of each of these domains

involved in the implementation and operation of each

we aimed to comprehensively enhance security before

system in Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee For thisreason it was important to implement strict security

TAMAI Kuniharu
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesNOJIRI Yasuhiro
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesHOSODA Naofumi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesIBAYASHI Hiroaki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 264‑271 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers264

functions and to organize systems to operate security
from the viewpoint of zero trust Zero trust refers to theconcept of taking security measures in advance without
trusting all communications

assuming that not all

attacks can be protected by the conventional approach ofdividing the network into trusted and untrusted areas
and restricting communications between the two areas
Specifically authentication methods were strengthened
to increase the durability against leakage of credential

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

information and the possessed data was encrypted

been reports of MFA being breached in some implemen-using mechanisms such as IRM (Information Rights

tations It is necessary to select credential protection

Management) so that files could not be viewed even if

methods in accordance with changes in attack methods

they are leaked to the outsideand corresponding countermeasure technologies

Other examples included configuration management
to quickly grasp the impact on the system when newrisks such as vulnerabilities were discovered

22

Management

andcountermeasures against DDoS (Distributed Denial of

Configuration Management and Vulnerability

Managing configurations and vulnerabilities are verysignificant challenges because each system consists ofService) attacks
These are described in detail below

wide variety of devices and software If newly discovered vulnerabilities are not addressed in a timely

21

Thorough Protection of Credential Information

In many cases

security incidents are caused byattackers exploiting the credentials they have obtainedmanner or if some of them remain unaddressed thevulnerabilities will be used as footholds for intrusion into
the system resulting in major damage

illegally pretending legitimate users and infiltrating

In order to take appropriate measures against

devices or systems In order to make it impossible tovulnerabilities configuration management and vulner-

break in easily even if some of the credential information

ability information gathering are essential Configuration

were leaked Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee hadmanagement is to comprehensively keep track of all thethoroughly strengthened authentication method bydevicesusing of Multi‑Factor Authentication (MFA) in princi-

information gathering is to promptly understand details

ple Even when MFA could not be used due to deviceof newly discovered vulnerabilities Furthermore it isrestrictions security had been reinforced by restricting

important to visualize the impact of vulnerabilities andthe source IP address

the progress of countermeasures of all systems Tokyosoftware and their versions

Vulnerability

In addition the use of shared accounts was prohibited2020 Organising Committee introduced several types ofand it was made to be thorough to use individual

configuration management systems according to theaccounts with the minimum privileges granted as

types of devices and software and always kept that allnecessary

This enabled the logging of privileged

devices and software were registered without omission

operations ensured traceability and enabled prompt

through security checks For vulnerability information

detection of any credential abuse

gathering in addition to dedicated platform for collecting

In addition to these measures we also prevented

vulnerability and threat information

we also took

credential leaks Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee set

advantage of Threat Intelligence from outside agencies

a password policy that was stronger than the generalsuch as the JPCERT/CC information sharing platforms

standard specifically passwords must have been atprovided by the government and the International

least 10 characters long and contain at least three

Olympic Committee etc By making maximum use ofdifferent types of characters This was intended tothem we established a system that enabled us to collectincrease the strength of passwords and prevent theira wide range of vulnerability information quickly and inreuse by making them stricter than the requirements fordetailgeneral services In addition we issued the warning that

In addition a centralized configuration deployment

the passwords were not to include words related to thesystem is essential to promptly complete actions such as

Tokyo 2020 Games

updates and workarounds after the discovery ofwhich were easily recalled byattackers and password cracking tests were conductedvulnerabilities

monthly to confirm the actual passwords Furthermore

Committee used centrally managed PCs to enable batch

just prior to the Games all staff membersʼ passwords

configuration changes For devices that are not subject

were reset

We believe that this has completely

In principle

to centralized management

Tokyo 2020 Organising

we clearly identified

invalided any credential information that might haveadministrator for each devices and direct them to takebeen passed to an attacker

appropriate action promptly for each vulnerabilities

However these measures cannot be applied directly
to future Games

Password policy standards are

becoming more complex every year and there have23

DDoS Protections

Any environment connected to the Internet must be

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020265

prepared for DDoS attacks that aim to disrupt the use of

unnecessary functions and appropriately enabling secur-

the environment Although DDoS is known to target

ity functions and endpoint defense by anti‑malware

websites any environment connected to the Internet

software And based on the concept of zero‑trust we

can be a target

have managed privileges strictly and have introduced

Since DDoS protection requires large‑scale environment in the network infrastructure the Organisingmechanisms to detect suspicious behavior The details ofthese measures are described below

Committee implemented a common implementation
rather than individual protections For BON CPN and

31

Network Security

OTN we adopted a scrubbing center type of the service

The network was divided into zones such as Secure

which pulls in communications and separates offensive

Trusted Edge DMZ etc and communication between

communications from legitimate ones On the otherthese zones were restricted by using the whitelist to

hand for Web sites we adopted CDN (Content Delivery

block malicious communication on Proxy UTM (Unified

Network) By utilizing these services we protected ourThreat Management) IPS/IDS (Intrusion Protection/

services from DDoS attacks

Detection System) and firewalls according to the IT
security architecture The traffic flow was monitored by
NDR (Network Detection and Response) for early

3．BON and CPN Security
For both BON and CPN

detection of attacks and anomalous communications

a number of security

Even within the same zone communication between

solutions were implemented for the network andterminals was restricted to prevent lateral movement

endpoints such as PC terminals and servers based on thewhich was the expansion of the range of attacks andconcept of defense in depth (Figure 1) Basically we

infection in the case of internal intrusion

have prevented the intrusion of attackers by defense‑in‑authentication was also used to prevent unauthorized

depth through perimeter defense by network security

terminals from connecting to the network

hardening to minimize attackable points by stopping

Figure 1266

802 1xFor the use of Internet services the possibility of

Defense in Depth Solutions

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

access to malicious sites and the introduction of malware

execution of scripts whose use was prohibited in theinto the BON/CPN was reduced by DNS filtering URL

BON/CPN But it was not possible to determine whether

filtering functions of proxy anti‑virus functions sand-the detection result was an attack action or anbox functions and other functions Furthermore theoperational task by the system administrator so we

use of free Internet storage services and Internet e‑mailimplemented a process to check each time a detection

services which had been the target of attacks in the past

was made to see if the user had performed the detectedGames

and other services wereoperation In addition to SIEM logs were also incorpo-

restricted appropriately to reduce the risk of information

rated into UEBA which could detect not explicitly

leaks

suspicious behavior but unusual behavior

was prohibited

As security measures for network devices them-

The above was the basic policy but since CPN PC

selves they were configured in accordance with Tokyo

terminals handled competition data in real time the2020 Organising Committeeʼs configuration standard

design policy was adjusted to give priority to avoiding(Configuration Standard) to ensure uniform hardening

functional impact Specifically we decided to implement

Security logs of devices such as UTMs and proxies wereperiodic scans instead of real‑time scans for malware

captured by SIEM (Security Information and Eventcountermeasures

Management) and UEBA (User and Entity Behavior
33

Analytics)

Server Security

In the server environment security was reinforced at
32

a higher level not only by the same hardening and

PC Security

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee also had a Configu-

security solutions as for PC terminals but also by

ration Standard to fortify PC terminals The Standard

implementing auditing mechanism to check the validity

defined Windows OS security features such as credentialof settings and patch application status and installing

protection execution control by application whitelisting

IDS/IPS software

vulnerability mitigation and disk encryption and Win-In particular AD (Active Directory) which was thedows Group Policies such as restrictions on macro

core of operation and management was more carefully

execution restrictions on account synchronization andsecured than general servers Specifically AD security

extension usage of browser randomization of privileged

was strengthened by introducing a tier model thatadministrator passwords etc Security was enhanced

classify administrators based on the resources they

through the use of the Standard

manage by access control of requiring connections via asecurity was further

dedicated stepping stone server for AD operation and byenhanced by deploying multiple perspectives by instal-a dedicated mechanism to detect suspicious activity fromling multiple security solutions

specifically anti‑

the contents of AD‑related communications AD logs

EDR (Endpoint Detection andwere also imported into SIEM and monitored with

In addition to the above

malware software

special attention by implementing logic to detect

Response) SIEM and UEBA
Although some of the functions of anti‑malware

suspicious behavior related to AD authentication

the anti‑

Based on the same approach as for PC security we didmalware software was mainly used for restrictions on

not implement IDS/IPS for CPNs which would havescript execution such as PowerShell and on external

placed a heavy load on the system

software overlapped with those of EDR

device connection and flexible policy application according to the connected network while EDR was mainly

4．OTN Security

used for incident response such as PC terminal
investigation

specimen acquisition and quarantine

41

Network Security

There was a difference in the scope of deployment

The OTN network was divided into separate net-

between anti‑malware software and EDRs which will

works for each service Moreover as in the case of thebe discussed in detail in Section 4

BON and CPN UTM was installed at the connection

SIEM was used not only to collect logs of network

points to the Internet traffic flows were monitored bydevices but also to obtain PC security logs and output

NDR DNS filtering was performed and hardening was

logs of anti‑malware software for analysis and visualiza-

performed according to the Configuration Standard

tion SIEM could detect the use of privileges and the

However because of the wide range of applications it

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020267

was difficult to use the whitelist which registered inin advance by stipulating in the OTN terms of use that

advance the communications to be allowed

they must cooperate with response in the event of anso theblacklist was adopted where communications determined to be malicious by security operations were added
sequentially

incident
As a result several incidents actually occurred during
the Games Time but we were able to respond promptly

In addition since a large number of devices brought inby guests were connected to the OTN there was a highas expected and deal with them without causing any
damagerisk that malicious devices might be connected by

In addition there were some issues to be consideredslipping into them Based on this premise multiple

for future Games regarding the selection of anti‑

countermeasures against malicious device connections

malware and EDR solutions for loaner PC terminals

were implemented For example when connecting toThis is explained in Section 4 3

services such as broadcasting and press MAC address
authentication was performed and communication
between terminals was restricted to mitigate the risk of

43Consideration of Solution Configuration and
Scalability

lateral movement attacks Captive portal authentication

In deciding on a security solution for OTN PC

using accreditation IDs (IDs used to control theterminals managed by Tokyo 2020 Organising Commit-

admission of Games stakeholders to the venue etc )tee we considered the possibility of expanding thewas introduced in the guest network to connect to the

BON/CPN solution but we had to give up due toterminals brought in by guests

limitations imposed by the solution architecture
Many security solutions require not only an agent

42

PC Security

installed in each PC terminal but also a manager that

Each user had various requirements for PC terminals

manages the group of agents The manager can bebrought into the OTN and it was very difficult to

deployed on‑premises (hereinafter referred to as “on‑implement uniform security measures

premise solution”) or in the cloud (hereinafter referred

Considering

these conditions to prevent infection of PC terminals

to as “cloud‑based solution”)

and the spread of infection between terminals a security

Based on the technological trends at the time wereview was conducted for each system to determine theadopted the on‑premise solution of anti‑malware

minimum requirements for PCs used in the system andsoftware for BON/CPN that could be configured ineach system was strongly requested to comply withdetail In this configuration the connection between thethese requirements

BON/CPN and OTN was limited so OTN PC terminals

In addition to the terminals brought into the OTN
there were also loaner PC terminals managed by Tokyo
2020 Organising Committee for the use of Gamesand the manager could not be connected and the BON/
CPN solution could not be deployed on the OTN
On the other hand

many EDRs were originallystakeholders The loaner PC terminals were used by thedesigned as cloud‑based solutions and EDR adopted forathletes staying in the athletesʼ village and by critical

BON/CPN was also cloud‑based solution In the case of

infrastructure providers and like the terminals brought

cloud‑based solutions a common solution could be usedin they must be able to use for a variety of purposes On

in any environment as long as there was connectivity

the other hand because of the wide range of users it

between the manager in the cloud and the PC terminal

was difficult to disseminate the policies of Tokyo 2020

so the same level of security measures could be deployed

Organising Committee to all users which could haveby extending the BON/CPN solution to OTN The cost

resulted in numerous security incidents Consideringof the solution was also low because it required only athese conditions

small increase in the number of licenses

we decided to avoid using strict

security settings with anti‑malware software in order to

Although it was assumed that the requirements formaintain the usability of PC terminals and instead wesecurity measures for OTN PC terminals managed byhave adopted a policy of implementing EDR of the same

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee would be different

level as BON/CPN to detect and respond to incidents asfrom those for BON/CPN PC terminals in consideration

soon as they occurred Furthermore since the coopera-of the above‑mentioned restrictions on deployment ittion of PC terminal users was indispensable for incident

was finally decided to expand the EDR solution for BON/

response we have obtained an agreement with the users

CPN to apply it to the OTN and to select the minimum

268

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

necessary security measures to meet the requirements

policyof OTN in addition to the EDR

protection for large‑scale attacks

The difference between on‑premise solution andcloud‑based solution was also evident during theit is necessary to have additional dedicated
The Organising

Committee has decided to procure CDN to cover all
public web systems of the Organising Committee

software upgrade process The anti‑malware software

CDN is a service that delivers content from a web

was operated for a long period of time from the early

server (origin) located in a data centre or cloud to end

stages including the preparation period of the Games

users from delivery servers (edges) distributed aroundresulting in two version upgrades during the period of

the world By delivering content from edges which isuse The on‑premise environment required a large scalecloser to the end user CDN improves the access speed

and long term project In addition it was necessary toto the website and reduces the load of the origin by

re‑distribute the agent software for the version up-

aggregating a large number of accesses at the edge andgrades but the anti‑malware software itself did notaccessing the origin only when necessary It is also very

have an agent distribution function resulting in a large

useful for cyber attacks protection as it reduces direct

workload On the other hand the EDR of cloud‑based

attacks by cloaking the origin and attacks via edges cansolution had a mechanism for easy distribution so thebe handled in a decentralized manner at each edge

workload for version upgrades was small

We minimized damage of DDoS attack by CDN edge

In consideration of long‑term use it is inevitable thatstructure while at the same time utilizing three filtering

OS versions of PC terminals and servers must get

functions to block other attacks The first is rule‑based

upgraded and the security solution itself will need to be

filtering which examines the contents of traffic andupgraded to cover the new versions The workload toblocks them if unique characteristics

upgrade such a solution should be one of the indicators toinclusion of attack code are contained The second isselect a solution

rate‑based filtering which blocks continuous access tosuch as theAt that time on‑premise solution was adopted forgenerate heavy load on the origin such as intensiveanti‑malware software but since then technology has

access to search pages The third is reputation‑based

advanced and cloud‑based solution has become afiltering which blocks access from blacklisted sources

realistic option of solution Considering cost advantages

The blacklist is created and maintained by the CDN

and the convenience of long‑term use including version

provider with their own knowledge such as attacks for

upgrades future Games will change to focus on cloud‑other websites All of these filters were used in a blockbased operational designmode which immediately blocked malicious communications as soon as they were detected In addition since
the origin cannot be fully concealed and can be directly

5．Website Domain Security

targeted

Websites operated by the Organising Committee

all origin set their firewalls to deny all

connections except the edges

In addition to theinclude not only official sites and ticket sales sites that

firewalls scrubbing center‑type services and DDoS

are open to the public but also many systems that are

mitigation options provided by cloud services are also

open only to specific users such as games information

used DDoS attacks that target the gateway network of

distribution systems for the media The composition of

the origins By combining these measures we con-these systems varies widely and security measures

structed a defense infrastructure that can respond to aneed to be implemented for each site individuallywide variety of attack methods

However

there are solutions that can be applied

Howeverthese security measures were only acentrally to many of them which can be very effective

baseline Each website adopted defense‑in‑depth design

This section introduces CDN as a typical example

and implemented various of countermeasures depending
on its configuration and characteristics Although CDN

51

is a very useful security measure we should not beContent Delivery Network (CDN)

Web systems are very attractive targets for attackers

overconfident that they alone are sufficientand are frequently subjected to DDoS attacks intrusion
attempts for data falsification and exploitation

and

52

DoS Simulation

reconnaissance attacks as a preliminary step Although

Security measures are implemented in a defense‑in‑each website is hardened in accordance with its security

depth design but it is also important to check whether

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020269

they work together as expected and whether theuse of a shared infrastructure requires careful research

expected protection effect is achievedon the specifications of authorization settings andAlthough the Organising Committee system undergoes sufficient functional and load tests prior to releaseelaborate authorization design tailored to the intendedusecyber attacks are very different from normal access in

The second issue is the impact of service failures If

terms of both quality and quantity so dedicated tests are

the common infrastructure fails many services will beneeded to measure attack resistance Penetration tests

affected simultaneously resulting in extensive damage

measure resistance to malicious communications such as

Since the infrastructure itself will be large‑scale it will

injection attacks in addition other tests were conducted

be difficult to prepare a secondary system equivalent toto measure resistance to the load of large accesses

the current system and switch to them when primarycaused by DDoS attacks

system gets in trouble It is necessary to select a service

we prepared an environment whichwith sufficient stability carefully prepare countermeas-

generated the simulation of DDoS traffic and checked

ures in the event of failure and build a system that can

whether each DDoS protections worked as expected forpromptly coordinate information with infrastructure

the generated traffic Because this is only a simulation

operators so that appropriate measures can be selected

and the scale is limited to some extent we call the test

in a timely mannerSpecifically“DoS simulation” rather than a DDoS However the test
was well arranged so that it could cause a sufficient load

6．Conclusion

by appropriately adjusting the system configuration
during the test according Because this test involved not

In the BON CPN OTN and website domains system

only the security operation centre but also the data

hardening has been achieved through the implementa-

centre and cloud service provider where the CDN andtion of MFA the elimination of vulnerable configura-origin servers were located the target systems weretions

limited to critical systems only For example there weremanagement In addition with the implementation ofconfiguration management

and vulnerability

cases in which security measures activated simultane-

defense in depth and visualization solutions for each

ously interfered with each other and unexpectedly

system as well as continuous activities to prevent theblocked legitimate connections and cases in which theobsolescence of solutions by version upgrades of them

activation of protective functions was delayed beyond

we could have increased defenses and resulted in the

expectations By optimizing the settings based on thecompletion of the Games without any major security

knowledge obtained here we were able to set up a stateincidents

in which the expected defense effect could be achieved(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised April 5 2022)

53

Notes on Shared Infrastructure

While 4 3 describes the advantages of cloud based
solutions in terms of scalability there are some points tonote when many systems use a shared infrastructure asin the case of cloud based solutions These are described
below
The first issue is the authorization design In a multi‑
tenant configuration where the infrastructure is sharedby multiple systems it is essential to separate theauthorization so that the resources for each system canbe freely accessed by its owner while the others cannot
be accessed In the case of CDN the management
functions for filtering falls into this category Fortunately this was not a problem because the security

TAMAI Kuniharu
TAMAI Kuniharu has engaged in providing
solutions for corporations at NTT Communications Corporation and has been seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Project Director of Cyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau since 2018
During the Games he oversaw the operation of
security solutions at the SOC
NOJIRI Yasuhiro
NOJIRI Yasuhiro has been working for
CSIRT start‑up support and education at NEC
Solution Innovators He has been seconded to
the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee as
security solutions manager since 2019 in the
Cyber Security Department of the Technology
Services Bureau During the Games he oversaw the operation of security solutions at the
SOC

function originally needed to be managed by the Cyber
Security Team centrally and we could hide themanagement function for each system operators The
270

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSHOSODA Naofumi
HOSODA Naofumi has been working for ISP
backbone operation and analysis of cyberthreats at NTT Communications Corporation
He was seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising
Committee as Security Operations Manager of
the Cyber Security Department Technology
Services Bureau since 2014 During the Gameshe was in charge of web security operations at
the SOCIBAYASHI Hiroaki
IBAYASHI Hiroaki has been working in theservice development of cloud and security
businesses at NTT Communications Corporation since 2014 and has been seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Director of Cyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau During the Games he
was responsible for the overall security operations in the SOC㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

271

5 Cyber Security

5‑4

Cyber Security Operations for the Tokyo
2020 Games
ONISHI Masaki HOSODA Naofumi
NAKANISHI Katsuhiko IBAYASHI Hiroaki

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 established a robust security environment through security
governance and the use of many security solutions However without the mature security operations that enabled full
utilization of the security solutions the security measures provided would be meaningless This article describes how the
security operations were designed implemented and matured for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Cyberattacks Security operations

preliminary operations in 2016 and full‑scale operations

1．Prefacein March 2019 in time for the transition of the network

As described in this special issue “5‑3 Solutions forfrom the Games preparation to Games production andCyber Security Challenges of the Tokyo 2020 Games”

then the number of security operators were to be

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

gradually increased for the Games(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”)

As of March 2019 there were 15 full‑time weekday

implemented many security solutions from the perspec-and day shift operators but during the Olympic Games

tive of defense in depth

to prepare for

the Security Operations Centre (SOC) was establishedunpredictable cyberattacks that evade these solutions

Howeverwithin the Technology Operations Centre (TOC) andor to prevent them from interfering with the proper

operated 24 hours a day by approximately 130 operators

operation of the system the maturity of the securityin 44 positions in three teams : the Security Solutions

operations is the key

Team the Security Incident Response Team and the

It is difficult to achieve a sufficient level of the security

Security Intelligence Team

operations in a day and it is necessary to mature them

The following sections describe how the security

over time On the other hand there are cost constraints

operations were prepared and matured for the GamesFor the Tokyo 2020 Games the master plan was to start

