Vol.1 No.1 (March, 2006)

Special Issue: C&C User Forum & iEXPO2005

Senior Executive Vice President
and Member of the Board
KAWAMURA Toshiro

The C&C User Forum & iEXPO2005 was held over the three days from Wednesday 7th to Friday 9th December, 2005, at the Tokyo Big Site. The event is widely recognized as a leading one for IT and networking, and this year there were more than 82,000 visitors. Now that the Ubiquitous society is taking shape on a large scale, society in general is also changing rapidly just like business and private life styles. Against this background, we set the theme of "Ubiquitous:Facilitating power for your business Success! U can change." We aim to promote our technologies and solutions in the forum and exhibition (iEXPO) in order to succeed in becoming leaders in the Ubiquitous age. These special issue pages are intended to introduce the advanced solutions, products, technologies and services that were exhibited on this occasion.

Business Innovation - Solutions

FUJIOKA Tadaaki, SUEKI Satoshi, ASAI Emi

Diversification of information, and information chains that go beyond the corporate realm – the ubiquitous environment of the future is filled with substantial business opportunities as well as the need for various risk countermeasures. It will also be important to construct a corporate information system that freely uses IT/Network systems in order to respond flexibly to a changing corporate environment and allow information to be used quickly and appropriately. NEC is proposing "Realtime Management", "Risk Management" and "Lifecycle Management" as the management perspectives for the ubiquitous age.
This paper describes NEC's corporate-oriented solutions which give form to a corporate information system that embodies these three management perspectives.

FUCHIGAMI Hiroyuki, TANIKAWA Tadashi, NISHIYAMA Yuuta
NISHIKAWA Toru, OZAKI Narutsuyo

NEC has been developing the UNIVERGE Solution, which contributes to the increased efficiency of business operations and enhances practical field operations of various enterprise activities through increased efficiency of communications and information sharing. The applicable domain is also penetrated by the ubiquitous environment, changing the solution into something that performs internal business operations to provide support for activities in the field, facilitating the sharing of information at points of contact with customers and furthermore, to enhance the core competence of enterprises with security considerations. The solution, therefore, expanded to encompass the entire domain of business categories. This paper introduces the UNIVERGE solution presented at iEXPO2005, which is a particularly advanced solution and offers a suggestion on the direction of enterprise work style innovations for the future.

KAWABATA Atsushi, AZUMA Ryoichi, ITOH Masaaki
ASANO Keizo, SHIBATA Goh, KASAI Ryuji

In recent years the spread of broadband through FTTH (Fiber To The Home) is progressing largely in the countryside under the leadership of local governments. A notable trend in system usage is the realization of applications accompanied by audio (voice) in an IP environment. The means of achieving this is the IP Announcement Solution, and this paper introduces the background that lead to its appearance, actual case studies, and its potential for the future.

SUGYO Kazushi, OCHIAI Takayoshi

Reliability, security and speed are sought as the foundation for the distribution of information in the ubiquitous society. This paper introduces content distribution using Peer-to-Peer connections. The system offers scalability and fault tolerance made possible through the adoption of the Peer-to-Peer connection, while also realizing reliability and assurance of security provided by the management function for copyright and verification of the content distribution status, which is essential for commercial content distribution, through the implementation of a management server.

EBATA Kazumasa, WATANABE Youko, NEZU Yuichirou, TANIMURA Satoru

Some of the special characteristics of recent virus/worm infections are that they feature a very high infection potential that can result in a rapid spread of infection damage, and this situation has led to an increased need for new countermeasures against the spread of virus infections. In the part, our network security product WebSAM IncidentGuard has been providing virus infection spread countermeasures in a tie-up with security devices within the framework of NEC's cyber attack countermeasures. As this product has recently been upgraded to enable compatibility with IEEE802.1X compliant authentication switches, it has now become possible to propose stronger, double cyber attack countermeasures, with which the authentication switches prevent unauthorized connection while IncidentGuard prevents viruses from being spread during operations after connection. This paper is intended to outline the improved effects of the current upgrade.

Business Innovation - Products and Technologies

YATA Yasuhiro, UENO Kazuya

The WebSAM Framework is the first in the industry to realize integration of various functions necessary for system operational management, such as configuration information, operation information and license information using the "WebSAM CMDB," a database that unifies various system operational management information regarding servers, networks, storage and applications. A dramatic reduction in costs can be expected from the building phase to the operating phase of the operational management environment with the adoption of this framework.

