Strategies
The Challenge of Creating an Optical Broadband andUbiquitous Network Society
George Kimura
Executive Director of Research and Development Center,
Technology Department, NTT West
NTT West Research and Development Center ispursuing R&D related to telecommunications infrastructure, in areas such as the technical advancementof local IPv6 (Internet protocol version six) networks,
and the construction of next-generation networks thatwill serve as a revenue base for the future. It is also
engaged in the development and functional extensionof IP services, such as Hikari Denwa (an IP phoneservice over fiber to the home), video delivery, andsecurity. In addition, the center is actively focused ontechnological development of operations systems toensure fast, high-volume processing for the installation and activation of optical-fiber services and on
quality enhancement of IP networks.
Japan has the most highly evolved broadband services in the world, both in terms of diffusion rate andunit cost for transmission speed. A wide array of newcontent and applications for the hotly discussed Web
2.0 (next-generation Web) is now emerging in themarket, and its value is rising rapidly as a result ofadvanced network capabilities, which are driving
growth in social networking services and other areas.
Growth is particularly strong in the fields of online
advertising and online delivery of content such asmusic and games. As a result, the Web is steadily
developing into a tool used not only for the transmission of information, but also as a means for purchasing products and services.
When peer-to-peer (P2P) applications entered thespotlight, we found that networks became rapidly
congested as the number of P2P users increased. We
also learned that in high-definition video delivery services, even a small amount of packet loss canadversely affect video quality. To address issues likethese, there is a growing need for the construction offaster, higher-capacity networks whose quality of service (QoS) can be controlled.
In March 2005, NTT West introduced its FLET’S
Hikari Premium service, based on IPv6 technology,

which enables higher bandwidth, flexible quality
control, and easy connection to a greater variety ofdigital devices. It allows customers to securely use
the expanding array of available IP services. FLET’S
Hikari Premium was originally offered to households
and apartment complexes as an optical-fiber Internet
access service, equipped with security functions andhigh-quality applications. In August 2006, NTT West
expanded its lineup of corporate products by rollingout its new FLET’S Hikari Enterprise services, featuring a 1-Gbit/s user-network interface.
Taking advantage of the massive address spaceoffered by the IPv6 protocol, NTT West Research andDevelopment Center is now engaged in the technicaldevelopment, validation, and commercialization of abroad array of new technologies, including access
control, routing, QoS, security, multicasting, network
storage, and quality management. Even as we continue to improve existing services, we are actively andeffectively utilizing the enormous address space of
IPv6 to develop multihoming technologies, whichallow people and objects to have multiple IP addresses. We are also very focused on developing personal
and portable technologies that enable communicationfrom the same “environment,” regardless of locationor access method. Through all these activities, wehope to contribute to the creation of a broadband andubiquitous network society.