2．Basic Design of the Security Operations
ONISHI Masaki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesHOSODA Naofumi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games
NAKANISHI KatsuhikoTechnology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesIBAYASHI Hiroaki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 272‑278 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

272

21

Basic Design

In designing the security operations we referred tothe security operation design documents of the past
Games and the “Textbook for Security Response
Organizations Version 2 1” (1) issued by the Information
Security Operation providers Group Japan to efficiently
design the overall security operations required for the
Tokyo 2020 Gamesthe relationship between each

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

operation

Overall Security Operations and the Relationship between Each Operationand the operations to be performed incooperation with the Tokyo 2020 Games stakeholders(Figure 1) The basic design was also effective as acommon language when cooperating with staff and

3．Security Operations during the Preparation
PeriodWhen security solutions are put into operation there
are many cases where the detection capability against

relevant departments

new cyberattacks is insufficient or where the solution
22

reacts more excessively than expected and interferes

Detailed Design

Due to cost constraints the required number of thewith the operation of legitimate services Therefore it issecurity operators could only be allocated approximately

important for the security operations to review theone month before the Games time On the other handsolution and the operation method itself each time andbecause many security solutions were implemented

to promote optimization and improvement

based on defense in depth

the information that

operators needed to understand covered a wide range of

31

fields Based on these premises to train new operators

For the Tokyo 2020 Games Security Information andin a short period of time we developed policies andEvent Management (SIEM) was introduced to collectprocedures (PnP) in detail for each solution andand correlate server and PC logs alerts from security

standardized operations We also developed a detailed

devices etc

PnP for security incident response including what towere difficult to detect by each security solution alone

identify how to prioritize what actions to take and how

Since the attack detection rules to be developed on theto recover from user inquiries and alerts from each

SIEM vary depending on the security solutions andsecurity solution

environment it is necessary to develop the detection

In addition we set up a management indicator to

SIEM Operationand thereby to detect cyberattacks thatrules suitable for each organization For the Tokyo 2020

measure whether the incident was handled in accord-Games

ance with the PnP for operational refinement This

allowed the security operators to develop and modify theenabled us to continuously improve the scope anddetection rules themselves to continuously utilize thecontent of the PnPs by feeding back the knowledge

SIEM

obtained from daily operations

we established the operational system that

For the start of the SIEM operation the detection
rules were developed with reference to MITRE ATT &Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020273

Figure 2

Dashboard Utilizing CDN Logs

CK (2) When developing the detection rules we focusedup with the latest cyberattacks

on operational feasibility We conducted actual cyberat-This preparation was put to great use during thetacks to verify whether our detection rules could

Games When PetitPotam an attack method against

adequately detect the attacks and we used past logs to

Windows domain controllers was disclosed during theensure that false positives were eliminated as much asGames time the security operators themselves devel-

possible When we conducted tests we found cases

oped the detection rule to detect PetitPotam enabling

where our detection rules failed to detect cyberattacks

them to promptly detect and immediately respond to the

because the behavior of the security solutions was very

attackdifferent from our expectations and cases where thesecurity operations were difficult due to many false

32

Visualization and Dashboard

positives This initiative was extremely useful in terms

Visualization is very important to quickly grasp theof improving the quality of our detection rules as well as

situation when a cyberattack occurs and to takethe skills of the security operators

appropriate initial actions

After the start of the SIEM operation we added andAs an example of visualization we introduce one ofmodified our detection rules mainly to detect actions

the dashboards used in the security operations Figure 2

prohibited by our regulations (e ginteractive logon

shows the number of attacks detected by the Content

using a service account) Since these actions were often

Delivery Network (CDN) at the top and the attack

used in cyberattacks and were useful for attack

source and destination at the bottom This was createddetection we continuously implemented the detection

with an emphasis on information sharing between therule whenever new regulation was added The detection

security operators and website operators rather than arules developed based on our regulations sometimes

detailed analysis of attacks The dashboard visualized

resulted in more false positives than expected This waswhich websites were being attacked and which attacks

because the configuration of the system was changing

were slipping through the CDN filters Cyberattacks are

dynamically in preparation for the Games and each timeoften misunderstood as a cause of system trouble

this happened we analyzed the causes and continually

However by utilizing this dashboard it was possible toimproved the detection rule and operated the permission

show the state that there were no cyberattacks or there

list In addition continuous development of the detection

were attacks but they did not affect the system This

rules by analyzing the signs of cyberattacks observed

enabled each team to understand the effects of attacks

and the cyberattacks methods used during the Cyberand to respond promptly and appropriately

War Games (to be described later) as well as other

In Figure 2 the attack source information is hidden to

cyberattack methods disclosed to the world resulted in

avoid misunderstanding Visualization can cause a great

the advancement of both the detection rules and thedeal of misunderstanding if it is used for unexpectedskills of the security operators which enabled us to keep

purposes It is very important for dashboards to clarify

274

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSto whom and what the information is intended to beimportant to keep on tuning in the security monitoring

shown and to appropriately limit the scope of disclosurephase
In the security monitoring phase false positives are

33

CDN Operation

found in a mixture connections of legitimate user

As described in this special issue “5‑3 Solutions foraccesses and attacks False positives are difficult to

Cyber Security Challenges of the Tokyo 2020 Games”

detect because they are hidden in low‑risk attacks

our websites were hosted in a CDN

It was a

detections They are always too many low‑risk attacks

countermeasure against Distributed Denial of Service

and often ignored To detect false positives it was(DDoS) attacks and unauthorized access but it also

important to implement monitoring rules that focus notcaused serious false positives which blocked legitimate

only on the characteristics of attacks but also on theuser connections 3 3 will focus on countermeasurescharacteristics of false positives By maturing theseagainst false positives

rules based on actual cases we established a system that

The Tokyo 2020 Games website delivered not only

detected and responded to even small false positives

static contents such as documents and images but also

without omission Although we could have wait for users

accepted information uploads from related parties or

to report false positives we decided to proactively

related systems These connections may be misidenti-

detect false positives because there was a risk that they

fied as attacks and blocked For example the format ofwould be left unreported and become a major problem

uploaded data may resemble an attack code or the hashduring a critical period of timevalue in a cookie may look like an attack command

After finding false positives it is necessary to optimize

which will be blocked by a rule‑based filter In otherthe detection settings Understanding the specifications

cases

related system connections suddenly becomeand behavior of the website is essential for this andfrequent and they would be misidentified as DoS attacks

cooperation with the system developer is also important

and were blocked by the rate‑based filter

False

By establishing a cooperative system with the develop-

positives are not rare cases They occur frequently anders and deepening the CDN operation teamʼs under-

require daily response If legitimate connections werestanding of the site we were able to determine theblocked they could interfere with the operation of the

optimal settings prevent attacks and maintain legiti-

website andmate connections without interfering with the Gamein the worst casemight affect theoperation of the Games Responding to false positives is
as important as responding to attacks For the Tokyo

34

2020 Games we worked to minimize the number of false

The Security Intelligence Team began its activities inpositives by combining pre‑tuning before the site was

October 2019 The team detected signs of cyberattacks

released with tuning after the service was launched

information leaks fake websites fake mobile applica-

Security Intelligence Activities

In pre‑tuning a dedicated period of time is defined totions spoofing of official SNS fake news and so on

generate traffics that simulate legitimate connections

using the information provided by multiple security

and evaluate filters This is done in a staging environ-intelligence services and the government agencies asment with limited access When deploying CDN towell as information collected from Internet forums SNS

existing services

and the dark web

the filters are often activated as

detection‑only mode to eliminate the risk of false

As an example we detected the leakage of credential

blocking and tuning is performed while using actual

information such as authentication IDs and passwords

user communications However for the Tokyo 2020

used for the Tokyo 2020 Games ticket site and official

Games almost all sites had access peaks immediately

online store Upon detection we promptly reset theafter the release therefore filtering protection needed bepassword for the account before any unauthorized

put in place from the beginning Based on this we ruled

intrusion occurred In this case it was assumed that thethat sites needed to start their services with block mode

service provided by the Tokyo 2020 Games was notfilters after reducing the risk of false positives as muchcompromised by the attacker but rather the userʼs

as possible by pre‑tuning and then start using the filter

private device was infected with information‑stealingin blocking mode Nevertheless false positives were

malwareremained in many cases because it was difficult to

In addition we built the security intelligence platform

prepare enough test patterns For this reason it wasthat automatically collected the Indicators of Compro-

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020275

conducted various tests to sufficiently enhance theability to respond to these security incidents
41

Cyber War GamesThe Cyber War Games (CWGs) are practicalcyberattack exercises to evaluate staff the implementation of the IT system and network and operation
processes from a cyber security perspective by conducting cyberattacks that may occur on the IT systems used
for the Tokyo 2020 Games during the GamesThe CWGs consisted of three teams : the Green Team
Figure 3

which coordinated and evaluated the exercise ; the Red

Security Intelligence Platform

Team which launched the cyberattacks ; and the Blue
Team which defended against the Red Teamʼs attack
For the Tokyo 2020 Games the CWGs were conducted
mise from the International Olympic Committee (IOC)four times : two exercises at the Back Office Network

security intelligence services

the network used by the Tokyo Organising Committee

Japan cyber security

Information Sharing Platform (JISP)

Open SourceIntelligence (OSINT) and automatically distributed thestaffs in their work (BON)

one exercise at theCompetition Network the network for competitions

collected Indicators of Compromise to network security

connecting venues (CPN) and one exercise at the Core

devices SIEM and Endpoint Detection and Response

Hosting Network the network for Olympic and Paraly-(EDR) (Figure 3)

mpic Games related system (CHN) The following major

Security intelligence was also used as a countermeas-

issues were identified and resolved :ure against reputation risk and ambush marketing
Using the PyeongChang 2018 Games and the 2018 FIFA(

World Cup as case studies we worked with the relevant･

departments to improve the maturity of monitoring･

methods and responses to detection
35)

Rule Violation
Credentials were recorded in plain text in the log
Accounts were assigned more privileges thannecessary etc

Threat Hunting

(

)

･

The configurations for servers network devices

While promoting the maturity of the security opera-

Improper System and Network Configurations

differed from the design documents

tions it is also important to prepare for cyberattacks(

that cannot be detected by current security measures･)

Response to Unexpected Cyberattacks
Failed to detect cyberattacks using standard

For this purpose we conducted Threat Hunting which

Windows tools (Living Off The Land Binaries andwas a research activity to proactively detect signs of

Scripts) and undisclosed vulnerability attacks etc

attacks and attacks that were missed by current
security measures Details are described in this special

Some of these issues were known before the CWGs

issue “5‑6 Find Evil‑Know Normal : Tokyo 2020 GamesFor example we were aware that some of the accounts

Threat Hunting from Internal and External Perspec-that had existed since the inception of the Tokyo

tives”

Organising Committee had higher privileges thannecessary but we could not correct them because we
did not know the impact of changing the privileges etc

4．Security Operation Test

The successful attacks on these accounts by the CWGs

The capabilities of the security operations can beraised awareness of cyberattacks among the people

improved by responding to cyberattacks that occur on a

involved and resulted in the remediation of the situation

daily basis On the other hand for a one‑time major

The CWGs were useful in that they allowed theevent such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games the

security operators to experience security incidents thatability to respond quickly and accurately to infrequent or

did not occur in daily security operations and to makeunexpected security incidents is also required

use of them for improvement and to objectively evaluate

276

We

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the current security level by being subjected to actual
cyberattacks

A total of 29 cyber security scenarios were conducted
including suspicious behavior in the network infection
with unknown malware

42

file server encryption by

ransomware social engineering website defacement

Disaster Recovery Rehearsals

At every Olympic and Paralympic Games Disasterand government collaboration As a result a total of 22

Recovery Rehearsals (DRRs) are held for switchingissues were identified including inadequacies in opera-

from a primary to a secondary data centre in an overseas

tion procedures and shift handover methods

data centre and from a primary to a secondary data

improvements to the dashboard for security monitoring

centre in the host countryʼs data centre

which were promptly resolved before the GamesandFor the Tokyo 2020 Games based on the security
incident that occurred during the PyeongChang 2018
Games we enhanced the DRR scenarios from a cybersecurity perspective in addition to the scenarios

5．Examples of Security Incident Response
during the Game Preparation Period

conducted for each Games Specifically the scenario

51

assumed that Active Directory (AD)which had

We describe an example of a zero‑day vulnerability

authentication and other functions was stopped due tothat we responded to just before the Game times when

unauthorized access The purpose of the scenario was toour concerns became a reality

confirm the effectiveness of the provisional operation

Zero‑day Vulnerability Response“PrinterNightmare” is a vulnerability

that wasprocedures and the roles of each team to ensure that thedisclosed at the end of June 2021 and assigned CVE‑

systems (single sign‑on system proxy etc ) linked with

2021‑34527 Because it was approximately one month

AD resume service within the target recovery time

before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games we

The scenario allowed us to confirm the feasibility of

had to be very careful in changing the systems andrecovery by alternative means in the event of an AD

difficult decisions were required First we promptly

outage in an actual environment In addition it wascollected detailed information on the vulnerability andpossible to check the actual operation based on theproceeded to verify the Proof of Concept (PoC) code In

dependencies between systems and parameter settings

addition to confirm the extent of the impact we quickly

such as the fact that logging in to the PC and using a file

checked all servers whether the print spooler service

server were possible if the PCʼs authentication cache wasaffected by the vulnerability was running on each server

enabled while network and VPN connections wereby using the vulnerability tracking tool

disabled if the PC was logged off This was also useful for

As a result of the check we confirmed that many

improving the business continuity plan with an aware-

servers and PCs had the print spooler service enabled

ness of resilience in the event of cyberattacks

and were affected by the vulnerability We explained the

Although we conducted a rehearsal for AD and

impact of the vulnerability

workarounds

and thesystems that were linked to AD we also established

impact of implementing the workarounds to the server

appropriate procedures for the systems that might haveadministrators Then we sequentially disabled the print

a significant impact on the operation of the Tokyo 2020spooler service on the server approved by the serverGames such as network authentication systems soft-administrator using group policy On the other handware distribution systems and operation management

since PCs were unable to print if the print spooler

systems etc

service was disabled which had a significant impact on
business operations

43

we disabled Inbound Remote

Printing according to the guidance issued by Microsoft

Technology Rehearsals

Technology Rehearsals simulate technology opera-

on July 1 2021 Subsequently an emergent security

tions through various normal and abnormal scenarios

update was released and we applied it to PCs and all

during the Games time They were conducted twice

critical servers including AD to complete the response(each time for three days) to evaluate systems staff

In this way we were able to quickly make decisions andand operational procedures and were attended by staff

respond to zero‑day vulnerabilities that occurredfrom the Technology Services Department of the Tokyo

immediately before and during the Games time in

Organising Committee

accordance with the vulnerability response process that

the IOC

technology partners and others

vendors including

had been prepared in advanceSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

277

52

Phishing E‑mail Disguised as the Chief of thedaily security operations so as not to miss any earlyTokyo Organising Committee

signs of cyber attacks

In daily security operations we analyzed reports fromThe security operations during the Games time which

staff and alerts notified by each solution and identified

were the result of these efforts are described in thisthe extent of the impact and causes which were thenspecial issue “5‑5 Responding to Cyber Attacks during

addressed In addition we took action in cooperation

the Tokyo 2020 Games”

with related organizations as necessary

security operations matured during the Games prepara-

As an example

we describe how to respond tophishing e‑mails disguised as the chief of the Tokyo

but it can be said that thetion period protected the Games from cyberattacks andcontributed to the success of the Tokyo 2020 Games

Organising Committee In the example attackers sent
phishing e‑mails to an unspecified number of people
spoofing the e‑mail address of the chief of the Tokyo

References
(

)

(

)

Organising Committee The phishing e‑mails were sentintermittently seven times in two weeks from January
24 to February 6 2020 For our analysis we used
undeliverable e‑mails received in the e‑mail account of
the chief of the Tokyo Organising Committee
The phishing e‑mails were also sent to three staff
members of the Tokyo Organising Committee but wewere not affected because the spam filter handled themproperly The phishing site which illegally used the
Olympic symbol

was designed to induce e‑mailrecipients to log in to view documents We identified a
total of six phishing sites none of which were accessedby the Tokyo Organising Committee staff members
We analyzed the undeliverable e‑mails that were sentin the early stages of the phishing e‑mails and found ahigh probability that they were phishing campaigns
targeting the Tokyo 2020 Games stakeholders Therefore we regarded it as preparing activities for cyberattacks by attackers and alerted the Tokyo 2020 Games

Information Security Operation providers Group Japan, Textbook for
Security Response Organizations, Version 2.1.
https://isog-j.org/output/2017/Textbook_soc-csirt_v2.html
MITRE ATT & CK
https://attack.mitre.org/(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 16 2022)

ONISHI Masaki
ONISHI Masaki was engaged in security
management at NTT Communications Corporation He has been seconded to the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee as the Director of
Security Operation Cyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau since 2018
During the Games he was responsible for the
security incident response at the SOC
HOSODA Naofumi
HOSODA Naofumi has been working for ISP
backbone operation and analysis of cyberthreats at NTT Communications Corporation
He was seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising
Committee as Security Operations Manager of
the Cyber Security Department Technology
Services Bureau since 2014 During the Gameshe was in charge of web security operations at
the SOC

stakeholders In addition we cooperated with externalorganizations such as security vendors to register thesites with the anti‑phishing function of the browsers andto take down the sites

6．Conclusion
This article has described the security operations The

NAKANISHI Katsuhiko
NAKANISHI Katsuhiko was engaged insecurity incident response and cyber exercise
at NEC Nexsolutions Ltd and has been
seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the Director of Cyber Attack
Response Department Security Bureau andCyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau since 2015 During the Games he
was responsible for the overall security operations at the SOC

security operations and their improvement activities
accumulated since the early stage of the Gamespreparation period as well as various training andexercises such as the CWGs steadily improved thecapability of the security operations In addition we
responded promptly to security incidents such as thewebsite defacements and the compromised e‑mailaccounts that targeted the Tokyo 2020 Games stake-

IBAYASHI Hiroaki
IBAYASHI Hiroaki has been working in theservice development of cloud and security
businesses at NTT Communications Corporation since 2014 and has been seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Director of Cyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau During the Games he
was responsible for the overall security operations in the SOC

holders in cooperation with related organizations during

278

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

5 Cyber Security

5‑5Responding to Cyber Attacks during theTokyo 2020 Games
ONISHI Masaki

HOSODA Naofumi

NAKANISHI Katsuhiko
IBAYASHI Hiroaki

In the past there were many cyber attacks on the Olympic and Paralympic Games that could affect the operation of theGames On the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games many cyber attacks were observed and reached their peakduring the Olympic Games We describe some representative examples and how we responded to these attacks with thesecurity solutions implemented and the security operations matured during the Games preparation period
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Cyber attacks Security operations

1．PrefaceAs described in this Special Issue “5‑4 Cyber Security

2．Security Operation Structure during theGames

Operations for the Tokyo 2020 Games” the Olympic and

The Security Operation Centre (SOC) located within

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to

the Technology Operation Centre (TOC) increased staff

as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) matured the security opera-

members and expanded security operation hours one

tions in preparation for the Games Cyber attacks weremonth before the opening ceremony of the Olympic

continuously observed since the early preparation

Games The SOC was in full operation two weeks before

period and the volume peaked during the Games with athe opening ceremony of the Olympic Games

total of 450 million security events observed during theoperated 24 hours a day in three group of a 12‑hour shiftGameswith a total of approximately 130 staff members (FigureandIn this article we describe representative examples of1) During the Paralympic Games the number of staff

security responses during the Games and how wemembers and operating hours were reduced comparedresponded to cyber attacks and successfully defended
the Games

ONISHI Masaki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesHOSODA Naofumi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games
NAKANISHI KatsuhikoTechnology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesIBAYASHI Hiroaki
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 279‑284 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

Figure 1

SOC (©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All
Rights Reserved)

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020279

to those during the Olympic Gamesvary with some attacks targeting a weak point withThe SOC received support from the Japan Cybercrime

minimal accesses while others on the other handControl Center (JC3) and the Japan Computer Emer-

require a large number of accesses over a wide area ingency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERT/

order to find a weak point The number of logs and alerts

CC) which dispatched liaison members that served as aalso varies greatly depending on the implementation andpoint of contact

nature of security measures

In recent years

theDuring the Games the security monitoring status wasnumber of logs and alerts has increased explosively duereported and shared at regular daily meetings by

to the improvement of detection technology which

members of the International Olympic Committee

enables highly detailed detection of risk events as well(IOC) the International Paralympic Committee (IPC)

as the incorporation of various types of data for advanced

Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) Atos SE NTT

analysis of attacks which is not limited to security On

Communications Corporation Nippon Telegraph andthe other hand the technology for narrowing down the

Telephone East Corporation and others

truly dangerous information from such tremendous

In Section 3 we describe the security events andinformation is also becoming more sophisticated and inincidents observed during the Games and our responses

many cases the number of outputs is significantly

to them

reducedThe numerical values vary greatly depending on the

3．Cyber attacks and Security Responses
during the GamesIn Section 3 we discuss the significance of numericalvalues in security operations and the security eventsnature of the attack and the implementation of security
solutions and the size of the number cannot be used tocompare the danger and scale of attacks against different
environments or the strength of security solutions andthe adequacy of operational systems

observed in the four domains : the Back Office Network(BON) used by the Tokyo Organising Committee

