Hitachi Review Vol. 55 (Dec. 2006) 167 Future Information-communication Technology in China Hui Deng OVERVIEW: Together with having the most populous, fastest-growing major Osamu Takada economy in world history, China will come to dominate the new “ubiquitous technology” market that is growing with the coming of the “ubiquitous- Shigeru Miyake information-network society.” In such a situation, Hitachi (China) Research & Development Corporation (HCR&D) has started research related to information-communication technologies such as mobile, broadband network, network management, and optical access—whose markets are led by China. HCR&D has also launched several collaborations with Chinese universities, research institutes, and telecom R&D centers to support those directions to exploit this research. INTRODUCTION IEEE) convergence is becoming more and more BY the end of 2005, the number of telephone promising in China (see Fig. 1). People at home or subscribers in China had risen to about 700 million. working in enterprises use various kinds of terminals Among them are 400 billion mobile-phone users and 300 billion fixed phones. Meanwhile, second only to the USA, China boasts the No. 2 position in the world in terms of both Internet users and broadband Internet Whenever, Cheap, Joyful, subscribers. At its current growth rate of over 90% wherever, safe, colorful, and whoever and efficient fashionable life per year, China will surpass the USA in total broadband subscribers by late 2006 to become the largest broadband country in the world. QoS Network Accompanying this rapid growth in the broadband Multicast management market, competition in China’s telecommunication market is becoming more severe. Almost all major Convergence of wireless & IPv6 vendors around the world have come to China. They Security Mobility have set up sales teams, localization development, and technical support teams, etc. Over time, more and more 3G (mobile) Fixed IPv6 companies feel that they must have a core-technology R&D lab in China in order to succeed in this Home Enterprise 3G AP 3G AP Access router challenging market and grab a share of the Residential opportunities in this growing country. gateway In the future Chinese telecommunication market, WLAN Optical Enterprise anybody, anywhere at anytime—known as “wherever, Optical PSTN whenever, whoever” access—should be able to access Home future telecommunications services, such as 3G (3rd QoS: quality of service AP: application product generation) and Internet access, in a cheap, safe, and IPv6: Internet Protocol version 6 WLAN: wireless local area network efficient way in order to appreciate a more joyful, 3G: 3rd generation PSTN: public-switched telephone network colorful, and fashionable life. Aiming toward that goal, Fig. 1—Converged Future Communication Network Scenario in and by jointly considering technology like QoS China. (quality of service), network management, multicast, It shows the future network scenario in China, where the security, and mobility, Hitachi believes that fixed [IP infrastructure includes mobile networks (such as 3G) and fixed (Internet Protocol) and circuit] and mobile (3G and networks (like IPv6) accessed by optical, PSTN, and broadband connections. Future Information-communication Technology in China 168 [3G and WLAN (wireless local area network)] and access technologies [optical, xDSL (generic digital VT Client 1 MMD server QoS PDSN/AAA HA subscriber line), 3G, WLAN, etc.] to browse the P-CSCF Internet, join a video teleconference, or watch TV. I-CSCF Furthermore, given that China already has the L3SW S-CSCF HSS largest subscribers in the 2G (2nd generation) mobile- EV-DO AP PCF AN-AAA 3GPP2 MMD technology market, it may come to dominate future Handover 3G, B3G (beyond 3G), and IPv6 (Internet Protocol PDIF VT application server version 6)-related information-telecommunication WLAN AP markets as well. Seeking to take this opportunity in : VT traffic through EV-DO : VT traffic through WLAN VT client 2 China, Hitachi has organized an R&D team [HCR&D: VT: video telephone PDIF: packet data interworking function Hitachi (China) Research & Development Corporation] PDSN: packet-data serving node MMD: multimedia domain AAA: adaptive-array antenna P-CSCF: proxy–CSCF for working on those information-communication HA: home agent I-CSCF: interrogating–CSCF EV-DO: evolution-data only S-CSCF: serving–CSCF technologies. And since China also has a huge pool of PCF: packet control function HSS: home subscriber server talented young researchers in its universities and AN: access network 3GPP2: 3rd-Generation Partnership Project 2 L3SW: layer-3 switch institutes, HCR&D started several collaborations with several top Chinese universities and established many Fig. 2—Outline of Video-telephone Handover between EV-DO joint laboratories. and WLAN. In the following sections, we will first focus on It shows the handover between MMD-based video-telephone two fields to realize the above-mentioned future services, i.e. 3G CDMA (code division multiple access) 1x telecommunication trends: next-generation EVDO