YAGI Shinjiro, SAITOH Tsutomu, TACHIBANA Makoto

This paper introduces ActiveGlobe Process Convergence, an SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) platform product series to support the creation of SOA-based systems, and particularly, ActiveGlobe BizEngine/BPEL, business process execution engine, and ActiveGlobe WebOTX, service execution platform, which are the core products of the group.

SHIMIZU Takahiro, KAWASHIMA Hiroyuki, GOTOU Yasuo
USUI Yuji, OKAYAMA Yoshimitsu, ENOMOTO Masahiko

Thin Client refers to a system in which the terminals do not incorporate data or applications and perform processing by accessing a server. As requirements have recently been diversifying from the viewpoint of security enhancement, NEC has prepared three Thin Client systems, which include the "virtual PC system," "screen transfer system" and "network booting system" for selection according to environment and purpose.
This paper introduces the features of the connection systems and terminals of the three Thin Client systems provided by NEC.

FUCHI Hiromasa, MASEGI Hidetoshi, IRISAWA Tomoyuki

The "virtualization" and "integration" technologies are attracting attention and noticeable attempts are being made for the most effective, most flexible utilization of IT resources using these technologies. This paper introduces the "SIGMAGRID," a next-generation integrated platform featuring an original virtualization technology that was released in October 2005. This paper specifically focuses on the background of the introduction, the key technologies supporting the SIGMAGRID and the innovative features of the platform.

TANIOKA Takahiro, KAWANABE Masazumi, MURAKAMI Shoichi

Multi-OS platform i-PX9000 and various software products based on it make possible server integration in which servers running multiple open OSs including HP-UX, Linux and Windows can be accommodated in a single cabinet while inheriting the existing ACOS assets. This can lead to an open linkage system that can deal flexibly with changes in the job environment with reduced operation/management costs. In addition to the above, this paper also describes the outline of the new system architecture including the ACOS Platform Technology, which is one of the key technologies of the i-PX9000.

UMEGAKI Tadashi, MORI Yoshiaki, NAGASAWA Makoto, NAKAMURA Tatsuya

The authors have commercialized the "N3630 Virtual Tape Device for use as a magnetic tape module for the ACOS4 system. It can emulate the cartridge library function by storing a virtual tape in a disc array, which can be run by making use of the software assets of previous systems. This product functions to provide data output to the latest LTO devices and also provides ACOS systems with a function for the backup and archiving of compact, large-capacity tapes.

ITO Yasuhisa, SHIRAKAWA Takahisa, USUI Yuji

Some of the most important characteristics required for a mobile notebook PC is the "light weight" and "long battery life," but it is technically difficult to achieve these targets simultaneously. With VersaPro UltaLite, the authors have succeeded in providing both light weight and a long battery life by adopting new technologies and thorough design measures, at the same time as greatly enhancing the security function that is critical for business users. This paper is intended to discuss the orientation of mobile notebook PCs in the Ubiquitous Age and the technological measures used in their designs.

MATSUHASHI Masamichi, YAMASHITA Koji, KUBOTA Atsushi
ITO Yusuke, AMEMIYA Hideki

ROUTE BUILDER is a route building program capable of compiling new route information of an entire district covering the insides of buildings by connecting maps of different floors, maps of different scales and 3D route information from outdoors to indoors. It can be used to provide route information for pictorial maps of underground shopping centers or buildings in websites as well as to connect the above route information with other route information including existing types. Its ground level map can use open format "DRM21" as the common data format. This paper introduces the newly developed route building software ROUTE BUILDER and describes some examples of services in which this software can be used effectively.

KUROKAWA Makoto, OSE Motoni, MARUYAMA Tatsumi

Application of IC to credit cards has already entered the period of massive dissemination and compatibility with IC credit cards will be indispensable for POS systems in the retail industry where payments have been done mainly using magnetic credit cards. In the past, IC credit card services have been accompanied by problems in cost and system flexibility because they had to comply with the international specification known as EMV, which used certified payment-dedicated terminals. Recently, the authors have succeeded in implementing a function meeting EMV as software (middleware) instead of by hardware and have obtained certification of this method by EMV. This middleware makes it possible to implement IC credit card-compatible systems without using dedicated terminals. It is expected that the middleware will play a very important role in various forms of credit card payment situations that will be implemented in the future.