32

450 Million Security Events

members for their work the Competition Network

Based on the 3 1 Table 1 shows the 450 million(CPN) that connected the venues the Olympic Technol-

security events during the Games This is a tabulation of

ogy Network (OTN) serving various VLANs dedicatedthe external accesses blocked by the perimeter defense

to the Tokyo 2020 Games stakeholders and the websites

from the number of logs collected for each domain listed

located on the Internet (websites) We also describe ourin 3 3 to 3 5 This is a numerical index that represents

security response to the fake live‑streaming site dealt

the number of attacks which is not easily affected by thewith based on the security intelligence

implementation of solutions

but is not necessarily

proportional to the degree of danger
31

Significance of Numerical Values in Security
Operations

In security operations

In the three domains of BON

CPN

and OTN

accesses from outside that are blocked by Unified Threat
operators check a large

Management (UTM) or other means are included The

number of logs and alerts generated by variety of

number of detected and blocked attacks that started

solutions and classify them into incidents includingfrom routes other than external accesses is not included

attacks and false positives that require action and thenin the figures in Table 1 In addition the number of

respond to them Actual figures for these logs alerts

alerts is greatly reduced because only one alert is issued

responses and others are provided here as supplements

for each series of blocked accesses with a high‑risk level

Please note however that these figures are specific to

In the Web domain this applies to accesses blocked byeach domain and environment at the time of the Tokyo

Content Delivery Network (CDN) It is the total number

2020 Games and are not comparable to those of different
environments
The number of attacks itself does not indicate thedegree of danger The number of attacks varies greatly

Table 1

Number of External Accesses Blocked by Perimeter
Defenses (Approximate Numbers)
BON/CPN

OTN

Web

Total
AmountNumber of external
150 million
accesses blocked［cases］

140
million160
million450
milliondepending on the social conditions geopolitical risks
attack trends attacker motivation and other factors in
the host country The quality and quantity of attacks
280

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 2

Number of Security Responses in BON
Olympic Games Period(7 23 2021‑8 8 2021)

Paralympic Games Period(8 24 2021‑9 5 2021)

Number of security alerts notified by security solutions［cases］．

5 808

1 134

Number of reports/inquiries from users and others
confirming details of security alerts［cases］
．

80

70

Number of security incidents affecting staff andsystems［cases］．

00Reference : Number of logs stored in SIEM ＊［case］．

13 343 465 345

6 863 991 707＊Not all security solution alerts/logs are included In addition to security logs logs required for security
incident response are also includedof accesses blocked by three types of filters : rule‑based
rate‑based

and reputation‑based

The details aredescribed in Section 3 5
33

Security Responses in BON/CPN

During the Games as in the preparation period weanalyzed reports from staff and alerts notified by eachsecurity solution and identified the extent of the impact
and causes which were then addressed (Table 2)
During the Games availability was emphasized andsince the target response time was different between the

Figure 2

Number of Account Locks in Azure AD

Games preparation period and the Games an even fasterand more precise response was required
This section describes an example of a suspicious e‑

stakeholders and alert them to the situation

mail sent by a person related to the Games whose e‑mailAs another example we describe a security event foraccount was compromised which was detected during

the Tokyo Organising Committee accounts Figure 2

the Olympic Gamesshows the number of account locks observed in Azure

In the early morning of August 4 2021 a suspicious e‑

Active Directory (Azure AD) a Microsoft authentica-

mail was sent to seven Tokyo Organising Committeetion service used by the Tokyo Organising Committee

staff members by a person whose e‑mail account had

The account lock function was set to lock the account forbeen compromised

The suspicious e‑mail had ana predetermined time after a predetermined number ofattached file and when the attached file was opened aconsecutive password authentication failures As shown

screen that resembled a Microsoft login page wasin Figure 2 a large number of account locks occurredfrom July 23 2021 the day of the opening ceremony ofdisplayed
All suspicious e‑mails were quarantined before they

the Olympics while almost none occurred during thereached the e‑mail accounts of the staff members

Paralympic Games Analysis of the accounts that were

through e‑mail security measureslocked showed that the source IP addresses were almost

and the staff

members did not receive the e‑mails There was no

all connections from overseas

access history for the destinations linked to in theaccounting for about half of the total number of accountattachments and the proxy was set to block them so

locks

there was no impact on the Tokyo Organising Commit-

Since account locking was not implemented to prevent
legitimate use

teewith five countries

there was no impact on businessWe contacted the organization that the person whose

operations We confirmed that no unauthorized accesse‑mail account was compromised belonged to and asked

occurred based on the attack analysis originating fromthem to take action We also shared the case with thethe accounts that were locked In addition since theintelligence sharing platform which the IOC establishedTokyo Organising Committee used two‑factor authenti-

to share information among the Tokyo 2020 Gamescation for all authentication it was difficult for unauthor-

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020281

Table 3

Number of Security Responses in OTN
Olympic Games Period(7 23 2021‑8 8 2021)

Paralympic Games Period(8 24 2021‑9 5 2021)

Number of security alerts notified by security solutions［cases］．

5 287

772

Number of reports/inquiries from users and others
confirming details of security alerts［cases］
．

92

29

Number of security incidents that were analyzed andblocked or otherwise addressed［cases］
．

12

13

Reference 1 : Total number of security solution logs
［cases］．

70 878 430

90 432 424

Reference 2 : Number of OTN connected clients［units］．
(Unique daily cumulative total)

1 429 149

578 435＊It is unknown whether users and systems were actually affected or not since terminals/systems connected to
OTN are brought by users

ized access to occur due to password leakage andorganization that owned the system and asked them topasswords were reset for all staff members immediately

take action and also took measures using the UTM

before the Games The risk of this security event was

deployed in OTN

low

In addition with the cooperation of the National centerof Incident readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity

34

Security Responses in OTN(NISC)We responded to security events and incidents such as

the National Institute of Information andCommunications Technology (NICT) JC3 JPCERT/

port scans and vulnerability scans from external sourcesCC

and malware infection of PC terminals brought in by thevendors we detected the open resolvers with improp-

Tokyo 2020 Games stakeholders Table 3 shows theerly configured Domain Name System (DNS) settings

ICT‑ISAC Japan (ICT‑ISAC‑J)

and security

number of security events and incidents handled No

the use of outdated software with vulnerabilities and the

security incidents occurred on the Tokyo Organisingstate in which the management screen of the system was

Committee‑managed PCs and IT systems deployed inaccessible from the Internet etc We also contacted the

OTN

organization that owned the system and ask them to

Focusing on the figures of Reference 1 and Reference 2

take actionin Table 3 the number of logs was higher during the

The combination of various monitoring methods such

Paralympic Games than during the Olympic Games

as Threat Hunting and external monitoring is importanteven though the number of connected terminals wasfor the early detection of such cases As an example ofsmaller during the Paralympic Games We assume that

this we describe in this special issue “5‑6 Find Evil‑this is because the detection function continued to be

Know Normal : Tokyo 2020 Games Threat Hunting from

improved and added as new attack information became

Internal and External Perspectives” and “5‑7 Impact

available during the Games enabling more detailed

Analysis of Cyberattacks to the Critical Sites bymonitoring and increasing the number of logs generated

External Monitoring”

in the later stages of the GamesWe describe an example in which an attacker targeted

35

Security Responses on the Websites

a vulnerable IT environment built by a Tokyo 2020

At the past Games attacks on websites increased

Games stakeholder and exploited it as a stepping stone

rapidly around the time of the opening ceremony of the

The organization was using the Internet connection with

Games The Figure 3 appears to be different from thosea global IP addressin Figure 6 of “3‑9 Tokyo 2020 Games‑Time Official

As a result of detecting andanalyzing suspicious communications from the global IP

Website and Mobile Application” in this special featureaddress it was found that the system brought in by thethis is due to the difference in the units used for theorganization was in an open proxy state allowing any

aggregation In the “Tokyo 2020 Games─Time Official

user to connect from the Internet and was being used to

Website and Mobile Application” the figures are based

relay communications to phishing sites and malware

on the number of page views from the perspective ofsites and to relay spam mailanalyzing user trends while in this article the figures282

We contacted the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 3

Table 4

Number of Blocked Websites

Number of Security Responses on the Web
Olympic Games Period(7 23 2021‑8 8 2021)

Paralympic Games Period(8 24 2021‑9 5 2021)

160 129 766

3 618 826

Number of security alerts notified by security solutions［cases］．

10 631

6 266

Number of reports/inquiries from users and others
confirming details of security alerts［cases］
．

498

340

Number of security incidents affecting staff andsystems［cases］．

00Reference : Number of logs stored in SIEM ＊［case］．

1 050 662 927

292 163 428

Number of accesses blocked［cases］．

＊Not all security solution alerts/logs are included

are based on the number of accesses from theby a specific country region or providers

perspective of analyzing the content of access Both of

In addition to these there were many small‑scale

the numbers of blocks are based on the number ofsuspicious accesses but both the quality and quantity

blocked accesses Although accesses to official Web sites

were similar to those seen in the period before the start

dominated the number of blocked accesses a consider-of the Games and they were not unique and could be

able number of accesses were also made to other sites

blocked by the rule‑based and reputation‑based filters

The content of these blocked accesses was to access agroup of web domain sites at high frequency for several

Table 4 summarizes the number of alerts and security
responses in the Web domain

In the architecture

hours to check for the use of vulnerable software or

adopted in our operation

inappropriate settings

accesses are combined into a single alert

Although we observed sucha series of unauthorizedaccesses frequently before and after the opening

Attacks on Web systems are often carried out using

ceremony they were typical attacks for known vulner-

vulnerabilities as a foothold In any case whether theseabilities rather than accesses based on the characteris-accesses were intended as attacks or not it was very

tics of the Tokyo 2020 Games website and because theimportant to protect the Games by preventing them infrequency was unusually high and included many widely

the preliminary investigation phaseknown attack methods they could be easily blocked byrate‑based and rule‑based filters

Some of them

36

Security Response from Security Intelligence

repeatedly requested specific content and may have

While monitoring information provided by the Secur-

intended to overload the service but these were also

ity Intelligence Service and similar domains under theeasily detected and quickly blocked by the rate‑based

name of the Tokyo 2020 Games we detected sites thatfilter and did not adversely affect the service These

pretended to be live‑streaming sites for the Torchsource IP addresses varied and were not characterized

Relay the Olympic Opening Ceremony and various

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020283

competitions etc

that no vulnerabilities were left behind during the Games

There were three main types of methods used toaccess fake live‑streaming websites

preparation period and left no foothold for attacker toAfter a user

penetrate the system The number of attacks peakedaccesses the fake live‑streaming site the following cases

during the Games but the degree of danger is not

were observed :proportional to the number of cyber attacks During the
preparation period for the Games we not only re-

(
(
(

)

A case in which the user is led to a spam site

sponded to security incidents such as suspicious e-mails

that abuses browser notificationsand vulnerabilities within the Tokyo Organising Com-)mittee but also detected site defacements and e‑mailA case in which the user is asked to sign up fora paid VPN service

account compromises of the Tokyo 2020 Games stake-)holders and responded in cooperation with the Tokyo

A case in which the user is asked to enter credit
card information

2020 Games stakeholders and took a series of appropriate measures without missing events that could have

In particular we observed a rapid increase in theserved as footholds for attacks

number of similar fake live‑streaming sites a few days

ensuring security during the Games

which resulted in

before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games On
the day of the opening ceremony we confirmed thatusers were transferred to the fake live‑streaming sitefrom a legitimate domain of Japanese company We also
confirmed that users were being directed to the fakelive‑streaming website through fake official accounts on
YouTube (a video distribution site) and Twitter (asocial networking service)
NISC JC3 JPCERT/CC and security vendors also
detected similar fake live‑streaming sites We asked
each organization to provide us with information on fakelive‑streaming sites they detected Then we cooperated
with external organizations such as security vendors toregister the sites with the anti‑phishing function of thebrowsers and to take down the sites In total we
detected and responded to more than 400 fake live‑(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 16 2022)

ONISHI Masaki
ONISHI Masaki was engaged in security
management at NTT Communications Corporation He has been seconded to the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee as the Director of
Security Operation Cyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau since 2018
During the Games he was responsible for the
security incident response at the SOC
HOSODA Naofumi
HOSODA Naofumi has been working for ISP
backbone operation and analysis of cyberthreats at NTT Communications Corporation
He has been seconded to the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee as Security Operations
Manager of the Cyber Security Department
Technology Services Bureau since 2014 During the Games he was in charge of web
security operations at the SOC

streaming sites

4．Conclusion
We described the cyber attacks observed during theGames and the responses to them During the Games
we observed cyber attacks from outside and internal
attacks caused by devices brought in by the Tokyo 2020
Games stakeholders but we were able to successfully
defend the Games without any security incidents
affecting the Games operations
In retrospect however the efforts made during theGames preparation period were just as important as
those made during the Games The significance of theperiod for operational maturity was described in thisSpecial Issue “5‑4 Cyber Security Operations for the

NAKANISHI Katsuhiko
NAKANISHI Katsuhiko was engaged insecurity incident response and cyber exercise
at NEC Nexsolutions Ltd and has been
seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the Director of Cyber Attack
Response Department Security Bureau andCyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau since 2015 During the Games he
was responsible for the overall security operations at the SOC
IBAYASHI Hiroaki
IBAYASHI Hiroaki has been working in theservice development of cloud and security
businesses at NTT Communications Corporation since 2014 and has been seconded to theTokyo 2020 Organising Committee as the
Director of Cyber Security Department Technology Services Bureau During the Games he
was responsible for the overall security operations in the SOC

Tokyo 2020 Games” An even more important factor in
the success of stable operations during the Games was
284

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

5 Cyber Security

5‑6

Find Evil‑Know Normal :Tokyo 2020 Games Threat Hunting fromInternal and External Perspectives
HATADA Mitsuhiro

SUDOH Toshiaki

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 see a significant increase in the number of users and devices prior tothe opening of the Games and the threats to systems vary accordingly In addition not only systems strictly controlled by
security solutions but also those simply connected to the Internet exist In order to prevent the occurrence and spread ofdamage in such an environment we present case studies of threat hunting based on log analysis inside a network andtraffic analysis at the Internet gateway from various perspectives and discuss prospects of threat hunting for future
eventsKeywords：Threat hunting Log analysis Traffic analysis Intelligence

1．Introduction“Find Evil‑Know Normal”(1)premise that existing security measures cannot detectattacks with truly high impact When a breach has

is a phrase that is truly

already occurred the objective is to minimize damage

realized when threat hunting is conducted to search forby shortening the latent period It is necessary to

threats in a cross‑sectional and combined manner using

suspect the failure of detection caused by both functions

all logs of network devices terminals and various

and operations of devices configurations log collection

security measures as well as the intelligence collected

and analysis and visualization Then making continu-

High‑impact attacks target organization‑specific vulner-

ous improvements could be another objective of threat

abilities using organization‑specific tools and techniques

hunting

so public information and simple Indicator of Compromise (IoC) are not highly effective
Threat hunting is a search activity that proactively

2．Threat Hunting Based on Log Analysis

detects threats that have been overlooked by conducting

In the network of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

security monitoring and analysis including the develop-

Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020

ment of custom IoCs and tools Because it relies on the

Games”) the policy is to allow only necessary communication between segments In terms of policy violations
we present two cases in which firewall block logs
between segments were investigated

HATADA Mitsuhiro (IEICE Member)Information Security NTT Communications Corporation
E‑mail mitsuhiro hatada@ntt com
SUDOH Toshiaki
Information Security NTT Communications Corporation
E‑mail t sudou@ntt com

day from a large number of source IP addresses in a

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 285‑287 August 2022

address and port number This had been occurring for© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

We found approximately 2 24 million blocked logs per
specific segment directed to a specific destination IP
several weeks and the number of blocked logs wasSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

285

Figure 1

Daily Ratio of DNS Query Typeincreasing day by day As a result of the investigation by
the partner a server that backs up the data of a certain
system was deployed before the opening ceremony of

3．Traffic Analysis‑based Threat Hunting
In this section we present a case study of traffic

Then the client application with ananomaly analysis that detected a large number of ICMP

incorrect setting of IP address as a backup server was

port unreachable messages We initially assumed that it

distributed to user terminals This is a case where threat

was a response to a port scan or a DDoS attack but

hunting contributed to the improvement of systemtraffic analysis revealed that it was a large number ofavailability in terms of communication failure andDNS responses with a response code of “REFUSED ”

overload on SIEM (Security Information and Event

The DNS request type analysis revealed that HTTPS RR

the Olympics

Management) caused by a large number of unnecessary(Type 65) queries accounted for 95% of all queries as

logs

shown in Figure 1 Secure DNS service which is the

In another case from the perspective of detecting

DNS resolver deployed in this environment does not

suspicious behavior we investigated terminals where a

support HTTPS RR (Type 65) so all of them returned

set of commands were executed within a few minuteswith REFUSED responses In addition since a large

which are commonly used by attackers (2)A certain

number of queries and query responses were being

application was executing ipconfig netstat ping andtransferred it is assumed that a large number of ICMP

tracert as child processes which looked suspicious But

port unreachable messages were being sent due tothe results of the sandbox analysis showed that it wasabnormal packet processing by NAPT and firewalls

legitimate behavior

As a SIEM analyst

we alsoAt that time only OS X sent HTTPS RR (Type 65)

investigated from various perspectives such as domains

queries by default and it is assumed that many OS X

where only one user was accessing the web site (uniqueusers were connected Although this case is not abehavior of user) and traffic between legitimate users

security incident directly the unintentional and chain of

and IP addresses that attempted to log in to Azure AD

large‑volume traffic may overload devices such as(communication with the attack source) Finally there

firewalls with overflowing sessions Furthermore it

was no evidence of the breachmay result in missing logs

DoS effects such as

The most important point in conducting log analysis‑

communication failure In the worst case the security

based threat hunting is “As the environment changes

level may be lowered by bypassing the security function

so do the logs As the logs change so does the threat

In traffic analysis‑based threat hunting we detected

hunting ” It is also effective to search for traces ofvulnerable devices being attempted to log in or executeattacks by relaxing the detection conditions of individual

remote commands malicious traffic aimed at infection

security measures and SIEMʼs detection logic It is also

spread or DDoS attacks

crucial to accumulate patterns to be excluded andattempting to enter from the outside We also conductedprioritize others based on the investigation time anda deep analysis escalated by other analysis teams In

number of cases

and anomalous packets

total 206 cases were handled throughout the period andno major damage was confirmed

By leveraging avariety of external threat intelligence our observation
286

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

data and research results we were able to hunt threatsthat were overlooked by external traffic analysis rather
than relying solely on device logs and alerts Even if the
security measures are sufficient the external traffic
analysis approach is effective not only in detecting
anomalies but also in determining whether the network
is in a normal state

4．SummaryThe number of users and devices increased significantly prior to the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Games
With these changes the threats to which systems are
exposed have also diversified In addition there was a
mixture of systems that can be strictly managed by
security solutions and those that just use Internet
accessIn order to prevent the occurrence andexpansion of damage in such environments this article
presented case studies of threat hunting conducted frommultiple perspectives including log analysis of various
systems and internal networks and external traffic

References
(

)

(

)

SANS Institute, Hunt Evil Poster, 2021.
https://www.sans.org/posters/hunt-evil/
S. Tomonaga, Windows Commands Used by Attackers, JPCERT/CC,2021.
https://blogs.jpcert.or.jp/ja/2015/12/wincommand.html(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 1 2022)

HATADA Mitsuhiro (IEICE Member)
Dr Hatada is currently a director of Security
Operation Information Security NTT Communications Corporation He received his B E andM E degrees in computer science and engineering and Ph D in engineering from the
Waseda University in 2001 2003 and 2018
respectively He joined NTT Communications
Corporation in 2003 and has been engaged in
the research and development of applied
security
SUDOH Toshiaki
Toshiaki Sudoh graduated from Ehime University in 1995 with a bachelorʼs degree inelectrical and electronic engineering He joined
NTT in the same year He currently engages insecurity service development operation consulting etc at NTT Communications Corporation

analysis at the Internet gateway These cases andlessons learned can be applied not only to future large‑
scale events but also to the organization network㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020287

5 Cyber Security

5‑7

Impact Analysis of Cyberattacks to the
Critical Sites by External Monitoring
SUDOH Toshiaki

During large‑scale international events cyberattacks by attackers with various agendas occur everywhere from thereal world to the Internet and have a significant impact on the event itself and its stakeholders Attack targets are notlimited to the direct event environment but also include important sites of the host country the host municipality
sponsors and other related companies and various critical infrastructures such as transportation communication andelectricity This article analyzes the external monitoring of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 related sites
and its results and discusses effective monitoring methods
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Network management Security Alive monitoring Port scan

1．Introduction

when some abnormality is detected the cause may vary
widely such as access concentration maintenance andTo monitor the heath and quality of a system it isnetwork failure Therefore it is necessary to monitor

more efficient to conduct external monitoring in which

the website for cyber‑attacks in order to grasp thethe system is actively checked from the userʼs point of

impact of cyberattacks promptly Therefore we added aview from the outside than passive methods such as log

function to quickly identify the effects of cyberattacks

analysis The same applies to detecting the damage andand conducted monitoring

impact of cyberattacks In this report we discuss theresults of monitoring by the following two systems :211

Elimination of Monitoring Environment Dependency()

Critical site monitoring using a decentralized
external monitoring systemservices for monitoring environmental dependence of()

monitoring agents can be eliminated and the scale ofPort scanning by a wide‑area scanning system