and wireless LAN. Seamless handover from 3G to information technology about 3G, next-generation wireless LAN is achieved. Internet technology in China. After that, the joint labs set up by Hitachi with Chinese universities and future information technology in China are described in as a mobile and get high-speed Internet access detail. seamlessly at home or on the street through various kinds of wireless access technologies. The basic NEXT-GENERATION INFORMATION- requirement is that no data be lost and voice COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY interruption will not occur during handover. We made Aiming toward a ubiquitous network society, our a special virtual delivery to support a virtual network research focuses on wireless (IEEE802.16/11), mobile interface and schedule packet delivery between two (3G, B3G), and broadband network technology (IPv6 different interfaces, thereby achieving seamless router and optical). In the following, 3G-related handover. HCR&D staged the world’s first technology is mainly described. demonstration of videotelephone handover between 3G EV-DO and WLAN in October 2005 at PTCOMM Video-telephone Handover between EV-DO China (see Fig. 2), thus proving that seamless handover and WLAN between 3G and WLAN is possible. Recently, integration of fixed and mobile communications has become popular; especially, this PoC over EV-DO BCMCS System will happen in China after 3G licenses are issued. This CDMA 2000 1x EV-DO has the ability to support technology provides access to CDMA (code division multicast and broadcast systems, and PoC (push to multiple access) 2000 1xEV-DO (evolution-data only) talk over cellular) already has many applications in mobile services over unlicensed spectrum technologies China. How to integrate PoC and realtime BCMCS such as IEEE 802.11. By deploying this technology, (broadcast and multicast system) in a 3G EV-DO service providers will enable subscribers to roam and system is the start point. Voice delay in the PoC handover between cellular networks and public and system would be less than 500 ms, so we revised the private unlicensed wireless networks by using dual- buffer schedule algorithm in the base station and mode mobile handsets. aggregate routers in order to make packet transfer faster With this technology, subscribers can receive than traditional broadcast and multicast systems. In mobile voice and data services as they transfer between this way, HCR&D made the world’s first networks. They can expect to use their video telephone demonstration of PoC over a realtime BCMCS system Hitachi Review Vol. 55 (Dec. 2006) 169 IP Access AAA network CN IP router Ethernet* network Old foreign HA network HA switch PCF-SC PDSN HA1 HA2 HAX Access Small Access MN router rev.A PoC router AP IPSW Home network New foreign network Pico cell rev.A AAA PCF-BC BSN HA reliability AP BCMCS PC + EVDO (IETF draft-ietf-mip6-hareliability-01.txt) Card AT CN: corresponding node Rev.A RAN Rev.A services MN: mobile node IP: Internet Protocol IETF: The Internet Engineering Task Force AT: access terminal IPSW: interrupt processor status word PoC: push-to-talk over cellular Fig. 4—IETF’s Solution for HA Reliability. BCMCS: broadcast and multicast services It shows the contribution of HCR&D to two IETF working- PCF-SC: packet-control function and session control PCF-BC: packet control function–broadcast group drafts: one on HA reliability and the other is on HA RAN: regional area network switches. In this solution, multiple HAs can notify a mobile node * Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox Corp. to dynamically switch to another HA. Fig. 3—Outline of Realtime PoC over 3G EV-DO Network. It shows the BCMCS-based “PoC” service on a 3G network based on broadcast and multicast technology. With this configuration, the amount of signal and data traffic in the air Science & Technology Network),” are responsible for interface is reduced. constructing their own IPv6 core networks and connecting them together through a special network transit center. (see Fig. 3), in which delay was less than 500 ms. As one of the leading companies involved in IPv6 With this technology, a multicast PoC voice stream technology, Hitachi is also actively involved in this can be delivered over a 3G EV-DO network and can large Chinese national R&D project, in which one topic significantly reduce the amount of additional air- is mobile IPv6 HA (home agent) reliability. An HA is interface signals and data traffic. a single point of failure in a mobile IPv6 network. It is thus critical to improve reliability of HAs in the event NEXT-GENERATION INTERNET that one crashes. HA reliability allows another HA to TECHNOLOGY IN CHINA continue providing a service to a given mobile node. The CNGI (China Next-Generation Internet Security associations and binding caches should be Project) was started in early 2003 and funded with synchronized between multiple HAs. By proposing US$ 170 million in appropriations for constructing a IPsec (Internet Protocol–security) context transfer, our big IPv6 network by the end of 2006.