Study Reports in HIKARI Service Architecture Consortium
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Study Reports in HIKARI Service Architecture Consortium HIKARI Service Architecture Consortium Study Reports in HIKARI Service Architecture Consortium Copyright © 2001-2002 by HIKARI Service Architecture Consortium (HSAC) All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without permission from the Administrative Office of HSAC. Contact us: [email protected] http://www.hikari-sac.org/e/index-e.html Printed in Japan Apple and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Cisco, IP/TV are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. EZ Web is a registered trademark of the KDDI Group. J-SKY is a registered trademark of the J-PHONE Group. 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All other brand and product names, logomarks are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective holders. Message from the President Hiroshi Yasuda President of HIKARI Service Architecture Consortium Increase in concern over high-speed access environments in the Internet and broadband communication services is demonstrated by the fact that the number of subscribers to ADSL in Japan exceeded 1.5 million at the end of 2001. In addition, fiber-optics-based 100-Mbps-class services have started also in Japan as a full-fledged broadband service. The advent of the broadband era has been supported by dramatic advances in information technologies (IT) based on progress in computer and telecommunication along with sophistication of devices. Having said that, for most of people, broadband services are not yet a familiar part of daily life. For example, people who make full use of the Internet as a new medium are limited to business people and teenagers with cellular phones. On the other hand, for most housewives, seniors, and children, the Internet has not yet caught up with a conventional medium like TV as a part of daily life. If we want a world in which everyone can enjoy broadband delivery of content such as video streaming, the development of intelligent home appliances that are as easy to operate as TV sets will be essential. All the more, fresh content that families need in their daily lives, such as bargain offer at local supermarkets, remote hookup of a sports meeting, and information on wide variety of events to be held in the community, is necessities. Besides delivery of information content, a new form of interactive broadband services can be envisaged. If one can see the living room of his/her parents’ home and converse with his/her parents face to face on the screen at any time, the home of a young couple living in a city and the parents’ home located far away will be connected through an optical network, and a new lifestyle of “parents’ and their children’s families’ virtually living together” may be materialized. As to service providers, starting with telecommunication-service providers and computer-system integrators, many types of operators, such as home-appliance producers, content-distribution providers, and application-service providers, will be involved in realization of broadband services. For various types of operators to tie up with one another in order to develop broadband services smoothly to form a larger market, guidelines and standardization, such as for standardized operating instructions of terminals, and standardized procedures of network use between home terminals and networks, networks and providers, and among providers, will be necessary. Against such a background, the idea of establishing HIKARI Service Architecture Consortium (HSAC) --an alliance among industries that aims for realization of new broadband services-- was announced in November 2000, and companies and bodies that would be interested in joining it were recruited. As a result, the number of companies/bodies who have joined HSAC increased from 49 in January 2001, when the Consortium started, to 80 in July 2001, reflecting heightened interest in broadband communication. HSAC defines “HIKARI services” as 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps full-fledged broadband services through fiber optics. It defined three main elements for modeling HIKARI services and systems: content providers, end-users, and a “HIKARI service platform” which connect providers and end-users. By doing so, it aims to: (1) Find HIKARI services with media-rich feature that are characteristic of the broadband era (2) Clarify functions and architecture of the HIKARI service platform that distribute/deliver content from content providers to end-users (3) Clarify interface requirements between the HIKARI service platform and content providers/ end-users For these purposes, two committees, the Service Committee and the Technical Committee, are organized and these issues are discussed over the course of the past year. As a result of the study, the Service Committee extracted twenty-two types of services to make a service model, focused on typical five among them with intensive discussion, and drafted descriptions about concepts of HIKARI services. The Technical Committee then selected two prospective ones and clarified functions and architecture of the HIKARI service platform, and defined requirements for interfaces between the HIKARI service platforms and content providers/end-users. The following documents systematically summarize the discussions so far on realization of whole new HIKARI services by the Service Committee and the Technical Committee: [a] Summary of HIKARI Service Concepts [b] Technical Report on HIKARI Service Network Architecture [c] Interface Requirements for HIKARI Services These documents, which were drafted by the energetic members of the two committees in just one year, cover a wide range of areas, but needed further investigation in some parts. These documents are important, because they are the first that show the frameworks of architecture, and system requirements of HIKARI services with the collaboration of people in different industries. We expect that these documents will be fully utilized in your discussions on setting out to HIKARI-service businesses in the broadband era. March 2002 Members Alpha Systems Inc. http://www.alpha.co.jp/english/index.html Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. http://www.agc.co.jp/english/index.htm Asahi National Broadcasting Co., Ltd. http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/anb/kokusai/ Asahi Shimbun http://www.asahi.com/english/english.html B-BAT, Incorporated Broadband Exchange Inc. http://www.bbx.co.jp/eng/corp/index.html Chita Medias Network Inc. Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. http://www.dnp.co.jp/index_e.html Dentsu Inc. http://www.dentsu.com/media/flash/homeFlash.htm Digital Content Association of Japan http://www.dcaj.or.jp/index04.html Fujikura Ltd. http://www.fujikura.co.jp/front_e.htm Fuji Television Network, Inc. http://www.fujitv.co.jp/en/ FUJITSU Limited http://www.fujitsu.com/worldwide/ HAKUHODO, Inc. http://www.hakuhodo.co.jp/index-e.html Hewlett-Packard Japan, Ltd. http://www.hp.com/ Hitachi, Ltd. http://global.hitachi.com/ Hitachi Communication Systems, Inc. Hitachi INS Software, Ltd. Hitachi netBusiness, Ltd. Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. http://www.hitachi-sk.co.jp/English/index.html IBM Japan, Ltd. http://www.ibm.com/ InfoCom Research, Inc. http://www.icr.co.jp/index.html Inktomi Japan K. K. http://www.inktomi.com/ Intel Corporation http://www.intel.com/ ITOCHU Corporation http://www.itochu.co.jp/main/index_e.html Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) http://www.nhk.or.jp/index-e.html Japan Telecom Co., Ltd. http://www.japan-telecom.co.jp/english/index.html Justsystem Corporation http://www.justsystem.com/ Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. KDDI Corporation http://www.kddi.com/english/index.html KENWOOD Corporation http://www.kenwood.com/ Kyushu Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd. http://www.kme.panasonic.co.jp/index_e.html Lucent Technologies Japan Ltd. http://www.lucent.com/ Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., Ltd. http://www.mci.panasonic.co.jp/english/index.html Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. http://www.panasonic.co.jp/global/index.html Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems, Inc. http://www.panasonic.co.jp/mgcs/index.html Meisei Electric Co., Ltd. http://www.meisei.co.jp/frame5.htm Microsoft Corporation http://www.microsoft.com/ Mitsubishi Corporation http://www.mitsubishi.co.jp/En/index_top.html Mitsubishi Electric Corporation http://www.mitsubishielectric.com/ Motorola Japan Ltd. http://www.motorola.com/global/ National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) http://www.aist.go.jp/index_en.html