By connecting multiple agents to multiple network

impact can be estimated through simultaneous detec-

2．Decentralized External Monitoring System
21

Monitoring Methodology

The purpose of website monitoring is to confirm
availability and quality among other aspects However

tion
212

Correlation with Cyberattack Trigger Information

By analyzing attack threats posted on SNS and attack
information obtained through malware analysis

thepossibility of an attack occurring on a monitored target
SUDOH Toshiaki
Information Security NTT Communications Corporation
E‑mail t sudou@ntt com

can be traced

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 288‑290 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

288

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 1

213

Example of Monitoring Screen

Correlation with Attack Occurrence Information

The occurrence of Distributed Denial of Service(DDoS) attacks in which a large amount of traffic issent from multiple computers to a target website orserver by honeypots and traffic analysis to make theservice unavailable

Figure 2

Number of IPs Responding

is confirmed and a correlation

analysis is performed Check the occurrence of DDoS
attacks and perform correlation analysis
214

OthersA dashboard as shown in Figure 1 will be prepared formonitoring information and Chatbot will be used for
notifications Automatic operation is also performed tocheck the alerted informationand the results ofsecondary analysis are automatically notified via Chat-

Figure 3bot
22

Trends in Response Port Numbers

Monitoring Results

We selected 48 sites related to the convention as well
as 489 important sites in Japan including government
agencies

public organizations

work was extracted from the results of the wide‑areascanning system across Japan and was analyzed

telecommunications

broadcasting electric power transportation Internet
service providers SNS services and streaming serv-

31

Consideration of the Number of Responding IPs
and Port Numbers

which are vulnerable to attacks and may be

Figure 2 shows the number of IPs with at least one

affected As a result we detected six attack threats six

port reachable via the Internet The number of uniquecases of unstable communication after detecting an

IPs detected during the period was 239 with a daily

attack and two cases of failure of the Content Delivery

maximum of 179

ices

Network (CDN) service used by the websites for

Figure 3 shows the number of response port numbers

efficient content delivery during the period Most of theduring the Olympic period and Table 1 shows a list ofcases were detected within several tens of minutes andport numbers As the number of users increased many

the longest was about two hours and the service itself

undesirable ports including TCP22 (ssh) and TCP23

was not affected(telnet) began to return responses but both the numberof responding IPs and port numbers gradually decreased

3．Wide‑Area Scanning System

as corrective measures were taken

Next information related to the event‑related netSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020289

Table 1

Top 10 Response Port Numbers

devices

and audio encoders were detected most

No

Port No

Service Name

Number of IPs

frequently in the Tokyo 2020 Games as well In addition

1

80

http

111

printers and wireless access points were also detected

2

22

ssh

94

Since login prompts are also displayed security meas-

3

53

dns

48

ures and vulnerability diagnostics for special devices

4

443

https

45

5

23

telnet

20

6

8080

http alt

17

7

9002

Unknown

17

8

554

Rtsp

16

9

1935

Rtmp

16

10

8000

Unknown

13

used in such events need to be considered

4．Conclusion
In this article

we have developed a distributed

external monitoring system and a wide‑area scanningsystem with additional functions and adjusted forcyberattacks The monitoring and investigation func-

Table 2
No

tions of these systems functioned effectively and led toEquipment Estimation

improved speed and accuracy of various security

Device Estimation

Number of IPs

1

Voice Encoder

113

operations from a broad perspective

2

Wireless Access Points

64

impact on sites directly or indirectly related to the event

3

Routers8

In order to further improve responsiveness we aim to

4

Printers2

achieve even more accurate security monitoring and5

Firewall2

operations by taking an approach that enhances

6

Server8

correlation between synthetic monitoring which mimics

7

Other

113

user behavior and even more security intelligence

including the(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 7 2022)

32

Estimation of Connected Devices

It is possible to estimate the connected devices not
only by the simple port open status but also by thebanner information sent in response Table 2 shows theestimated connected device information Many events
detect a large number of responses from audio and videoSUDOH Toshiaki
Toshiaki Sudoh graduated from Ehime University in 1995 with a bachelorʼs degree inelectrical and electronic engineering He joined
NTT in the same year He currently engages insecurity service development operation consulting etc at NTT Communications Corporation㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

290

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

5 Cyber Security

5‑8

Applying a Reference Documentof the Organizational Structure for Cyber
Security Operation
TAKEI Shigenori

This article presents applying a reference document of the organizational structure of the cyber security operations for
the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 which was commissioned to perform by NTT Group What issues were
found in actual operational situations after the establishment of the system? Based on the experience of the actual
operations of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the differences between the assumptions in thereference document and the actual operations of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 this article discusses
points to be noted in future large‑scale events
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Security operation SOC CSIRT

1．Introduction
The security monitoring and operation of the back‑office network (Back Office Network) used by themembers of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the
Olympic and Paralympic Games of the Olympic and

NTT‑SOC from April to the end of September 2021

2．Organizational Structure with
Reference Documents
Reference () is a document in Japan that shows the

Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to

overview of security activities in the organization

as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) was conducted by the Tokyo

including the SOC (Security Operation Centre) and2020 Organising Committee and the NTT Group which

CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team)was entrusted with the security operation The “Text-

It comprehensively describes the functions roles andbook for Security Response Organizations Version 2 1”

operations to be performed in the organization The(Reference (contents of Reference ()) published by the Information Security) were subsequently contrib-

Operation providers Group Japan (ISOG‑J) was applied

uted to the International Telecommunication Union

as a reference document for building the security

Telecommunication Standardization Sector (hereinafter

operation team I am one of the authors of Reference

referred to as ITU‑T) and incorporated into ITU‑T(

Recommendation X 1060 (hereinafter referred to as) This article discusses the operational issues as theauthor of Reference () during the actual operation in

Reference ()) in the field of security management

Preparations for security operations for the Tokyo
2020 Games began around 2016 and NTT‑SOC was
TAKEI Shigenori
Secure System Business Department NTT TechnoCross Corporation
E‑mail takei shigenori@ntt‑tx co jp

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 291‑293 August 2022

responsible for the formulation and operation of thefollowing tasks out of 10 categories of tasks referring toReference ()© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

291

B

Real‑time analysisof the organization and operations is closed within theD

Incident response

team due to the time limit of the organization As aE

Checking and evaluation

result the entire organization had not been optimized

F

Collection

through improvement At the management process inGanalysis and evaluation of threat

intelligence

Reference (Development and maintenance of security opera-

improvements at the field level but also continuous

tion platforms

improvements at the organizational level will be) and () it is assumed that not only

continued In this case the organizational structure had
NTT‑SOC implemented SOC and CSIRT functions inalready been decided and it was not possible to makecooperation with the organising committee The author

improvements such as reorganizing the organization toworked in the “Incident Response Senior Expert”(IRSE)

match the actual situation of the business during theteam in an advisory position supporting the SOC andpreparation and holding periods On the other hand

CSIRT teams

since preparations are made over a period of several
years it is necessary to assume that the organizational

3．Operational considerations during
the operation period
The organizational structure was established during

structure will change from the initial assumption andthat the allocation of resources can be changed byorganizing teams and reviewing operations even if theorganizational structure cannot be changed

the preliminary preparation period and the members
assigned ahead of the others were performing theirIssue (3) : The understanding of the characteristics ofduties and developing procedures for operations In Junesecurity‑related operations was not fully

2021 other members were assigned and increased theunified as a preliminary image of the work

maturity of operations at last Tokyo 2020 Games were

to be performed by the personnel

and theExperts with various backgrounds and skills were

workflow and procedures had been prepared in thegathered as members Experts with experience in SOC

organizational structure But there were three major

operations and the other experts with experience inoperational issues during the operation period

common system and network operations got training in

held

The operations were well‑organized

SOC operations before being assigned to the team In
Issue (1) : Due to the siloed organization and teams

common system and network operations the causes ofnecessary collaboration was not sufficientpossible failures are sudden and unexpected such as

Although NTT‑SOC implemented the functions“disasters” and “failures ” and most of the response

described above there were some difficulty points toprocedures follow procedure manuals On the otherhandle One was to deal with unanticipated or newly

hand security operations are often caused by “human

added tasks and products and the other was to develop

factors” and require continuous monitoring of changing

new team collaboration

attacks Therefore it is not always possible to analyze

On the other hand the IRSE team was able to supportand respond to attacks using only assumed procedures

collaboration and cover a wide range of work because of

It is necessary to be constantly aware of new methods

its broad scope Not only that but each team member

and responses to new attacks and to keep updating

also collaborated with the organising committee at thework flows and procedures

The work flows andfield to implement a series of workflows as one teamprocedures are almost same in the operations such as

Nevertheless these efforts were largely due to themonitoring and responding to any anomalies Howeverefforts of human resources onsite and the system for

it is necessary to conduct training that includes caseorganizational solutions will be needed in the futurestudies that make it easier to recognize the differences insecurity thinking and to improve the ability to respond to

Issue (2) : Because of the time‑limited organization
there was a tendency for the improvementand deal with security issues by daily awareness of themafter being assigned to a SOC

cycle to optimize the entire organizationand operations to be difficult to implement
Related to issue (292) above the scope of improvement

If we consider similar large‑scale events in the future
we can refer to the new guidelines and documents

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

related to Reference () and METI

organising committee for providing me with the

Cyber Security Management Guidelines (3) can be used as) Reference (opportunity to utilize and discuss the documents I wasreferences

involved within a large‑scale event even it happened

An entity that can provide comprehensive support forcybersecurity of the business as a whole is needed
Reference () also defines a framework for continu-

consequently We hope that this document will serve asa reference for those who are involved in the security oflarge‑scale events that take several years to prepare

ous evaluation and improvement If it takes several
years including preparation it is necessary to have theorganization that can review and improve according toReferences
(

)

(

)

(

)

the changes based on the assumption that the surrounding conditions will certainly change

4．In closing
The organization structure and operations were
designed based on Reference (1) and a comprehensive
definition and assignment of operations were established On the other hand the operational aspects were

Textbook for security response organizations, Version 2.1, security
operations chaos working group (WG6) of the information security
operation providers group Japan, 2018.
Available at : https://isog-j.org/output/2017/Textbook_soc-csirt_v2.
html“X.1060 : Framework for the creation and operation of a cyber defence
centre,” ITU-T.2021.
https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-X.1060-202106-I
Ministry of economy, trade and industry, cybersecurity management
guidelines appendix F : guidance for establishing cyber security systemand securing human resources, version 1.1, 2021.
https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/netsecurity/mng_guide.html(Received February 28 2022 last received March 15 2022)

not the best and the good and bad points became thelessons examples and references for the future (so‑called “legacy”) The good points can be used as areference for future work by the members involved in
SOC and CSIRT operations As for the bad points thateach member felt the need to improve they can refer tothem when they return to their work These will lead tothe next large‑scale event and daily operations
Finally I would like to thank the team members who
worked positively in this difficult situation as well as themembers of the organising committee for their cooperation and support

TAKEI Shigenori
TAKEI Shigenori graduated from Shinshu
University in 1998 with a bachelorʼs degree inengineering and information technology andcompleted a masterʼs degree at Shinshu University in 2000 He joined NTT Software Corporation (now NTT TechnoCross Corporation) in
the same year where he was engaged insecurity consulting He is a principal grade of
NTT Group security certificate a CISSP a
Registered Information Security Specialist
Vice President and the leader of WG6 of theInformation Security Operation providers
Group Japan The editor of ITU‑T SG17 WP3Q3 X 1060

I would also like to thank the㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

293

5 Cyber Security

5‑9

Cyber Security Cooperation of National
Institute to Support the Tokyo 2020 GamesINOUE Daisuke KUBO Masaki TERADA Kenjiro MORI Yoshiki
ENDO Yukiko JINGU Masato MATSUMOTO Takashi
ISHIHARA Shota MAKITA Daisuke

For the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 the key issue was to ensure the security of systems related to theGames at the same time the security of organizations involved in the Games in various ways such as Japanese
government agencies local governments and critical service providers were also necessary during the Games This
article provides an overview of the cyberattack observations conducted by the National Institute of Information andCommunications Technology (NICT) in cooperation with the Tokyo 2020 Games and the results of the observations
during the Games
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games DAEDALUS AmpMon STARDUST Threat Intelligence

local governments and critical service providers (here-

1．Introduction

inafter referred to as “Games‑related organizations”)

For the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

were also necessary during the Games(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) theThis article provides an overview of the efforts by the

key issue was to ensure the security of systems related

National center of Incident readiness and Strategy forto the Gamesthe security ofCybersecurity (NISC) and other organizations fororganizations involved in the Tokyo 2020 Games insecuring the Games‑related organizations as well as thevarious ways such as Japanese government agencies

observations on cyberattacks conducted by the Nationalat the same time

Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in cooperation with the security operations
INOUE Daisuke (IEICE Member)
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
KUBO Masaki (IEICE Member)
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
TERADA Kenjiro
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
MORI Yoshiki
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
ENDO Yukiko
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
JINGU Masato
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
MATSUMOTO Takashi
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
ISHIHARA Shota
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
MAKITA Daisuke (IEICE Member)
National Institute of Information and Communications Technologyof the Tokyo 2020 Games
Note that the observations in this article were madeby NICT independent of the monitoring and analysis
conducted by the Organising Committee described inother articles in this special issue The events detected
by NICT were also shared with and compiled by theOrganising Committee As a result it was carefully
confirmed that there was no impact on the Gamesʼ
operations even from a different perspective

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 294‑300 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

294

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

mately 1 800 people used this platform Finally about

2．Discussion Group for IR Structure andCyber Security IR Coordination Center

8 000 topics was posted on the JISP

21

operations of the Games were confirmed although some

Discussion Group for IR Structure

In 2015 the “Discussion Group for Incident Response
Structure for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic

As a result no cyberattacks that could affect themalicious communications

DDoS attacks

problems

with website browsing phishing etc were detected

Games” (hereinafter called “Discussion Group for IR
Structure”) was established chaired by the councillor of

3．Initiatives by NICTNISC In the group a study of a structure to promotecomprehensive security measures to ensure a stable(Note 1) (1)

NICT observed IP addresses and URLs of the Games‑in Japan was initiatedrelated organizations (including the Games‑related

From the beginning organizations such as NICT

networks provided by the Organising Committee) fromsupply of critical services

Information‑technology Promotion Agency (IPA) Ja-

July 9 to September 5

pan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination

information to the Cyber Security IR Coordination

Center (JPCERT/CC) and Japan Cybercrime Control

CenterCenter (JC3) participated as observers in the Discussion

occurred (Figure 1)

Group for IR Structure

Since then･and cooperated in analysis when incidents･

AmpMon : Detection of DRDoS attacks against･
Cyber Security IR Coordination Center

STARDUST : Artifact analysis of malware targeting the Games‑related organizations

In 2021 after a one‑year postponement of the Games

Coordination Center (hereinafter called Cyber Security

originating from IP ad-organizations

Osaka Summit (2019)

the Cyber Security Incident Response

etc

URLs and IP addresses of the Games‑related

mony (2019) the Rugby World Cup (2019) and the G20

due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19)

backscatter

dresses of the Games‑related organizations

event such as the G7 Ise‑Shima Summit (2016) the
PyeongChang Olympics (2018) the coronation cere-

DAEDALUS : Detection of malicious communications

ducted by the Group for each high‑profile international

pandemic

provided observation

cyberattack

observation and information sharing have been con-

22

2021

includingdynamic and static analysis･

Threat Intelligence : Detection of threats to theGames‑related organizations based on various typesof threat intelligence

IR Coordination Center) was established as a nationalorganization to coordinate the cooperation among theGames‑related organizations based on discussions at

The following sections 3 1 to 3 5 outline each of theinitiatives by NICT

the Discussion Group for IR Structure NICT IPA
JPCERT/CC and JC3 were positioned as “Information

31

Security Related Institutions” to cooperate with the

NICT has a large‑scale darknet monitoring system

Cyber Security IR Coordination Center and observedthat observes packets arriving at about 300 000 reach-and shared information on cyberattacks regarding theable and unused IP addresses on the Internet The

Games‑related organizations

darknet monitoring system is used to detect scan

During the Games information sharing among NISCDAEDALUS

packets sent by malware‑infected hosts attack packets

Information Security Related Institutions and Games‑

containing exploit code and backscatter (i erelated organizations was conducted around the clock on

ACK packets caused by a TCP SYN flooding with

the JISP (Note 2) which has been in operation since April

spoofed source IP addresses)

2019 and ultimately 330 organizations and approxi-

SYN‑

Direct Alert Environment for Darknet And Livenet
Unified Security (DAEDALUS) is a darknet‑based alert(Note 1) Communications broadcasting finance aviation railroads
electric power gas water supply logistics credit administrative
services (local governments) sewerage airports roads marine and air
traffic control emergency reporting weather and disaster information
immigration control highways heat supply buses security travel
hospitals (to the extent of not interfering with on‑site hospital
operations) and venues

system that detects malicious activities regardingorganizations registered as alert targets The system
can detect malware infection inside organizations(Note 2)

Japan cyber security Information Sharing Platform

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020295

Figure 1

Overview of NICTʼs Cooperation During the Games

activities spreading infection outside the organizations

tion Centerand DDoS attacks on the organizations and promptly
send alerts to the relevant organizations (2)33

STARDUST

For the Tokyo 2020 Games the IP addresses of the

STARDUST is a cyberattack inducement platform

Games‑related organizations were registered withthat lures attackers such as targeted attacks and

DAEDALUS as alert targets and the status of detection

enableslong‑term(5)

observation

of

their

attackSTARDUST generates a “parallel network”

regarding the organizations was notified to the Cyber

activities

Security IR Coordination Center in real time

which is a network that elaborately simulates organizations such as governments and companies

32

In thisparallel network various servers (Web servers mailAmpMonA DDoS attack is a cyberattack that overloads theservers

file servers

DNS servers

authentication

target server or network and disrupts its services A

servers proxy servers etc ) and tens to hundreds of

DRDoS attack is a DDoS attacks that exploits DNS

PCs are in actual operation and in addition dummy

NTP

and other servers that are inappropriately

information that imitates information assets of an

exposed on the Internet as reflectors and send a largeorganization is placed on the servers and PCs making

volumes of traffic to the attack target via the reflectors

them behave as if they were a real organization When a

It is also called an amplifier attack because it amplifies

malware sample is executed on a PC called “dummy

the traffic during the reflectionnode” in the parallel network an attacker connects from

NICT

in collaboration with Yokohama National

University has proposed and operated AmpPot(3)athe outside via a backdoor installed by the malware andinfiltrates the dummy node

STARDUST enables

honeypot for observing DRDoS attacks and is conduct-detailed analysis of human‑operated attacks by observ-

ing research and development of AmpMon (4) a platform

ing the behavior of such attackers in real time

for observation of analysis and sending alert of DRDoS
attacks based on this honeypot

For the Tokyo 2020 Games NICT prepared for the
emergence of malware such as Olympic Destroyer

AmpMon is capable of real‑time notification of DRDoS

which targeted the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics inattacks based on registered IP addresses networks and2018 so as to conduct artifact analysis centered onother information During the Tokyo 2020 Games it

STARDUST

notified the DRDoS attack status regarding the Games‑
related organizations to the Cyber Security IR Coordina296

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

34

Threat Intelligenceon Slack to link alert information with relevant

Looking back on past Olympic and Paralympic Games
there have been phishing campaigns related to sponsor

information and to automate the primary triage/response for alerts

companies hacktivist activities such as DDoS attacks

Furthermore on the days of the opening and closing

against the host and participating countries that had

ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

human rights issues and attacks on the IT infrastruc-special arrangements were made to prepare for inci-ture of the competition venues and related facilities

dents and NICT dispatched liaison personnel to the

To detect signs of such attacks NICT collected andCyber Security IR Coordination Center

analyzed Games‑related threat information transmitted
daily via social media such as Twitter In addition to
grasp the status of IT infrastructure of the Games‑
related organizations NICT utilized threat intelligencefrom sources such as Shodan (6) and routinely observed

4．Observation and Detection Results during
the Games
This section describes the observation and detection

whether or not devices and services with vulnerabilities

results by DAEDALUS AmpMon STARDUST and

were unintentionally exposed to the Internet

Threat Intelligence during the Games

35

Establishment of Analysis Team41

DAEDALUS Results

The cooperation described above was carried out by

Figure 2 shows the number of hosts detected by

setting up an analysis team within the NICT around

DAEDALUS during the Games period DAEDALUS

2015 and during the Games we established a response

detected anomalous communications from a total of 36 IP

structure consisted of analysts in the analysis team andaddresses during the period and notified approximately

some researchers

300 alerts in real time Of the approximately 300 alerts

During the Games a shift system was introduced to

22 required response For these the details of theenable each member to balance their regular work withabnormal communication were reported to the Cyber

the Tokyo 2020 Games One analyst covered from 10 : 00

Security IR Coordination Center via JISP and the sourcea m to 5 : 00 p m outside the Games period and two

hosts were requested to investigate and take action

analysts covered from the start of the Games to the end

Other alerts such as packets suspected of spoofing theduring the Games period triaging and analyzing various

source IP address (only one or two packets werealerts that occurred during the shift and sharing

observed) and packets observed due to the use of

information with the Cyber Security IR Coordination

BitTorrent (a P2P file transfer protocol) were handled

Center via the JISP and telephone calls To enable off‑

quietly after consultation with the Coordination Center

shift members to quickly grasp alerts we used Slack a

Figure 2 shows that the most significant number ofteam communication tool to notify members of alerts

hosts were detected during the period from the start ofand implemented a bot for various observation systems

the Olympic Games to the closing ceremony of the

Figure 2

DAEDALUS Detection Results

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

297

Olympic Games In some cases the spread of infection

Regarding alerts of large‑scale attacks

was prevented by initializing the infected PC immedi-organizations were notified the alerts and appropriate

ately based on the DAEDALUS alerts

measures were taken

42

AmpMon Results

43

the target

STARDUST Results

Figure 3 shows the daily number of target IP

A malware suspected to be targeted to the Tokyo 2020

addresses of DRDoS attacks detected by AmpMon

Games was posted on VirusTotal (7)during the Games (8)against the Games‑related organizations during the