KUNIEDA Kazuo, IWATA Makoto, HASHIZUME Kazuaki, KOIZUMI Hirokazu

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which is the largest municipality conducting house change identification work in Japan, has terminated its visual identification work that has been in use for 20 years and shifted to a new systematization of the work in January 2006. Due to the very large area, covered, the Tokyo Metropolitan area is divided into four blocks and the required work in them is entrusted to different companies. Three of the four companies have adopted NEC.s "Fixed Assets Change Judgment System" and are already involved in a full scale operation of this system. This paper is intended to introduce the Fixed Assets Change Judgment System, which performs stereo based comparative analyses of aerial photographs and detects changes in the shape and color of houses automatically.

TOMIOKA Katsumi, KONDO Kenji

A ubiquitous sensor network is a means for realizing the collection and utilization of real-time information any time and anywhere. Features include easy implementation and maintenance, as well as ample flexibility. In this paper, we introduce the elemental technologies of sensor network systems, as well as provide examples of solutions for the "facility status monitoring system," "quality control and instrumentation systems for the manufacturing and inspection processes," "temperature and humidity monitoring systems for warehouses," as well as "building management system."

FUKUDA Noritaka, KANEDA Yukinori

Considering the rapid progress of electronic control and networking of In-vehicle systems, the adoption of FlexRay is underway as a communication standard of the next generation. NEC Communication Systems, Ltd. have developed and announced V-TEST for FlexRay as the first demonstration tool in Japan for use with the FlexRay communication system. V-TEST for FlexRay incorporates functions that match the characteristics of FlexRay to improve the efficiency of FlexRay network design and the verification of Invehicle systems.

MATSUNAGA Yasuhiko, ONO Takashi, SUGAWARA Hiroto
WATANABE Yoshinori, MOTOYOSHI Masahiro, NAKATA Takayuki

In recent years, mobile phones are being used as important communication tools in the business setting. In response to this scenario and to help guarantee a stable communication quality for business based users, it is expected that mobile carriers will introduce the SLA (Service Level Agreement) for business user mobile communication services in a similar manner to that which has been done for land-lined communications services.
This paper explains a mobile service level management system that supports mobile carriers in providing SLA compliance management services for business users. When introducing the SLA, the radio wave quality inside an enterprise building may be accurately predicted by using a 3-D radio wave propagation simulator.
After the introduction of the SLA, quality information is acquired from both the enterprise terminal and the mobile network. By analyzing this information statistically, radio cell anomalies and other adverse symptoms are detected, thus enabling the radio wave quality to be improved and the SLA guaranteed quality level to be maintained.

SHIROSHIMA Takahiro, SUGIYAMA Kaori, ISHIKAWA Kazushige

Recent diffusion of Internet-compatible cellular phones has increased the number of people using their cellular phones to access the Internet. However, the use of cellular phones to access online services is still far below the use of PCs due to problems in the operability and legibility.
This paper gives a summary of NEC's Web Consultation System, which promotes the use of online services from cellular phones by remotely supporting the web browsing operations of cellular phones from a PC.

Case Studies

MIZUE Makoto
System Deployment Promotion Department,
Solution Business Promotion Division,
NEC Fielding, Ltd.

Wireless LAN has recently been expanding its field of application from households to other fields by making use of features that employ radio waves. These include the construction of flexible environments for meeting rooms and the offices of private businesses and wireless IP telephones. On the other hand, the system properties that are inherent in wireless communications have led to the emergence of information leakage risks.
To help customers build wireless LAN systems that can be used with security of mind, NEC Fielding, Ltd. is enabling identification of the theoretical radio wave propagation environment, by using the innovative wireless LAN simulation software "RADIOSCAPE-PRO." The system evaluates the radio waves that are present on the actual site and proposes optimum access points, antenna installation locations and specific wireless LAN security/radio wave leakage prevention measures before proceeding to the actual installation. This report is intended to introduce the case study of a successful wireless LAN installation system that NEC Fielding has developed and introduced with the aid of the RADIOSCAPE-PRO software.

Realizing the Safe Society - Solutions

MIYAZAWA Hidetoshi, TAKAHASHI Hiroaki

It will be necessary to acquire large amounts of information to enable smooth control, monitoring and information distribution in a ubiquitous society. This is why there are great expectations for wireless sensor network technologies which readily allow the sensing of multipoint connections and various types of sensors. We are proposing solutions that realize the ideal system using temperature/ humidity sensors, acceleration sensors and triggered lighting control on the mesh network that is characteristic of ZigBee. And also the development of much-anticipated ZigBee-ready compliant wireless modules that offer low power consumption, low cost and advanced network configuration possibilities.