NICT obtained and analyzed the malware however itGames period AmpMon detected 1 030 DRDoS eventswas mere a simple wiper program

in total that targeted 365 unique IP addresses The

malware attacks targeting the Games‑related organiza-

figure shows that a relatively large number of attacks

tions that would require analysis by STARDUST were

were observed during the Olympic period

observed

As an example of AmpMon observation

No advanced

DRDoS

attacks that appeared to be part of OpBoycottOlympic

44

campaign by Anonymous were detected around theUsing an external threat intelligence service such as

opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics

Figure 3

Figure 4298

ShodanThreat Intelligence Results
NICT monitored approximately 50 000 IP

AmpMon Detection Results

Threat Intelligence Detection Results

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

addresses of the Games‑related organizations

As

Figure 4 shows 843 cases (213 unique IP addresses)

References
(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(

)

(
(
(

)
)
)

were detected during the Games period The figure
shows that the number of detections peaked a few days
before the start of the Olympic games and gradually
decreased from there
Among the detected devices were video equipment
for domestic and foreign TV stations professional audio
equipment printers wireless access points and security appliance many of which had management userinterface accessible from the Internet without authentication Information regarding problematic devices wasshared with the Games‑related organizations

andappropriate action was taken
NICT also paid attention to anti‑Olympics posts(OpBoycottOlympics etc ) on SNS and shared information on attack statements and attack targets with the
Cyber Security IR Coordination Center

Although

AmpMon alerts coincided with the attack targets insome of the attack statements directed at Games‑relatedorganizations

there was no impact on the Games

operations

5．Conclusion
The cyberattack observation and analysis technologies researched and developed by NICT over many
years functioned effectively during the Tokyo 2020
Games We believe that the careful examination ofobservation targets and careful training in advance
between the public and private sectors led by the Cyber
Security IR Coordination Center were significant factors
in the effective functioning of the technologies

NISC, “Cyber Security Measures and Future Action Policies of theTokyo 2020 Games,” 2022.
https://www.nisc.go.jp/pdf/policy/2020/Tokyo2020houkoku.pdf
D. Inoue, M. Eto, K. Suzuki, M. Suzuki and K. Nakao, “DAEDALUSVIZ : Novel Real-Time 3D Visualization for Darknet MonitoringBased Alert System,” 9th Int. Symp. Visualization for Cyber Security(VizSec ”12), 2012.
L. Krämer, J. Krupp, D. Makita, T. Nishizoe, T. Koide, K. Yoshioka
and C. Rossow, “AmpPot : Monitoring and Defending Amplification
DDoS Attacks,” 18th Int. Symp. Research in Attacks, Intrusions andDefenses (RAID ʼ15), 2015.
D. Makita, T. Nishizoe, K. Yoshioka, T. Matsumoto, D. Inoue, and K.
Nakao, “DRDoS Attack Alert System for Early Incident Response,”
Transactions of Information Processing Society of Japan, vol. 57, no. 9,
pp. 1974-1985, 2016.
Y. Tsuda, T. Tohmine, N. Kanaya, D. Makita, H. Ushimaru, M. Jingu,
Y. Takano, S. Yasuda, R. Miura, S. Ota, T. Miyachi, M. Kamizono, M.
Eto, D. Inoue and K. Nakao, “STARDUST : Large-scale Infrastructure
for Luring Cyber Adversaries,” Computer Security Symposium(CSS2017), 2017.
Shodan, https://www.shodan.io/
VirusTotal, https://www.virustotal.com/
MBSD, “Analysis of Malware (Wiper) with Japanese File Names
Related to the Tokyo Olympics,” 2021.
https://www.mbsd.jp/research/20210721/blog/(Received April 15 2022 ; Revised May 23 2022)

INOUE Daisuke (IEICE Member)
Director General Cybersecurity Nexus
Cybersecurity Research Institute NICT He is
also the Director of the Cybersecurity Laboratory at the same institute where he is engaged
in research and development of cyber‑security
including DAEDALUS and STARDUST He issetting up an analysis team in NICT for the
Tokyo 2020 Games Ph D in Engineering
KUBO Masaki (IEICE Member)
Executive Research Engineer Cybersecurity
Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute
NICT He is also a member of Cybersecurity
Nexus of the same institute and an expert
member of JPCERT/CC He is the leader of theanalysis teamThe legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Games is being
reviewed and shared in various fields However thelegacy of cyberattack response is the trust among thestakeholders that was enhanced by handling various
events during the Games
NICT will continue to contribute to improving Japanʼscybersecurity by sharing the knowledge gained from theTokyo 2020 Games and continue to conduct our researchand development to provide Japanʼs cybersecurity
measures even after the Games are overAcknowledgements We would like to thank Mr
Shuichiro Takeuchi (Clwit Corporation) and Mr Yuhei
Chiba (NTT Advanced Technology Corporation) for
their assistance with the operations of the NICT analysis
team during the Tokyo 2020 GamesTERADA Kenjiro
Planning Manager Cybersecurity Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute NICTHe is also a member of Cybersecurity Nexus of
the same institute where he is engaged in
DRDoS attack observation and analysis During
the Games he performed alert analysis andreporting using various observation systems
MORI Yoshiki
Research Engineer Cybersecurity Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute NICTHe is also a member of Cybersecurity Nexus of
the same institute He is involved in darknet
monitoring and analysis and is the leader of
NICTʼs response to the Tokyo 2020 Games
During the Games he is responsible foranalyzing and reporting alerts from various
observation systems Especially during the
opening and closing ceremonies he is in chargeof liaison between NICT and NISC

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

299

ENDO Yukiko
Senior Research Engineer Cybersecurity
Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute
NICT She is also a member of Cybersecurity
Nexus of the same institute She engaged in
darknet monitoring and analysis During theGames she performed alert analysis andreporting using various observation systems
JINGU Masato
Senior Research Engineer Cybersecurity
Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute
NICT He is also a member of Cybersecurity
Nexus of the same institute He engaged inlivenet monitoring and analysis During theGames he performed alert analysis and reporting using various observation systems
MATSUMOTO Takashi
Research Engineer Cybersecurity Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute NICTHe is also a member of Cybersecurity Nexus of
the same institute He engaged in malware
analysis During the Games he performed alert
analysis and reporting using various observation systems and artifact analysis

ISHIHARA Shota
Researcher Cybersecurity Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute NICT (seconded from Hitachi Systems Ltd ) He is alsoa member of Cybersecurity Nexus of the same
institute He engaged in livenet monitoring andanalysis During the Games he performed alert
analysis and reporting using various observation systems and information collection andanalysis using public information and threat
intelligence
MAKITA Daisuke (IEICE Member)Researcher Cybersecurity Laboratory Cybersecurity Research Institute NICT Visiting
Researcher Advanced Institute for Advanced
Studies (IAS) Yokohama National University
He is engaged in research and development ofcyber‑attack observation systems such as
AmpMon Ph D in Engineering㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

300

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

6 Games Management Operation Centres

6‑1

Summary of Technology Management andOperation in the Tokyo 2020 GamesYOSHIDA Tadashiro

KASAI Hideo

YAMAGUCHI Kazuhiko

Olympic and Paralympic Games is one of the worldʼs largest technology projects in terms of the number of equipment
and human resources It is also a global project conducted by staff not only from all over the world but from various
technological area of many affiliated companies Therefore management of technology was crucial for the success of theGames This article describes the activities of technology management at the Tokyo 2020 Games dividing into threephases Planning Operational Readiness and Operational
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Technology management Operation centre Test event COVID‑19

1．Foreword
The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

success of the Games to manage the technology because
the organization started with no knowledge of the
Olympic and Paralympic Gamesand many staff(hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”)

members from home and abroad joined just before theprovided a variety of technology services at 190 venues

Games

including 43 competition venues such as time results

High‑quality technology services were realized byand scoring distribution of competition results elec-

strong governance from the Technology Operation

tronic judging systems video and audio distribution forCentre (TOC) standardized equipment configuration atbroadcastingand information systems for Gamesthe Equipment Deployment Centre (EDC) and the

management The following two points can be cited asincident management process in an easy‑to‑understanddifficulties in the operation of technology in Olympic andmanner with the Technology Call Centre (TCC) which

Paralympic GamesThe first is the large scale ofserved as the first contact from users (1) The details of

operation as represented by 17 000 PCs 16 000 network

each of these centres are described in the articles thatdevices and 15 000 technology operation staff at thefollow and this article summarizes the overall technol-Tokyo 2020 Games The other one is that most of theogy management

staff have no experience of sporting events althoughTechnology management was divided into threesome of them such as the time and scoring staff havephases same as in the past Games : Planning Phase fromhad in the past Games It was a major challenge for thethe launch of the organization in 2014 to around March
2019 Operational Readiness Phase (preparation) fromYOSHIDA Tadashiro
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesKASAI Hideo
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesYAMAGUCHI KazuhikoTechnology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games

April 2019 to around May 2021 and Operational Phase

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 301‑306 August 2022

Games were the first Games ever held amid a COVID‑19© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineersfrom June 2021 onward (Table 1)

The following

sections summarize each of these phases Countermeasures of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) aredescribed in the Operational Phase The Tokyo 2020
outbreak A special support team was established andSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020301

Table 1

Three Phases of Technology Management

Planning Phase

Operational Readiness Phase

Operational Phase

PeriodApril 2014‑March 2019

April 2019‑May 2021

June‑September 2021

Main
Activities

・Requirements definition for technology services
・Determination of technology architecture and solutions
・Implementation of each service
・Planning of network and equipment
allocation at each venue
・Definition of operational policies andprocedures・Test events to verify the operation of
the technology services
・Technology rehearsals to ensure
prompt incident response
・Disaster recovery exercises to confirm
response to major data centre failures
・Tabletop exercises to confirm incident
response at each venue

・Installation of equipment at venues
・Operation during the Olympic Games・Transition from Olympic Games to
Paralympics
・Operation during the Paralympic
Games・Removal of equipment at venues

operated because infection of technology staff working(PnP) were defined to ensure reliable operation and tofor time and scoring for instance could have affected theenable a quick and flexible response to various incidents

operation of the Games itself

The operational structure was designed to be similar tothe past Games consisting of three levels : TCC venue
and TOC

2．Planning Phase

All incidents from service users werereported through TCC and escalated to the venue and/The Planning Phase was a phase in which technology
services and their operation were defined and imple-

or TOC depending on the complexity and importance of
the incident

mented Since many stakeholders of the Games who

In this Planning Phase change of specification thatwould use the services had the experience of the pastwould affect other areas occurred frequently Because

Games the services such as what to whom and where

the large number of people involved in the Games it waswere determined based on the past Games in theimportant for all parties of stakeholders to share thebeginning in order to avoid a confusion in the Gameslatest information at all times and to communicate

operation Then solutions and operational procedures

frequently

including following items were defined and implemented :･

3．Operational Readiness Phase

The architecture of the network information
system infrastructure cyber security etc

Operational Readiness Phase was a phase to confirm
the service operations defined in the Planning Phase and･

Solutions for each technology area

to train staff through practical events Four large‑scale･Service levels such as response time and recovery

and operationally important activities from the various
exercises and rehearsals conducted

time
･
･

Requirements of the venue

such as room

structure network power supply desk layout etc･

are described

below

Details of equipment allocation

Operational policies and standard procedures ofoperation

31

Test Events

Test Events were a series of events held approximately one year (two years for Tokyo 2020 Gamesbecause of the postponement of the Games due to the

For example only a few types of hardware were used

COVID‑19) to six months before the Games in which

But the final number of models reached

the Organising Committee international and national

approximately 70 since the components of peripherals

federations volunteers partner companies and otherand software differed according to each service The

Games officials participate to conduct the sporting event

Technology Equipment Allocation Plan (TEAP) wasat the Tokyo 2020 Games venue The purpose of thedefined as a deployment plan which showed which

event was to confirm the overall operational readiness offor PCsmodels and how many pieces should be installed in every

the Games including competition management venue

room of every venue

management various technology services information

In addition more than 400 Policies and Procedures
302

security and staffing

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

In the Tokyo 2020 Games 56 events were held andbers to familiarize procedures and communication who

technology services were provided for the following

took on Games roles for the first time and ran the event

purposes :In addition it was a good opportunity to understand eachotherʼs activities during the Games time Their roles･

Confirmation of the operation of the technology
services･

Provision of services for the operation of otherbusiness areas･

Pre‑installation of infrastructure for the Games()

Confirmation of the Operation of the Technology Services

between TOC and venue staff sometimes were swapped
for better understanding Debriefing sessions were held
after the test events to discuss good points and areas of
improvement that needed to be shared with the staff tobe joined later
32

Technology Rehearsals

Technology Rehearsals (TRs) were large‑scaleTechnology services to be used at the Games were

exercises to confirm the procedures for incidents whichchecked from the perspective of operating them in thewere held four to two months before the Gamesactual venue environment It was determined in which

Whereas the test events focused on experiencing thetest events staff members needed to participate and at

operational aspects of the competition the TRs con-which points needed to be checked to optimize costs andfirmed the readiness of the IT infrastructure

future risk based on the viewpoints of the complexity

systems

and difficulty of the time results and scoring operation

processes through incident response More than 1 500

whether a competition was newly introduced at thepeople participated including the Organising Commit-

Tokyo 2020 Games or not and so on Since the task oftee volunteers relevant delivery partners the Interna-

volunteers was important for the timing and scoringtional Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Organisingsystems in some of the events volunteers participated toCommittees from future Gamessupport model

staffingITand operational

check their tasks as well as the technology staff The golf

TR exercises simulated or triggered actual problems

test event found concerns about the English communica-that might occur at the Games time with scenarios basedtion skills of volunteers However we were able toon incidents that had occurred in the past Games The

prevent problems by increasing training opportunities atincidents covered a broad range of problems including

the venue in preparation period

sudden absences of staff members cable cuts system
malfunctions unexpected competition delays etc The()

Provision of Services for the Operation of OtherTR Officers (TROs) selected from the IOC and partner

Business Areas

companies informed the staff members of the occurrence

The operation of the Games required a variety ofof problems and/or changes in the situation according totasks such as transportation of athletes and admission

a progression procedure called a scenario and the staff

management Hence the tasks to be checked at each test

members took the correct actions according to theevent were different the technology services to beprocedure manual for their roles

provided differed accordingly Therefore it was neces-TRs were taken place twice TR1 and TR2 TR1 wassary to provide technology without any gaps according

conducted for three days in March 2020 mainly toto the test plans of each business area It was a goodevaluate the operation of the competition results in theopportunity to discuss the detailed role and responsibil-

distribution system at the Integration Testing Lab

ity among related stakeholders of the Games(ITL) in Europe Although the number of actual venues
used in Tokyo was limited to seven the ITL operated

Pre‑installation of Infrastructure for the Gamesthe results distribution system for all competitions with

Network equipment and cablings were not removed

more than 500 scenarios (about 300 types) for 33()

and remained in use until the Games at the venues thatcompetitions

could be exclusively used for Tokyo 2020 from the test

TR2 was originally planned for May 2020 but was

event to the Games This significantly reduced the time

postponed to June 2021 due to the COVID‑19 It wasand cost of re‑installation

conducted at 25 venues for three days with a cumulative

The Test Events were to confirm operations but they

total of 1 200 scenarios (about 600 types) 60 scenarios

also provided an important opportunity for staff mem-

were conducted at the Olympic Stadium (National

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

303

Stadium) which was the largest venue for Tokyo 2020

infrastructure were clarified in the preparation period ofGames A total of 37 scenarios were conducted forthe exercise

infectious disease control which was a new challenge

procedure of restoring the authentication server from its

due to the COVID‑19 TR2 participants included many

backup data but also the procedure of recovery forpeople from overseas such as the IOC and the Paris 2024

important systems to run individually without theOrganising Committee who followed the strict entry/

authentication server by changing the configuration to

The exercise clarified not only theThis DRR3 achieved a practical andexit and action rules of infectious disease control

disconnect it

regulated by the Japanese Government and the Playbook

effective exercise for service restoration from thedefined by the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee This

incident of a large‑scale disaster or cyberattack

operational experience was useful for infection control at
34

the time of the Games period
TRs were effective and last practical opportunity

Tabletop Exercise

The purpose of the tabletop exercise is to confirm theto improve the proficiency andprocess flow of the response to incidents and theunderstanding of the procedures of staff They learned

communication procedures among stakeholders Nor-the importance of quick prioritization and action as wellmally this exercise is conducted just before the Gamesas sharing information and communication to enable

when all staff members are present but for the Tokyo

quick actions

2020 Games it was conducted for a longer period frombefore the Games

August 2020 to April 2021 for venue staff and from
33

December 2020 to January 2021 for TOC staff because

Disaster Recovery Rehearsal

Disaster Recovery Rehearsal (DRR) was an exercise

of following reasons : () there was one‑year blankto ensure smooth restoration of services in the event of

because of the postponement of the Games due to thean unexpected disaster or security incident that would

COVID‑19 and (significantly affect the operation of critical equipment

the Tokyo 2020 Games TR scenarios were used in theand systems

exercise and the findings of TR1 were re‑shared to

For the Tokyo 2020 Games

three DRRs were) many staff members left/re‑joined

improve the knowledge level of the staff

conducted between October 2020 and April 2021 Data

Four sets of scenarios were prepared for venue staff

Centres were implemented in the host city of each

Four rounds of the exercise using each set of scenarios

Games conventionally however the transition to cloudfor each round were conducted for a total of 170 people

computing was promoted from PyeongChang 2018

who already joined The venue staff was divided into

System services provided by worldwide partners weregroups of four to six people with a mixture of technology

offered using Data Centres in Europe For this reason

venue managers and venue IT managers One of seven

DRR1 in October 2020 was conducted for a group ofcore staff members was assigned as a facilitator to eachservices located in European Data Centres and con-session and triggered five to seven scenarios in thefirmed that the primary Data Centre switched over to asession Other activities included a study session on

backup secondary Centre within two hours as planned

technology services by service owners and decision‑

While many services were migrated to the cloud

making and communication procedures to remove large

environment the Data Centre in Tokyo also operated aequipment in the event of a typhoon

critical system exclusively for the Tokyo 2020 Games

Group training used to be an in‑person exercise at the

DRR2 in March 2020 confirmed the migration proce-

past Games The tabletop exercise above howeverdures work time and communication system for thesemade extensive use of online conferencing and e‑

services Through this exercise we were able to identify

learning because of COVID‑19 infection control

configuration problems and shorten the recovery time

addition e‑learning which enabled self‑learning was

DRR3 in March 2021 expanded the scope with aeffective for staff members who joined after the tabletop

scenario in which the authentication servers were down

exercise because it was difficult to find time for groupdue to a cyberattack in addition to confirming improve-

training so that each staff member could move to thements from DRR2 regarding the failover

becausevenue and start their work as it was getting closer to thePyeongChang 2018 was suffered from a cyberattack on

opening of the Games Remote training using ICT isthe opening ceremony day The criticality and priority of

expected to become more and more important in theeach service and its dependency on the systemfuture304

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

In

Four major activities in the Operational Readiness
Phase elicited the following findings :and prompt identification of close contact person whenfound positive On the other hand overseas staff faced
many problems when entering Japan The entry of･･The person in charge of each technology area

overseas staff required government permission which

needed to understand the entire related architec-

was to be processed through Tokyo2020 ICON How-

ture to give a prompt and accurate response to theever there were many cases where registration was notincident reports because information systems andcompleted in time before entry or inconsistencies of

networks varied and related to each otherregistration information occurred because the system

The communication channels among the opera-

was released just before the entry The team had totional centres of the business units needed to besolve these issues with irregular paper procedures In

established and all staff members needed to haveaddition there were many incidents such as a delay infull knowledge of the communication process so thatthe immigration process due to incomplete PCR‑nega-

the incident reports on technology could be esca-

tive certificates at the time of entry into Japan

lated promptly･

The team accomplished their mission to coordinate

The fundamental procedure needed to be definedwith airports and travel agencies from early in thefor managers and other members in each technol-

morning to late at night to handle infected staff and toogy areaso that advanced incident scenarios

follow up on sudden illnesses without any problems

which caused complicated incidents simultaneously

despite the late recruitment and teaming of the staff justcould be integrated for practical exercises

before the Games As a result the team supported 642
technology‑related overseas staff members entering

4．Operational Phase
The Operational Phase includes both the period of theJapan in July including 112 staff members entering only
for July 15 They worked around the clock to register
information into the system

handled incidents andcompetition and the installation of venues beforehandarranged transportation for those who could not register

Service level such as response time to an incident wentin the system or enter the country due to insufficient

up in this phase because one incident could be critical for

certificates PCR testing subject to the playbook was

the overall Games operations TOC provided 24‑hour

conducted for 14 637 technology‑related staff members

support to the venues with a total of 551 experts of all

including volunteers during the Games time Althoughtechnical areas in 171 positions TOC detected and24 people tested positive during the Games

resolved problems proactively through twice‑daily

identification and follow‑up of persons with close

status review meetings held with key managers from allcontacts prevented the outbreak of cluster infections andtechnical areas and also through coordination meetings

minimized the impact on the Gameʼs operation

thewith all business functional managers of the Games Thissection focuses on the COVID‑19 handling

5．Conclusion

Countermeasures against COVID‑19 were urgently
needed just before the Games which caused special

This article has summarized the technology manage-

immigration procedures for overseas staff transportment of the Tokyo 2020 Games dividing it into three

between airports hotels and venues arrangement ofphases Planning Operational Readiness and Operation-

designated accommodation PCR tests for all technology

al Phase

staff including Japanese local staff and health monitoring A specialized support team with six staff was

Although Olympic and Paralympic Games has alreadysophisticatedsystems

andoperational

processes

established hastily in TOC The team developed andthroughout their long history it is crucial to implement

disseminated a guidebook on infectious disease counter-

technology services according to the evolution of

measures They also managed necessary information bytechnology and to adjust the difference in role andusing Tokyo2020 ICON an infectious control business

responsibility of stakeholders from the past Games By

support system and supported staff when incidents

enhancing close communication with stakeholders in-happenedcluding IOC and partner companies from the early stage

The daily operation with Tokyo2020 ICON went wellof planning we as the Tokyo 2020 Games were able toin health monitoring visualization of PCR test results

realize our TOC EDC and TCC and provide technology

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020305

services designed based on the past Games
It is said that each of the Games has its challenges and
COVID‑19 was certainly the biggest challenge forTokyo 2020 Games It was the first time for anyone
including IOC and those who had participated inprevious Games to hold the Games in the face of
COVID‑19 as well as to postpone the Games for any
reason Although the management itself was a bit of achallenge the postponement period was able to be used
for staff training and other activities to improve thequality of services
As a result the Games accomplished with great
success with only 47 of high severity incidents escalated
to the TOC one‑third to one‑fifth of the number ofincidents compared to the recent summer GamesThe Olympic and Paralympic Games is a too huge
events to be achieved by a small number of specialized
staff members

We are confident that the 15 000

technology staff members as well as the many technology professionals who worked together as One Team led
the Tokyo 2020 Games to a successful conclusion We
would like to take this opportunity to express mygratitude to all of them #Arigato
References()

YOSHIDA Tadashiro
Graduated from the Faculty of Engineering
Utsunomiya University in 1989 and completed
a masterʼs degree in information technology at
the same university in 1991 He joined Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in thesame year Since then he has been engaged inresearch on databases and open‑source software During the Games he was seconded to
the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee where
he was a head of venue technology
KASAI Hideo
Graduated from Waseda University in 1987
with a bachelorʼs degree in engineering andeconomics He joined Fujitsu Limited in thesame year Since then he has worked as apharmaceutical engineer and as a quality
control manager for financial and social infrastructure During the Games he was seconded
to the Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games where he was incharge of technology PMOYAMAGUCHI Kazuhiko
Graduated from Yamaguchi University in
1993 with a bachelorʼs degree in engineeringand electrical engineering and completed amasterʼs degree at the same university in 1995
He joined Fujitsu Limited in the same year
Since then he has been engaged in the planningand development of cell phone systems During
the Games he was seconded to the Organising
Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic
Games where he was involved in the promotion of Operational Readiness in technology

D. Finch, “Overview of the technology landscape for the London 2012
Olympics,” Delivering London 2012 : ICT Delivering London 2012 :ICT enabling the games,” The Institution of Engineering andTechnology, pp. 14-17, London, 2011.
(Received February 9 2022 ; Revised March 4 2022)㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

306

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

6 Games Management Operation Centres

6‑2Technology Operation Centre as the Central Hub of Technology Management
NAKAMURA Yasutaka

YOSHIDA Tadashiro

A Technology Operation Centre (TOC) was established for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 to respondto all types of technology incidents of high severity including system failures operational issues and cyber attacks In
addition to the large number of domestic and international affiliated companies involved in the management of technology
unique to the Olympic and Paralympic Games the Tokyo 2020 Games integrated and operated its system infrastructure ina hybrid environment of public cloud private cloud and on‑premises for the first time in the history of the Games This
article summarizes the basic concept operational structure and results of the TOC
Keywords：24‑hour operation ITIL Technology Operation Centre COVID‑19

1．Introduction

cybers ecurity etc) It is possible that the root cause of
an incident may not be apparent from the surface of

As in past Games a Technology Operation Centre

incident or that multiple incidents may actually have the(TOC) was established for the Olympic and Paralympic

same root cause Therefore the TOC was designed that

Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo

core staff from all services are stationed in the TOC to2020 Games”) to deal with technology‑related issues

be able to quickly identify the impact and resolve thethat occur at competition venues and related facilities (1)root cause of any incident beyond the scope of each

The TOC was the core centre for technology operations

serviceand responded quickly and intensively to all technology

Dozens of wall‑mounted monitors were placed at theincidents and risks including system failures operation-

front of the TOC to display a dashboard of the status of

al issues reputation and cyber attacks

their service for each service seating area which could
be shared by relevant staff Critical incidents were

2．Overview of the TOC
21

Structure of the TOC

be shared across service areas as all TOC staff needed
to respond to such problems proactively

Technology services are complex and intertwinedwith each service (networks

displayed on multiple monitors in the TOC so they could

information systems

TOC was initially designed to be 715 m 2 including a
war room for countermeasures in the event of major
incidents but was eventually expanded to 2 rooms witha total area of 1 415 m 2 to ensure physical distance as an

NAKAMURA Yasutaka
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesYOSHIDA Tadashiro
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 307‑312 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

infection control countermeasure against the COVID‑
19 In addition to a redundant power supply and network
in case of equipment failure the facility was equippedwith a UPS that could operate continuously for 4 hours atleast to continue operational support for ongoing games

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020307

Figure 1

The TOC Systemcompetitions and broadcasting in the event of a power
outage In addition a backup operation centre (ATC :and audits competition result data④

Alternative Technology operation Centre) was secured

Network Division to manage communication andwithin the Tokyo Metropolitan area to continue opera-

network services⑤

Venue Technology Division to manage technol-tions in the event of a complete shutdown of the TOC
due to fire or other reasonsogy services at each venue⑥

Security Division to detect cyber attacks and

To resolve complex critical incidents it is necessary

vulnerabilities and ensure the cyber security of theto discuss with staff at the data centre in Europe andGames in cooperation with the national government

development teams across several countries Therefore

the police and the IOC

mulitiple online conferencing systems were deployed as⑦

Radio Division to manage the radio services useda countermeasure for communication tool failure In

at venues

addition a teleconferencing system was deployed in caselicensing of unique frequencies used by the To-of internet failure

kyo2020 Organising Committee in cooperation withand to support the application and

the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and
22

The TOC System

Communications

The TOC was divided into seven service areas (seeFigure 1) with 114 positions and a total of 171 staff

For the first time at the Tokyo 2020 Games a Results

members working simultaneously during the Games

Accessibility QA (Quality Assurance) Expert as a

The TOC

position to manage web accessibility was establishedoperated on a 24‑hour basis but some positions were

within the Information Division ③ The purpose of this

only available during competition hours resulting in aposition was to improve the Web accessibility of thetotal of 551 staff members working during the Games

official competition results page on the official Games

including both regular and deputy staff

website so that not only people with disabilities but also①

Management Division with the Chief Technology

those who are not accustomed to Web information could
freely access the information they needed Checks were

Operations Officer
to manage competition

conducted with the goal of WCAG 2 1 (Web Content

result system the competition result distribution

Accessibility Guideline) compliance During the con-system and competition management applications

struction phase of the website user acceptance tests②

Integration Division

Information Division to manage the businesswere conducted with the cooperation of students fromapplications digital media system infrastructure

the University of Tsukuba As a result 90% of the③308

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

remaining Web accessibility issues from past Games

3．Operations of the TOC

were resolved The people involved in past Games alsocommented that “a new Web accessibility standard for31

the Olympic and Paralympic Games has been estab-Technology incidents were discovered and reported

Incident Management

lished and can be used as a legacy for future Games”

through various channels including technology staff atvenues reports from technology service users to the23

Infection Control Countermeasures for Coronavi-

Technology Call Centre (TCC) maintenance centres ofrus Disease 2019 (COVID‑19)

partner companies and cloud service companies includ-

In March 2021 one month before the final phase of theing those overseas All porblem information was fed into

test event began Japan entered the fourth wave of thean ITSM (IT Service Management) tool compliant withcoronavirus pandemic Overseas staff members who

the ITIL international operation standards for central-arrive in Japan just before the event are the core of event

ized management of incidents problems and change

management and cannot be replaced An infection could

management

have had a significant impact on the event operations

All incidents were classified into five categories

Therefore more than just standard infection control

according to the severity of the failure Severity 1‑4 andcountermeasures we had to hastily develop COVID‑19

Service Request Incidents with a significant impact orinfection control countermeasures to prevent a shortage

risk to the competition broadcasting or reputation wereof operational personnel due to the pandemic during thedefined as Severity 1 or 2 incidents TOC managed

Games

Severity 1 and 2 incidents as a series of lifecycles fromrecovery confirmation root cause investigation andAs mentioned above the spacing between seats wasincreased to ensure physical distance A room wassecured to allow temporary evacuation and continued

recurrence prevention

while other incidents wereresolved at the venue or TCC
Each incident was dispatched to the TOC staff as aoperations in the event of a cluster of infected persons inproblem ticket

TOC

The staff who received the ticket

It was necessary to secure meal space forhandled it following the operational design document

overseas staff install acrylic panels to prevent thecalled Policy and Procedure (PNP) for each position thedroplets from spreading conduct PCR tests for overseas

activity list described in the operation manual and thestaff at regular intervals (later expanded to regulartroubleshooting procedures

testing of Japanese residents during the Games time)

To deal with problems that could not be solved byand isolate them during lodging and transportation For

technology such as power outages TOC used a higher‑

this reason a dedicated infection control position as alevel incident management system that was separate

new mobilaization team was added to the Managementfrom tecnology incidents ITSM and shared information

Division in TOC to formulate plans for the above

with the Main Operation Centre (MOC) which was the

COVID‑19 infection control countermeasures and toheadquarters for Games operations and the operation

manage and support the activities of overseas staff

centres established for each field

The COVID‑19 infection control contermeasures

security

were implemented reliably by full‑time staff without

problems

adding new duties to the operations of existing positions

such as energy

transportation and sports

to address all

Since TOC had many overseas staff members all

resulting in the suppression of large‑scale COVID‑19

communication

infections during the Games

reports etc

PNP

ITSM input

daily operation

were conducted in English On the other

The need for a dedicated COVID‑19 infection control

hand operations at the higher‑level Main Operation

position and the COVID‑19 infection control standards

Centre and the operation centres for each business fielddeveloped for the Tokyo 2020 Games was passed on towere conducted in Japanese

the Beijing and Paris Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committees after the Games32

System Architecture Framework

The systems related to the Olympic and Paralympic
Games were so large that it was difficult to understandthe impact of a single infrastructure service failure
quickly Therefore a matrix of system architecture
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

309

Figure 2

System Architecture Framework

framework was created to provide a birdʼs‑eye view ofsimultaneously For these reasons closed SNS groupwhich networks each service at the application level waschats were often used

implemented on which service infrastructure it was
built on and which parties were using it in conjunction(

with Technology Rehearsal 2

Severe incidents required information to be shared

which was the final

operational test for the entire technology (Figure 2)
In the event of a system problem TOC staff could)

Emergency Communication within the TOC

with the staff working in the TOC at the time of theincident and with the staff of the next shift and off‑duty

quickly and appropriately understand the impact of thehighly skilled professional staff Therefore whenever a

problem by referring to this matrix and contacting theserious incident occurred the progress status of theaffected users and the Games stakeholders supporting

incident was shared with everyone via SNS every 15

the users

minutes which was effective for quick handover andproblem‑solving

33

Use of SNS for Communication

Communication between TOC and external parties
such as venues was conducted via cell phones andemailsHowever

The use of closed SNS as a communication tool forlarge‑scale operations such as event operations is
expected to expand in the future

SNS was also used mainly forfollowing two purposes at the TOC taking advantage ofthe characteristics that enable effective one‑to‑manycommunication

4．Operational Results
TOC began operations in April 2021 for the final phaseof the test event during daytime hours only and thenCommunication between the TOC and Venues

shifted to 24‑hour support operations in conjunction with

In addition to handling severe incidents escalated fromthe opening of the Olympic and Paralympic Village

venues TOC was also responsible for daily manage-

Main Press Centre and International Broadcast Centre

ment such as the start and end of work reports fromTotal working hours were 53 000 hours for the Olympic

each venue requests for extension of work hours andGames and 29 000 hours for the Paralympic Games with

notification of the completion of daily reports All of

the participation of 17 partner companies and otherthese were done by cell phone or e‑mail which wererelated organizations in Japan and overseas()

often complicated and burdensome for the operational

Table 1 shows the severe incidents that occurredstaff There were also occasions when it was necessaryduring the Tokyo 2020 Games Severity 1 incidents

to provide support for incidents to multiple venues

having the highest severity occurred once on the day of310

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1

Severe Incidents

Classification Severity1 Severity2

omission in the processing of the scoreboard The other 6

Failure of the competition
result system
failure to distribute datarequired for broadcast
data registration errors

cases Severity 2 caused breakers to go down for reasons

5．Conclusion

Competition
Result5Competition
ResultDistribution

3

4

Failure of the Olympic
diffusion system

PowerSupply1

6

Breaker down

Digital Media

1

2

Problems with the official
Games Website

Other

0

9

Failure of the Games
management application
failure of AV and video
failure of cloud services

Total

16

1 case occurred on the first day of the Games due to an
Overview

unknown but the backup system continued all services

For the Tokyo 2020 Games the systems to be used1037

throughout multiple Games were deployed in data
centres outside Japan provided by a worldwide partner
The systems to be used only for the Tokyo 2020 Games
were deployed in data centres in Japan Furthermore
SaaS (Software as a Service) was utilized to reduce theamount of development and a public cloud was used forsystem backup This was the first project in the Olympic
and Paralympic Games history to integrate operations ina hybrid environment In addition to the large number ofservices provided there were many people involved in

the Opening Ceremony and five on the following day

the construction and operation of the Olympic andwith the last incident occurring on July 28 all of which

Paralympic technologies The experience of operatingwere concentrated immediately after the start of theIT systems with multiple vendors both domestic andGamesinternational is rare case in Japan and it was a major

There were 21 incidents in which data was notchallenge to manage the technology

correctly registered or distributed due to the failure of

Although the Tokyo 2020 Games had fewer severe

the On‑Venue Result System as a competition result

incidents than past Games they were all resolved within

system In 5 cases the competition was temporarily

the stipulated timeframe minimizing the impact on thehalted because the data were judged to be important forGames This was due to several factors including thethe competition In the other 16 cases the On‑Venue

test events and technology rehearsals held before theResult system distributed operations between two

Games which provided practical experience with ansystems in active use By switching to backups within

operational structure and system equivalent to thethe service level standard there were no significant

actual Games and that sufficient training was conductedinterruptions to the competition operations

during the preparation phase of the competition

All 7 incidents in the Olympic Diffusion System as a

including the repeated simulations of tabletop exercises

competition result distribution system were caused byduring the postponement period to ensure basic

insufficient CPU memory and disk resources This may

operational behavior TOC also functioned effectively

have been due to a more than anticipated increase inbecause instructions from TOC to each venue weresystem usage by users because of the remote participa-

accurately communicated to ensure smooth operations

tion of media press and other Games stakeholders fromeven concerning the everchanging COVID‑19 andoutside the competition venues due to the Games being

typhoon measures

held during the coronavirus pandemic The system wasrestored without problems by adding resources andtuning the system performance
All of the power supply incidents were due to power
breakers going down It was not until the preparation

References()

D. Finch, “London 2012-technology overview,” Delivering London
2012 : ICT implementation and operations, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, pp. 14-17, London, 2013.

phase just before the Games that it was discovered that

(Received March 4 2022)

the breakers went down due to insufficient capacity ofthe detection circuit for the leakage current capacity of
the IT equipment Most countermeasures were implemented before the competitions began but one Severity
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

311

NAKAMURA Yasutaka
He graduated from the Department ofChemical Engineering Graduate School ofEngineering Kyoto University in 1992 He
joined NTT Data Corporation in the same year
Since then he has been engaged in theoperation and management of bank exchange
networks Internet banking systems and data
centres At the time of the Games he wastransferred from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation to the Tokyo Organising
Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic
Games where he participated in the establishment of the TOC operation system and TOC
operations

YOSHIDA Tadashiro
He graduated from Utsunomiya University in
1989 with a Bachelorʼs degree in Engineering
and Information Technology and completed his
Masterʼs at the same University in 1991 He
joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in the same year Since then he has been
engaged in research on databases and open‑
source software During the Games he wasseconded to the Tokyo Organising Committeeof the Olympic and Paralympic Games where
he was in charge of technology related tovenues㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

312

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

6 Games Management Operation Centres

6‑3

System Integration and Games‑time Observation
Remastered for Pandemic Response
Michèle HYRON

An inside look at system integration and operations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 a very special
edition run with one year postponement and under pandemic restrictions Teams from Atos the IOC the Tokyo 2020
Organising Committee and technology partners worked as one to implement innovative ways to work under thesecircumstances Their rapid response─on a foundation of digital excellence─mitigated the impact on people processes andsystems This article shows how the pandemic directly affected integration operational readiness and operations By the
Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 time the only noticeable impact was the elevated importance of observation
and IT service management
Keywords：Atos Integration Testing Operations Observation

one year postponement and under pandemic restric-

1．Introduction

tions

Atos as Worldwide IT Partner to the Olympic andParalympic Games has overseen system integration for
critical systems since 2002 This covers everything from
infrastructure to applications whether theyʼre deliveredfrom the cloud dedicated data centres or servers at

2．System Integration Impact of the State of theEmergency Declaration and Postponement
The integration team began as usual by building astrong presence in the host city Tokyo supported byvenuesAs integrator we ensure that the full system meetsfunctional requirements meaning that all functionalities
work as expected from a userʼs perspective We also

centralized remote resources and the Atos Integration
Test Lab (ITL) in Spain
The team in Tokyo shared a building with the Tokyo

non‑functional

2020 technology departments and technology partners

requirements such as performance stability availability(blue in Figure 1) Working in person without having toand of course security Additionally the integrator

coordinate time zones was key to facilitating communica-

supports the OCOG in preparations and operations

tions while addressing multiple aspects of systemproviding processes and tools

integration

ensure it meets the more technicalThis article provides an inside look at system

The centralized/remote teams (gray in Figure 1)

integration and operations for the Olympic and Paraly-

remain in place from Games to Games contributing vast

mpic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred to as

experience to each edition The ITL team extensively“Tokyo 2020 Games”) a very special edition run withtests all critical systems and their interfaces Testing
includes delivery acceptance standalone end to end

Michèle HYRON
Major Events Atos

multisport

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 313‑319 August 2022

recovery The full technology team peaked at around© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

technical

security

failover and disaster3 500 staff at Games time

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020313

Figure 1

Integration Team StructureBlue : on‑site teams Gray : centralized/remote teams

When the Tokyo 2020 Games were postponed in

Delivery” for details about OMS and ODS )March 2020 we activated several mechanisms in parallel

Because of the one‑year postponement some plat-

to streamline the on‑site presence Some teammatesforms became obsolete and new versions of browsers

were reassigned to other projects including Beijing

operating systems and other base software had to be2022 Others were furloughed and there was also someconsidered

natural attrition Then at the beginning of 2021 we
progressively re‑staffed to reach full capacity in March

22

2021

To cope with the postponement impact the results

System Integration

system altogether was frozen until the beginning of
21

2021 At unfreeze time the challenge was to absorb theBusiness Requirements

The decision to postpone came just weeks before the
Uniform and Accreditation Centre opening in Tokyo
with all Olympic Management System (OMS) modules

impact on the planning and integration of the results
systemPostponement also forced Tokyo 2020 preparations to

our custom-

overlap with Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024 preparations

ers─Tokyo 2020 functional areas press broadcasters

While the OCOG is dedicated to a single Olympic Games

International Sports Federations (IFs)─reviewed theiredition ; Atos the IOC and other technology partners

business plans and requirements All had to adapt to theare organized and staffed according to Olympic cycles

new schedule cascading significant changes in configu-

This overlap combined with the changes and uncer-

ration and business processes in the six months before

tainty of the pandemic generated a high level of risk

live with external users

Immediately

The full rescheduling of integration milestones

the Tokyo 2020 GamesBig organizations were limiting travel to Tokyo or(marked by each testing event) was monitored closely

reducing their venue presence Therefore requests forthrough strong integration governance involving Atos

remote access to the information systems for press andthe IOC Tokyo 2020 and technology partners

modifying the

A continuous risk analysis was run materialized byservice‑level agreement (SLA) and testing targets

periodic stakeholder meetings Key performance indica-

Notably the video press conference system an innova-

tors (KPIs) including defect tables testing progress andtion for Tokyo became a critical feature preferred tomilestone achievements were available weekly support-

physical presence at the conferences

ing the definition of mitigation actions

broadcasters increased significantly

The IFs defined competition format changes for somedisciplines impacting Olympic Diffusion System (ODS)
outputs and the results system (See in this special issue

23

Integration Testing

The ITL the heart of integration testing occupies a“3‑6 Olympic Diffusion and Management Systems