KAWAGUCHI Hiroshi, TAKAMI Kazuhiko, SUGIYAMA Mikio

We have compiled the set of items required for incorporating a camera module in the cellular phone, including the hardware, software, services and know-how, into a "camera integration solution" and are now offering it for the final products manufacturers and device manufacturers in the cellular phone market. This paper describes the development of the integration solution and introduces the CE130 camera engine for cellular phone use featuring high print quality and a 5M-pixel camera module incorporating the CE130.

Realizing the Safe Society - Products and Services

IGARASHI Tsuyoshi, YAGI Yoshinori, TAMURA Saeko, MASAKI Kenji

Environmental considerations are now among the worldwide topics aimed at the prevention of global warming. Since automobiles exert an important effect on global warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), measures for promoting "EcoDrive" and "safe driving" are expected to gain more importance in the future. This paper is intended to introduce the fuel consumption and drive safety improvement effects of EcoDrive, which are further explained by surveys on the introduction of the EcoDrive diagnosis system. It also serves to introduce the EcoDrive diagnosis system "DriveManager."

SAKAI Hiroshi, UEHARA Masami, OKADA Shinichi
KISHIDA Hideya, SATO Yasuharu

The global objective today is "to develop toward the sustainable society." This will be done by balancing the global environment and human activities. Our PC business is deployed based on the two pillars of the global and life environments and factors that affect these environments are to be monitored throughout their lifecycles. This paper is intended to introduce our measures including those aimed at compliance with the European RoHS Directive. Also covered are measures that target hazardous substances such as efforts for the use of halogen-free and phosphor-free plastics, those for the use of bioplastics to prepare for the depletion of oil resources, those for noise reduction using the water-cooling technology and those for dealing with VOCs (Volatile organic Compounds).

TANAKA Eiichiro, MIZUMORI Yoshiyuki, KOMATSU Chihiro, ANDO Wataru

Blog and Social Network Services (SNS) started spreading explosively. Many people publish blog articles with ease. BIGLOBE started a blog service named WebryBlog in March 2004, and recently released new functions for the SNS. This paper introduces this SNS extension of the WebryBlog.

FUKAGAWA Goro, HAMADA Mayuka

"Kuchikomi Net" is an information communication content that allows content users to form a community and create new word-ofmouth or through-the-grapevine information by exchanging information on what they want to know about.
The authors propose the creation of a new form of communication through the system by combining the functions specific to cellular phones such as the camera function, shortness of distance between users and the flat-rate packet communication system as well as the speech synthesis technology developed by NEC Media and Information Research Laboratories.

TAKIZAWA Masafumi, SATO Masahiro

Enforcement of the Personal Information Protection Law has quickly stimulated activities aimed at security enhancement. The NEC Networks & Systems Integration Corporation is developing an integrated system to connect the existing "entrance/exit magament" system with the "tresspassing surveillance" and "image surveillance" systems. Its aim is to implement a system that can record entrances and exits together with images enabling the identification of actual persons. This paper introduces an outline of the flapper gates and image surveillance system that were exhibited at the last iEXPO2005.

General Papers

NISHIMURA Akihiro, HIRAI Kouji, TANAKA Hiroki, IWATA Hirohide

The conference projector Collabomate-iP is the world's first projector to integrate the teleconferencing function of Nippon Avionics' original projector with the built-in document camera. It features the possibility of holding teleconferences and presentations using paper data and samples in formats that are not readily compiled into PC data. Using a built-in document camera function in addition to conventional TV conferencing methods and presentations it also enables movies, voice broadcasts and PC data transmission, thereby demonstrating its suitability for remote meetings at more routine and practical levels. This paper has been compiled to outline the Collabomate series of projector-integrated teleconferencing systems and to introduce their functions, focusing in particular on the actual sample/data image distribution function.

NEC Information

Lectures & Speeches

KOBAYASHI Kazuhiko
Executive Vice President and Member of the Board,
NEC Corporation

KUNIO Takemitsu
Associate Senior Vice President,
Executive General Manager of Central Research Laboratories,
NEC Corporation

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