1 000‑square‑meterTokyo 2020 Bringing Agility into Critical Application

operates 24/7 It is divided into cells for virtual sports

314

access‑controlled

facilitythat

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Games venues ODS testing and OMS testing

to continue the integration test of the results system

Having the ITL in Spain strengthened relationships

with few exceptions The integration team was able towith providers partners and clients because most of

test from home and still run testing milestones withthem are based in Europe When travel outside the EU

clients by accessing the machines remotely without

was restricted they could easily visit the ITL One of the

stopping the project

most beneficial aspects of this location was the frequency

acceptance tests and the Paralympic results andwith which broadcasters were able to visit They could

information system validations with the International

regularly check the status of sports review require-

Paralympic Committee and the IFs also happened

ments with the testing team follow end‑to‑end testing

remotely with successful outcomes

Paralympic broadcastersʼ user

closely and perform validation tests on‑site without
travelling

232

Games Venue Cells (GVC)

On the other hand this generated a challenge to the

In the ITL several cells were equipped with hardware

integration team as a whole with one part based inprovided by Tokyo 2020 specifically for the results

Japan and the other in Spain Working in different timesystem They were called Games venue cells (GVCs)

zones we ensured close communication through a strict

The main goal of the GVCs was to install as many

underlying governance but meetings at odd hours for

sports as possible to validate that the results systemboth teams were still unavoidable

would run properly on the actual hardware used at thevenues Simulating the sports competition in a GVC also

231

Virtual Environment

allowed validation of base images and actual capacity of

The virtual sport cells occupied a space (as shown in

ODS physical venue servers as well as touchscreen

Figure 2) with physical terminals to access virtual

laptop functionalities for the Commentator Information

environments that simulated the results system in the

System and printed results reports

cloud There was also an additional desktop machine per

The ITL followed government instructions in terms ofcell with dual graphic cards to reproduce the results

maximum number of staff hygiene rules etc Proce-scoreboard graphic screens From any virtual sport cell

dures were adapted to allow access to the GVC forit was possible to simulate and test any sport competition

minimal necessary activities while respecting safety

by accessing each ODS and result application in therules This included rotation of staff to limit the number

cloud This enabled enormous flexibility when testingof people in the space at any given time

When the pandemic started in March 2020achallenge was promptly overcome : setting up enough233

Increase of Volume

equipment at each testerʼs home to test remotely in the

Another challenge arising very late in the project life

virtual environment Fortunately most of the applica-

cycle was to accommodate a much bigger volume oftions could be tested virtually and we had all the means

customers using ODS applications remotely due to thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) situationsIt

happened late in the project and required much moreemphasis on nonfunctional validation This increased thecomplexity of the cloud test and required setting up a
number of extra simulators in the lab to generate load

3．Operational Readiness Impact of the Stateof the Emergency Declaration andPostponement
31

Technology Rehearsals

Technology rehearsals 1 and 2 (TR1 and TR2) are key
exercises to check the technology teamʼs operational
readiness taking place in the ITL and the venues The
Figure 2Volleyball Cell in Integration Test Lab（©2021‑International Olympic Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

busiest days of Olympic competitions are simulated
while Technology Rehearsal Officials (TROs) trigger

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020315

scenarios to check team reactions

effectiveness ofpolicies and procedures and team understanding of thepolicies and procedures
Travel restrictions and the state of the emergency

4．Tokyo 2020 Games Operations Impact of
the State of the Emergency Declaration
and Postponement

declaration hit just before TR1 in March 2020 prevent-41

ing some teams from traveling to Tokyo or to ITL In a

Games operations are structured in 2 layers :Communication Tools

few days the Atos team proposed and prepared to run
the results system TR1 virtually by triggering scenarios･

Central provided by the TOC in Tokyo and its

remotely from the ITL That way TR activities among

satellites such as the Central Technology Opera-

the on‑site teams took place in the venues as planned

tions Centre (CTOC) for Atos mission‑criticalsystems based in Barcelona

These digital TRs brought many learnings that
improved communication and operations between the･

Venue‑based with a technology team in thecompetition and non‑competition venues

on‑site Technology Operations Centre (TOC) andvenues It was our first technology success to overcome
the pandemic impact and progress our Tokyo 2020

In all previous Games editions one of the challenges

preparations It sent a strong message that technology

has been to ensure fluid well balanced communication

would adapt and be ready to deliverand coordination :TR2 took place from May 31 to June 4 2021 During
the pandemic the venues operated with different teams･

Inside the TOC where 130 staff are working per
shift

in bubbles that could not mix Bubbles at the venues forTR2 prevented the TROs from fully observing the･Between the TOC and its satellites

results activities･

Between the TOC and the venues

Atos came with an innovative approach : One of thetwo Venue Results Managers located inside the results

For the Tokyo 2020 Games the use of communication

bubble was selected to become the Results TRO

knowledge and collaboration tools spiked These tools

complementing the initially planned TRO This allowed

were always used during preparations test events andthe results technology partners who could go to Tokyo

TRs ; but they were a lifesaver during the pandemic

to go and have a meaningful exercise
4232

Virtual Meetings

The need to respect social distancing in the TOC led toTraining
our training strategy is built on a

replacing traditional standup meetings held at shift

variety of delivery means : hands‑on classroom trainingchange with virtual meetings where the key Duty

face‑to‑face classroom training table‑top exercise andManagers in the TOC were reporting twice per day

TraditionallyThis was very successful

e‑learning

also allowing a broader

During and after the COVID‑19 suspension period all

audience to join the meetings Duty Managers who weretraining was delivered by e‑learning or online meetings

not on shift and executives from the IOC and technology

Some presentation courses such as the Atos Venue IT

partners could join virtual meetings to easily increase

Manager (VITM) in‑person presentation courses were

their dynamic understanding of the operations

converted into e‑learning courses
While the number of new resources without experience was increased by the postponement the effort

43

Planning and Policies

COVID‑19‑positive cases within the Atos TOC teamrequired to convert classroom training to e‑learnings

were immediately isolated andpaid off with a good level of training

confinement rules moved to a specific accommodation

following Japanese

Luckily all of our cases were either asymptomatic orlightly symptomatic Infected teammates could workfrom the government accommodations using our monitoring tools

chats

calls and online documentation

related to their specific areas

To allow thatwe

implemented a policy of TOC members taking their
316

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

laptops with them after every shift

This policy

increased the planned equipment requirements from one
laptop per TOC role to one laptop per person

NTT
The initial Flash‑based solution was nearing the end ofits life but would have supported Tokyo 2020 The one‑

We also had a few positive cases in the venue teams

year postponement allowed us to migrate it to a modern

where presence at the venues is mandatory due to thesoftware‑as‑a‑service platform between Q3 2020 anddynamic of the results activity When evaluating theQ1 2021 before the obsolescence could block the new

impact of the pandemic

schedule The new solution provided quick value andwe had anticipated extra

resources available to cover temporary attrition This
allowed us to efficiently mitigate the impact

supported a smooth transition for all parties involved
System monitoring was projected onto walls in the
TOC and CTOC (shown in Figure 3) and each key team

44

Crisis Communications

The traditional bridge opened to manage high‑se-

had its own dashboard displaying the main resources
supporting its services

verity incidents and crises involves the TOC Duty
Managers and executives of the concerned parties For

512

Tokyo our bridge was enhanced with a chat that

Virtual user monitoring (VUM) was a new addition toremained open for each high‑severity incidentʼs dura-

the monitoring solution for Tokyo 2020 It leverages thetion

W3C WebDriver protocol to orchestrate a web browser

allowing updates between formal calls to all

involved stakeholders This was extremely efficient

Virtual User Monitoring

to monitor web applications

helping to meet two goals : limiting the number of calls

It does so by executing functional scenarios (e gwhich allows teams to focus on resolution and providing

login to application click on menu check displayed text)

the required level of visibility

to assess the health of the service If the scenario fails(e g

5．Tokyo 2020 Games Operations Observation
51

Monitoringa button does not show or page shows an error

message) or if health indicators are bad (e g an HTTP
500 error) an alert is raisedThis solution was put in place to address the growing

Considering the extent of adaptation required tocomplexity of IT services particularly modern applica-deliver this edition of the Olympic and Paralympic

tions that use JavaScript frameworks and REST APIsGames

instead of static pages Assessing the health of suchobservation and monitoring were relatively

unchanged‑but never more criticalapplications via traditional system monitoring can beinefficient as it cannot detect complex failures

511

System Monitoring

System monitoring covered all systems hosted in Atoscloud and was heavily used by Tokyo 2020 as well as key

VUM monitors all OMS/ODS applications as well as
ITSM and documentation management It was the key
monitoring tool shown on the TOC display wall

Competition Network (CPN) and back‑office OCOG
Network (BON) providers such as Fujitsu NEC and

513

Venue Device Monitoring

Venue device monitoring (VDM) consisted of anagent that regularly (every 5 minutes) executed probes
on a device to collect KPIs or perform sanity checks
This was then reported to a central management serverthat published a dashboard made available to teams inthe venues TOC and CTOC
The VDMʼs simple red/amber/green status dashboard was heavily used during operations to efficiently
monitor venue device health It also covered the venue
data centres for basic monitoring in complement of theirsystem and application monitoring tools
Figure 3 Monitoring in the TOC
sharing simple and effective
dashboards on the display wall （©2021‑International Olympic
Committee‑All Rights Reserved）

514

Application Monitoring

Detailed application monitoring was provided to theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

317

Figure 4 Tickets Logged Per Day and Per Severity
July 23 2021

Note : The Opening ceremony took place

CTOC team in Barcelona using an open‑source analytics
and monitoring solution

6．IT Service Management
Atos provided the IT service management (ITSM)
tool used by all technology teams in the TOC CTOC andvenues as well as in the technology call centre ITSM isthe backbone of the technology operations supporting
the key processes that federate necessary evolutions andincident resolutions
61

Incident Management

Our incident management activities focused on
logging

sharing and tracking the progress of allincidents and service requests until resolution High‑severity incidents severity 1 and 2 (shown in Figure 4)
were displayed on the TOC wall and made available
Figure 5

online for support staff alerting all teams about urgent

Change Requests

actions to be taken An SLA is in place for each severity
62

Change Management

alternative workarounds were provided to ensure

Although stability is a token of quality for Gamessystems stability

services there are always changes that need to becarefully evaluated and managed

The Tokyo 2020

63

Interruption of Services

Games operations teams followed a stringent change‑

For each approved change that needs to be applied inmanagement process supported by the ITSM tool When

production (illustrated in Figure 5) a formal Interrup-

the risk was too hightion of Service (IOS) notice must be issued and approved

318

changes were rejected and

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

7．Conclusion
Technology delivery was outstanding for the Tokyo
2020 Games under an extremely difficult situation
There may not have been spectators in the venues but
the technology teams allowed far more fans across theglobe to enjoy the events and celebrate the athletesʼ
determination through this challenging exercise
Atos has delivered the highest levels of integration
services and innovative methods to operate under the
Figure 6

state of the emergency declaration and implemented

Logged Problems

strong governance to mitigate risks generated byoverlapping the Tokyo 2020 Games with Beijing 2022 andby all stakeholders including end users

Paris 2024 preparation This is paving the way for futureThis was broadly in place for the Tokyo 2020 Games

editions The lessons learned during this public safety

and successfully ensured awareness among all stakehold-crisis will help to streamline the preparation anders including the support teams about implementation

operations of big and complex projects with morechanges This process accelerated the troubleshooting offlexible and efficient ways to work

the rare unexpected side effects(Received March 4 2022 ; Revised March 24 2022)

64

Problem Management

When the service is restored following an incident but
the root cause is still not clear then the resolution is
flagged and followed through as a problem

The

distribution of problem severity at the Tokyo 2020
Games is shown in Figure 6 We followed our normal
standards to ensure all problems were closely followed
up and resolved by the end of the operations

Michèle HYRONMichèle HYRON as Atos Chief Integrator
for the Olympic Games leads the consortium oftechnology partners that designs builds andoperates its mission‑critical IT infrastructureand systems She has managed various aspectsof the Gamesʼ integration and operations for 20
years dedicating the last 10 to her current role
Michèle graduated from Ecole PolytechniqueFeminine in France with a degree in Computer
Science㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

319

6 Games Management Operation Centres

6‑4

Overview of Equipment Deployment
Centre of the Tokyo 2020 GamesKAWATA Masahiko

Approximately 30 000 units of IT equipment were used in the operation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo
2020 The Equipment Deployment Centre (EDC) was set up independently to achieve efficiency and quick response tochanges EDC collectively handled the preparation setting and deployment of all IT equipment to each venue EDC could
set up and ship up to 600 units of equipment per day By operating this EDC the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo
2020 could ship and deploy IT equipment on the schedule requested by the venues without delay in May and June 2021 thepeak season for venue construction
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Equipment configuration Image deployment

1．Introduction
During the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo
2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo 2020”) approxi-

2．Outline of the Equipment Deployment Centre(EDC)
EDC is a facility used for the preparation temporary

mately 30 000 units (approximately 11 000 PCs or withinstorage and testing of IT equipment required for thethe entire period from the inauguration of the Organising

operation of the Games and equipment disposal after theCommittee to the end of 2021 17 000 PCs approxi-Gamesmately 3 000 printers/multifunctional printers (MFPs)

EDC should be located near or within Main Distribu-

and approximately 3 000 network devices) were de-tion Centre (MDC i e

the Olympic and Paralympic

ployed over about one and half months As mentioned

Gamesʼ warehouse) to efficiently hand over goods

above previous Olympic and Paralympic Games had

between the logistics team responsible for transporting

their independent Equipment Deployment Centres

equipment to competition venues and facilities and the(EDC) to flexibly handle the preparation and configura-technology team responsible for preparing the equip-

tion changes of a large quantity of equipment and toment Based on the above perspective EDC for thequickly replace the equipment that had failed The

Tokyo 2020 Games was also set up in MDC

following is an overview of the EDC established and

We designed the PCs for the Tokyo 2020 Games with

operated at the Tokyo 2020 Games similar to theseveral patterns of equipment configurations and setup

previous Games

specifications depending on the purpose of the work
And EDC had to efficiently set up and prepare many PCs
based on the different patterns to meet the deadlines
required by each venue and facility Therefore EDC

KAWATA MasahikoTechnology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 320‑326 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

320

needed to be equipped with a high‑speed and wide band
local area network (LAN) capable of duplicating anddeploying PC settings via a network Referring to theshipment data of previous Games and the TEAP

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

(Technology Equipment Allocation Plan) we designed ahanded over to the logistics team and was awaiting

PC deployment system including LAN with a maximum

delivery (the status of this equipment was alreadydaily production capacity of 600 PCs at the EDC for the“shipped from EDC”) The floor layout was such that aTokyo 2020 Games

handover area surrounded the EDC
The EDC occupied an area of 726 m 2 in total and was21

divided into three main sections : the LOAD‑OUT/

Physical Layout of EDC

As mentioned above EDC was located on the second
floor of MDC adjacent to the technology component

LOAD‑IN areas on the left and right and the work areaat the centre (Figure 2)

storage area (Figure 1) And there was a temporary

The LOAD‑OUT area (150 m 2) was a temporarystorage area around the perimeter of EDC for equipment

storage area for finished products that had beenthat had been assembled and configured at the EDC andcompleted at the EDC and were waiting for hand over tothe logistics team (Figure 3) The LOAD‑IN area
(150 m 2) was a storage area for parts taken from the

Figure 1

Floor Layout Around the EDC on the Second Floor of
MDC

Figure 2

Figure 3

LOAD‑OUT Area and Equipment Waiting for Shipment

Floor Layout in EDC

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

321

Figure 5

Table 1Figure 4

Responsible for EDC as a whole
Coordinates with EDC external parties(logistics team VITM etc )Coordinates emergency EDR and approves
production plans

EDC
Supervisor

Assist EDC Manager
Planning of production plan
Receives EDRs assigns and directs production work to each engineer and handles
incidents

ServerEngineer

Responsible for production of server equipment

W&L PC
Engineer

Responsible for production of Workstation/
Laptop PCs

Reprographics
Engineer

Responsible for production of printers and
MFPs

NetworkEngineer

Responsible for production of network equipment

EDC
The central work area had six workbenches for PCs
and two for printers and small MFPs at the top of the
figure a work area for large MFPs and five for network
equipment in the middle The lower section of the work
area was allocated to office space server space etc
22

PC Deployment System

In Tokyo 2020 Games there were 12 types of PCs

Roles of Each EDC Position

EDC
Manager
PC Deployment Workbench

inventory of the MDC for assembly and setup at the

EDC Structure

mainly for the Competition Network (CPN) and 27 forthe Back Office Network (BON) We used Microsoft
System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) as thethrough a dedicated VLAN and expanded to enable

tool for the deployment and production of these PCs

deployment of a small number of PCs at each site in case

SCCM was also used to deploy the CPN PCs at the Rioof emergency

2016 Games So for the Tokyo 2020 Games we started
using SCCM in the early phase This was effective in23

terms of increasing expertise in SCCM operation We

EDC structure (Figure 5) and the primary roles offirst implemented the system as a management system
for the PC of the Organising Committee Then we

EDC Structureeach position (Table 1) are described below
EDC Manager and EDC Supervisor were assigned toextended the system as a deployment tool Specificallytwo people for shift work A total of up to 20 engineers

we installed six servers to distribute and deploy PC

were engaged in production and responsible for setting

settings three each for BON and CPN each of the six

up the actual equipment

workbenches could deploy 36 PCs simultaneously(Figure 4) The distribution servers and the network

3．EDC Operation

hubs installed at each workbench are connected via SDN(Software Defined Network) Although the configura-

31

tion is typically 1 : 1 CPN (3 workbenches)/BON (3EDC construction started in time for the shipment of

Launch of EDC

the system was configured in theequipment for a test event held in the summer of 2019assignment ratio of workbenches that could be flexibly

However due to delays in preparing the MDC where thechanged according to the daily production plan of CPN

EDC is to be housed the existing office floor (approxi-

PCs and BON PCs

mately 250 m 2) within the MDC was initially used as aworkbenches)

The network of this PC deployment system is

temporary EDC and the equipment for the test event

extended to major sites such as competition venues

was shipped in May 2019 Subsequently after complet-

322

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

ing construction of the permanent EDC production

to the delivery date and delivers the equipment with theequipment and other facilities were moved to the

EDRs and logistics requests mentioned above to thelocation shown on the MDC floor (Figure 1) at the end oflogistics warehouse team and delivery team in MDC

December 2019 and production at this EDC began for

In Tokyo 2020 Games there were two systems theequipment management system and the logistics sys-

shipments in 2020

tem EDC VITM and logistics staff had to operate both
32

Preparation of PC Master Image for Finish

systems ; Tokyo 2020 Games combined the EDR number

Product

and logistics request number manually by VITM and

Although we reduced the number of PC hardware

VLM However it would be better to have both systems

platforms for the Tokyo 2020 Games to four main

automatically link EDR numbers and logistics request

models 49 master images of equipment configuration

numbers to each other to avoid errors in linking But

and setting specifications were defined as the final PC

while the equipment management system will be used

Finish Product (FP) Furthermore due to the postpone-across multiple Games the logistics system will changement of the Games for one year in March 2020 because offrom one host city to another so a challenge is how to

the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) outbreak thedesign the interface of the two systems

support period of OS used for the prepared FPs expired
and we had to recreate the PC master images with the34

Key Points of EDC Operation

upgraded OS version In both original and recreated the341

staff in charge of each Finish Product PC werenʼt

As described in Section 4 the number of devices

Production Planning and Refinement

familiar with the method of duplicate deployment andproduced by EDC varies from month to month This isthey took the work to create the PC master image longer

mainly due to the non‑uniform schedule of venue

than planned

EDC shipped each device withconstruction and the concentration of equipment deliv-

keeping the first delivery date requested by the venue

eries during specific periods The fluctuation in theButnumber of devices produced leads to variations in man‑
33

Equipment Deployment Request Process

hours making it challenging to arrange the workforce

To deploy PCs and other equipment at competition

For the Tokyo 2020 Games the venue construction

venues and facilities the Venue Information Technology

schedule was constantly checked from the early stages

Manager (VITM) in charge of IT management andand initiatives were implemented to streamline theequipment installation at the venue first issues anequipment production plan This allowed optimizing

Equipment Deployment Request (EDR) based on the

allocation based on correct forecasts of the workforce

TEAP

plan

VITM must issue EDR to the equipment

management system at least four weeks before therequired delivery date at the venue for test events and

342

Collaboration with the Logistics Team

From the initial stages of launching EDC for the Tokyo

eight weeks for the Games period
VITM must share information about the EDR with the2020 Games we had multiple discussions for operational

Venue Logistic Manager (VLM) of the venue and havedesign with the logistics teams including the warehouse

the VLM issue an equipment logistics request for theteam that stores the equipment and the delivery teamthat transports the equipment to the venue As a result

logistics system from EDC to the venue
The Venue Technology Implementation Duty Manag-

we reduced the overall shipping lead time by optimizing

er (Imp DM) in the Technology Operation Centre

the setup from parts dispatch to delivery of Finish

checks the EDR issued for consistency with TEAP

Products We also established a procedure for respond-

availability of parts stock delivery date etc

ing to emergency shipping requests from the venue inand thensends the EDR as status approved to EDC

Theadvanceconfusion at EDC is avoided with the collection of EDRs

In addition visualization of the production schedulefrom multiple venues by the Imp DM and sent to EDC

for the most recent week from the start of production toafter checking and considering parts availability prior-the completion of shipment enabled close cooperation

ity etc by the Imp DM

among relevant parties and prompt response to emer-

Upon receipt of the EDRs EDC reflects the EDRs ingency shipments (Figure 6)

its production plan produces the equipment according
Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

323

343

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Preparation

increased rapidly a few months before the opening of theTokyo 2020 Games did not have a backup site of EDC

Games On the other hand during the Games period

If a problem occurred at the EDC and production orwork shifts were set and each role was assigned toshipment of equipment stopped it would significantly

multiple staff members Therefore only about one‑half

impact preparations for the Games Therefore plansof the total number of people involved in the operation of

and work procedures were established in advance so

the Games will be working simultaneously during thethat if a problem were to occur equipment shipment

Games and having the same number of PCs as the

could continue even though production capacity would

number of staff was not necessary Therefore PCs havebe reduced Specifically we prepared a plan that would

been allocated to each operation role and shared byallow work to continue even if these problems occurred :multiple people to control the increase in the number of

NW failure PC deployment system down and equip-

PCs (called this kind of PC “position PC”)

ment request system down The business continuity

On the other hand the main PCs for the Tokyo 2020

plan was rehearsed in January 2020 to verify its

Games were portable notebook PCs and before theaccuracy

Games one PC was given to each person involved (Itwas also necessary to give a PC to each person for

35

Issues in PC Deployment Planning for the Tokyo

remote work as part of the measures for COVID‑19 ) It

2020 Gameswas necessary to transform the PC usage pattern fromThe number of people involved in the operation of the
Olympic Games

including the Tokyo 2020 Games

individual use before the Games to shared use during theGames However due to delays in Games preparation
the use of individual PCs was extended until the very lastminute of the Games and the number of PCs that had
once increased to the number of staff members had to be
reduced by the number required for position PCs This
resulted in a shortage of PCs and confusion in the field
due to the replacement of position PCs
The shortage of personal PCs before the Games wascompensated for by renting the necessary number of
PCs in a short period but EDC also needed to produce
additional PCs to meet the shortage In recent years as
the use and dependence on PCs in business have become
more common the concept and operation of position PCs
are no longer suited to the actual situation In the future
it may be more appropriate to plan and operate one PC

Figure 6

EDC Production Control Board

Figure 7324

per person for the entire duration of the Games to

Number of Monthly Shipments by Equipment TypeTHE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

eliminate wasteful work such as replacement workand network devices : 5 157 units In total 22 699 unitsof IT equipment were produced and shipped (Figure 9)

4．Statistical Information on Equipment
Shipments for the Tokyo 2020 Games
Next statistics on EDC equipment shipments for the

Shipments peaked in June 2021 with 5 544 units shipped
followed by 4 927 units in May and 4 896 units in Marchwith 86% of total shipments concentrated in these fourmonths from March to June

Tokyo 2020 Games are shown below (Figure 7) A total

Furthermore 60% of all EDRs for Games compliedof 2 100 EDRs were processed at the Tokyo 2020 Games

with the rule that EDRs should be issued at least 8 weeks

and a total of 43 076 units of IT equipment were

before the required delivery date at the venue Of the

produced and shipped This quantity includes equipment

114 EDRs issued 7 days before the required delivery

shipped before the postponement of the Games in Marchdate 75 EDRs were emergency shipments that took less2020 and returned to EDC by the venues due to thethan 2 days from issuance to arrival at the venue and 67

postponement Due to the postponement no equipmentof these EDRs were issued during the Games period

was shipped from August 2020 to November 2020

(Figure 10)

To exclude the impact of the Games postponement
we narrowed down the shipment period to December
2020 through August 2021 We found that 1 307 EDRs
(Figure 8) were handled with the main items being
laptop PCs : 19 030 units printer devices : 2 626 units

Figure 10
Figure 8

Number of EDRs Issued per Month

Figure 9Distribution of Time from EDR Issue Date to Required
Delivery Date at Venue

Number of Shipments by Month (December 2020‑August 2021)

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

325

5．Conclusion
This was an overview of EDC which played an
important role in deploying IT equipment for the Tokyo
2020 Games EDC met all shipping deadlines for the
EDRs it received

including those for emergency

response

KAWATA Masahiko
KAWATA Masahiko graduated from Osaka
City University in 1990 with a Bachelorʼs
degree in Mechanical Engineering and has beena member of the Technology Services Bureauof the Tokyo Organising Committee of the
Olympic and Paralympic Games since April
2015 He is currently with NEC Solution
Innovator Ltd in the Smart Society Solutions
Division

EDC produced 11 198 PCs and achieved high work
quality There were only 248 defective units with adefect rate of only 2 2% Therefore EDC has made asignificant contribution to the Tokyo 2020 Games(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 16 2022)㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

326

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6 Games Management Operation Centres

6‑5Technology Service Management and Incident
Response Performed by Technology Call
Centre of the Tokyo 2020 GamesKAWATA Masahiko

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 followed the management process based on ITIL ® to provide
technology services to Games stakeholders in line with past Games In particular regarding the quality of services wedefined unified SLAs for various types of services to provide a quick response to important events such as competition
management In addition we set up a Technology Call Centre to serve as a contact point for technology inquiries fromGames stakeholders who were the equivalent of customers to achieve uniformity of response and improve response
quality through centralized management
Keywords：Tokyo 2020 Games Service management Incident response Call centre

1．Introduction

and during the Games To provide high‑quality IT
services and appropriate incident response for these

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

customers we adopted a management process based on(hereinafter referred to as the “Tokyo 2020 Games”)

ITIL ® (Terminology) for the Tokyo 2020 Games just as in past

were held over approximately one and a half months

Games Specifically the Technology Functional Area

featuring 55 sports and 878 competitions This is an(TEC FA) which is the operations department for IT

unprecedented scale for a sporting event This article

services was structurally divided into three tiers The

provides an overview of the service management andfirst tier was the Technology Call Centre (TCC) which

the incident (Terminology) management of technologies thatserved as a single point of contact for all IT‑related

supported this large‑scale event

matters and accepted inquiries by phone and e‑mailThe second tier consisted of venue IT teams assigned toapproximately 190 venues

facilities

and bases of

2．Technology Service Management at
the Tokyo 2020 Gamesvarious sizes such as competition venues to provide

Approximately 400 000 people involved in the Tokyo

operate actual equipment such as problematic target

2020 Games including athletes officials from national

equipment A Technology Operation Centre (TOC) (1)and international federations broadcasters media andwhich controlled the entire Games in terms of technol-press participated in the Tokyo 2020 Games both before

face‑to‑face support to the Games stakeholders andogy in cooperation with the first and second tiers madeup the third tier (Figure 1)

KAWATA MasahikoTechnology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 327‑332 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

Next we classified operational incidents according toseverity levels : Severity 1 to Severity 4 (the smaller thenumber the greater the severity) depending on the
degree and scale of the impact For example issues thatSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020327

Table 1

SLAs Applied at the Tokyo 2020 Games
Critical Period

Response
Time

ResolutionTime

Non‑Critical Period
Response
Time

Resolution
Time

Severity 1

5 minutes

1 hour5 minutes

4 hours

Severity 2

5 minutes

2 hours

15 minutes

6 hours

Severity 3

30 minutes

4 hours

1 hour

2 daysSeverity 4

1 hour

6 hours

2 5 hours

3 daysServiceRequest ＊1 hour8 hours

8 hours

5 days＊ “Service Request” classifies requests that do not involve
problems such as failures

Figure 1

Hierarchy of IT Service Operations

tive of the type of service or target user In addition as
an arrangement specific to the Games the period during
incidents that force suspension ofand immediately before the Olympic and Paralympic

competition or incidents that are covered in live

affect all users

Games was referred to as the “Critical Period” While thebroadcasts and news are classified as Severity 1 As aperiod more than one month before the Opening

Service Level Agreement (SLA) (Terminology)

we setCeremony of the Olympic Games and the period ofindividual response time (time taken from receiving antransition from the Olympic Games to the Paralympic

incident inquiry to the first contact with the user) andGames was referred to as the “Non‑Critical Period” Weresolution time (time taken to resolve the problem

applied different SLAs to each of the two periods Table

including interim measures) targets for each severity

1 shows the SLAs applied for the Tokyo 2020 Gameslevel We standardized the SLAs so that they were

All incidents were registered in an incident manage-

determined uniformly by Severity level only irrespec-

ment tool provided by a cloud service Anyone working
in technology can access this registered information toview and update its contents The tool automatically■measured the time elapsed since registering an incident

Terminology®

Incident
In ITIL an incident is usually defined as an
event that affects business continuity or users due to an
outage of IT services/IT systems or deterioration in service
quality At the Tokyo 2020 Games in addition to theseincidents user requests for the use of IT services/IT
systems were also treated as incidents under the term“Service Request”
ITIL ®
Information Technology Infrastructure Library
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is aset of books that systematize best practices in IT service
management It is the basis for the international standard
ISO/IEC 20000 (JIS Q 20000 in JIS)
SLA
Service Level Agreement An agreement between a service provider and its users regarding the level ofservice (definitions scope content goals to be achieved
etc )
CTI
Computer Telephony Integration Integrating
computers with telephones PBXs (private branch exchange) and other telephone‑related equipment improves
the efficiency of call centres and other facilities
IVR
Interactive Voice Response A system that provides a pre‑prepared voice announcement for incoming calls
to a call centre or assigns a response to an operator by having
the user enter a number corresponding to the reason for theincoming call■328

By checking the time elapsed for each incident in real‑time the incidents were managed to comply with the
SLAs shown in Table 1

3．Transition to the TCC System
This section gives a detailed description of TCC
which served as the primary contact point for incident
response
As mentioned above we used a dedicated incident
management tool for incident response at the Tokyo
2020 Games the same tool used in previous Games
However while the Rio 2016 Games introduced the tool
31 months before the Games opened the Tokyo 2020
Games began using the tool in February 2016 approximately 22 months earlier than the Rio 2016 Games This
early launch of the tool effectively improved the
proficiency of the Organising Committee in operating themanagement tool
Initially the primary contact point for the incident
response was the internal support desk supporting the

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERSIT infrastructure system within the Organising Commit-

to handle inquiries and they handled more than 7 000

tee But because a large volunteer portal site wasinquiries in Julylaunched as an external service in August 2018 the TCC
started acting as the incident acceptance desk in July a

4．TCC Operations

month before the launch (Note 1) At this point the TCCʼscustomer base was still limited to internal members of

41

Incident Response

the Organising Committee who were Games stakehold-

TCC linked received inquiries to one of the 286

ers so the TCC was set up in a section of the Organising

services registered in the Technology Service Catalog

Committee office and began its operations with a staff ofand registered the contents of the inquiry in the incident

seven operators However since it was known thatmanagement tool along with information such as themany of the incident inquiries during the Games woulduser who made the inquiry and the location where thebe in English bilingual operators with English skills

incident occurred The service owner provided Service

were assigned to the TCC from the beginning At the

Acceptance Criteria (SAC) for each service includingtime the number of incidents received per month was

an overview of the service escalation points FAQs andapproximately 400

basic confirmation items Based on this information an

In April 2019 to respond to the holding of test events

appropriate judgment of which service the queryto accumulate know‑how of Games operations and thebelonged to was made and TCC provided the primary

expansion of the number of staff in the Organising

response

the TCC moved from its base at the

TCC utilized the dashboard function of the incident

Organising Committee to a dedicated facility equippedmanagement tool to display the number of inquiries

with call handling facilities

waiting to be received the number of inquiries for eachCommittee

and statistics and callrecording functions including CTI(Terminology)

The TCC

major venue and service

the number of pending

was expanded to provide full‑scale call centre support

inquiries and the percentage of SLAs achieved on a

In 2019 the TCC had 11 operators and handled alarge monitor in real‑time so that everyone in the TCC

maximum of 1 250 incidents per month including the

could always understand the situation at the time

test event period

TCC required that the name and organization of the

TCC was expanded in preparation for the Tokyo 2020

user inquiring be recorded at the first reception For

Games However due to the decision to postpone theusers from overseas telephone inquiries were naturally

Games by one year in March 2020

TCC had to

conducted in English At the Tokyo 2020 Games the

temporarily reduce its size and structure including theIVR (Interactive Voice Response) (Terminology) system wassuspension of call reception One year later in April

not used to sort languages

2021 the TCC resumed primary contact operations on

numbers were provided for Japanese and English

but dedicated phone

the same scale and with the same content as was initially

However there were many cases in which the operator

planned for the Tokyo 2020 Games Based on the original

had difficulty understanding calls from English‑speaking

plan the Alternative Technology Call Centre (ACC)

users due to a very thick accent or unfamiliar names

was established in Kyoto about 360 km away from the

For these reasons TCCs had to spend a lot of time on

TCC to ensure the ability to handle incoming calls

initial interviews with users which has caused theduring the peak of the Games and to continue reception

TCCʼs reputation for customer satisfaction to decline inoperations in the event of a failure Therefore TCC andpast Games The Tokyo 2020 Games used a database of

ACC operated side by side from April until the end of theGame stakeholders that managed user information

Paralympic Games in September In addition the TCC/

linked to accreditation numbers to identify users By

ACC operated 24 hours a day in conjunction with the 24‑

having users provide their accreditation numbers thehour operation of the TOC from July 12 During theuser information retrieved by searching the Participant

Games up to 32 operators at the two sites were available

Database could be automatically registered in theincident management tool In addition since the usage of(Note 1) The Volunteer Portal was a service used by many applicantsfor volunteer positions at the time and the Volunteer Contact Center(VCC) which was organized separately was responsible for directly
responding to applicants The TCC responded to inquiries by receiving
escalations from the VCC

cell phones such as smartphones has increased thepercentage of individuals that can be identified by theircalling numbers we have devised a way to speed up theprocess of accepting inquiries by automatically search-Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020329

ing the incident management tool by calling numbers

COVID‑19 from the perspective of technology services

and displaying candidates of usersʼ past inquiries

However the system and the operation of infection

through CTI linkage

control measures were not finalized in advance due toEven so there were several difficulties for the callthe effects of daily changes in COVID‑19 compliancecentre to acquire knowledge in advance and increase its

policies at various levels including the government andproficiency in handling inquiries for events such as thechanges were required even during the Games The

Olympic and Paralympic Games where services did notmain functions of the system were to manage immigra-

start until the Games period or that some Gamestion for overseas stakeholders and to manage the healthstakeholders such as members of the press did not

and test results of all Games stakeholders including

arrive in Japan and participate in the Games until justresidents in Japan and users were just anyone involved

before the Games period Operators who joined the callin the Tokyo 2020 Games

centre at an early stage of its setup were allowed toconstraints the system went into complete operation

experience work on‑site for example working with thewithout properly disseminating its operations resulting

second‑tier venues IT team at the test event toin a very confusing situation immediately after theunderstand the situation of users who inquired about thesystem was put into operation

event but even this was not sufficient

received many inquiries from members of the press

Howeverdue to time

In particularwewishing to visit Japan and by the beginning of July
42

Support for Routine Operations

more than 1 000 inquiries remained unresolved

Although this section has focused mainly on incident

As mentioned above since the target users of the

responses such as failures and defects many of the“Infection Control Business Support System” were wide‑

inquiries received by the TCC included Service Re-

ranging and the system was out of the TCCʼs scope ofquests which were requests for permission to use a

responsibilities a dedicated call centre was set up for theservice or to set access privileges Service Requests

system But because the TCC could assign some of its

accounted for approximately 65% of all incidents

operators to the dedicated call centre we were able toAmong these requests to create an account to use eachbegin reception operations in a short period Since theservice accounted for about 12% of the total number ofcall centre used the same incident management tool as

incidents This was the same trend seen for technology

the TCC and the operators who had experience handlingservices in previous Games

Routine tasks such as

incidents at the TCC had the appropriate awareness foraccount creation have well‑established work procedures

the Games stakeholders they could handle inquiries

and do not require a particular operator to perform

efficiently and effectively Specifically the number ofthem Therefore to increase the responsibility of theunresolved inquiries dropped to 260 on July 14 and thesecond and third tiers of the IT service operations

number of pending incidents reduced to fewer than 100

hierarchy in handling more technical incidents routine

after July 24

tasks such as account creation were assigned to the
TCC/ACC at the Tokyo 2020 Games This was also anefficient way to use operators during night shifts when
the number of incoming inquiries was lower As for theaccounts created for the Tokyo 2020 Games 7 772

5．Incidents at the Tokyo 2020 Games
Finally the following table shows the total number ofincidents during the Tokyo 2020 Gamesaccounts were created between May 2021 and Septem-

127 034 incident tickets (Note 2) were issued for theber 2021 (this did not include accounts for staff of theTokyo 2020 Games between February 2016 and Septem-

Organising Committee) of which 4 963 accounts wereber 2021 A breakdown of the tickets is given below

provided to volunteers using the technology services(Table 2 Figure 2)
The highest number of incidents in a single day

43

Support for the Infection Control Businessoccurred on July 5 2021 with 936 incidents recorded It

Support System

was the busiest period as the Opening Ceremony was to

Although the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019be held 20 days later and the staff was deployed to the(COVID‑19) was unique to the Tokyo 2020 Games an“Infection Control Business Support System” (2) was
hastily developed and introduced as a response to330(Note 2) Incidents registered in the incident management tool were
issued incident tickets with individual incident numbers for identification

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 2

Progress in the Number of Incidents per Day Throughout the Entire Period

Figure 3

Table 2

Number of Incidents per Day during the Duration of the Games

Number of Incidents per Severity throughout the Entire
PeriodSeverity 1

Severity 2

Severity 3

Severity 4

ServiceRequest

120

272

5 319

41 44779 876venue to prepare for the Games

Howeverthebreakdown shows that there were 585 Service Requests
330 Severity 4 incidents 20 Severity 3 incidents and 1

Table 3

Number of Incidents per Severity during the Duration of
the Games
Severity1

Severity2

Severity3

Severity4

ServiceRequest

7/12〜8/8

12

35

1 091

6 755

9 809

8/8〜8/19

0

0

46

577

1 818

8/20〜9/5

0

4

236

1 229

2 324

Total

12

39

1 373

8 561

13 951

Severity 2 incident so there were not many severe
incidents
For a detailed look at the incident situation the period
covered was narrowed down to the period known as the

Table 4

Number of Incidents during the Duration of the Rio 2016
Games

Critical Period which is the period during which theGames were held : July 12 2021 to September 5 2021
(including the Non‑Critical Period during the transition

2016/7/25〜8/21

Severity1

Severity2

Severity3

Severity4

ServiceRequest

30

203

3 256

8 456

17 445Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

331

Table 5

Quality of Primary Response of TCC
Jun

July

Aug

Sept

99 4%

97 2%

98 6%

99 9%

98 8%

93 4%

97 0%

99 7%

Calls answered
within 30 seconds

99 8%

99 7%

99 9%

99 9%

Call abandonment
rate

2 1%

4 6%

3 2%

2 6%

Average callduration (s)

287

377

374

291

69 1%

65 7%

59 0%

65 0%

SLA Compli- Response Timeance Rate
Resolution Time

Call Response
Quality

Incident resolution rate by TCC

from the Olympic Games to the Paralympic Games)

6．Conclusion(Table 3 Figure 3)
The highest number of incidents during this period

The Tokyo 2020 Games had to be held without

was 920 on July 14 second only to the highest number onspectators due to the implementation of COVID‑19

July 5 However July 24 was the most distinctive day ininfection control measures Although the size of thethis period with 5 Severity 1 incidents and 7 Severity 2

Games was smaller than initially expected the number

incidents making it the day when the highest number ofof Games stakeholders using the technology services

high severity incidents occurred (Also 102 Severity 3

provided by the Organising Committee did not decrease

incidents occurred making it the day with the highest

significantly compared to previous Games Even under

number of Severity 3 incidents overall ) This was the

such circumstances the number of incidents including

day following the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic

high severity incidents was lower than in previous

Games coinciding with the start of multiple competi-Games The SLA compliance rate by the TCC thetions Looking at the incident occurrence situation of the

primary point of contact for incident response was well

Rio 2016 Games (Table 4) for example if we compare

above 90% Based on the above we believe that thethe 27 days from July 12 2021 to August 8 2021

Tokyo 2020 Games achieved stable operation of technol-(Tokyo) and from July 25 to August 21 2016 (Rio deogy services

Janeiro) the total number of severe Severity 1 andSeverity 2 severe incidents was 233 in the Rio 2016
Games while it was reduced to 47 in the Tokyo 2020
Games

which is about 1/5

The total number ofincidents during this period was 17 702 (Tokyo) and

References
(
(

)
)

Y. Nakamura and T. Yoshida, Technology Operation Centre, 2022.
T. Tachi, A. Usui and F. Nakayasu, Introduction History andOperational Performance of the Infection Control Business Support
System “Tokyo 2020 ICON”, 2022.

29 390 (Rio de Janeiro) and the ratio of Severity 1 andSeverity 2 incidents to the total number of incidents was
about 0 8% in Rio de Janeiro and about 0 3% in Tokyo
Table 5 shows the quality of the TCCʼs primary
response to incidents at the Tokyo 2020 Games
including SLA complianceand both response andresolution times far exceeded the target SLA compliance
rate of 85%(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 15 2022)

KAWATA Masahiko
KAWATA Masahiko graduated from Osaka
City University in 1990 with a Bachelorʼs
degree in Mechanical Engineering and has beena member of the Technology Services Bureauof the Tokyo Organising Committee of the
Olympic and Paralympic Games since April
2015 He is currently with NEC Solution
Innovator Ltd in the Smart Society Solutions
Division㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

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