Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2015-9 (Vol. 66, No. 5)

Special Issue: Cutting-Edge R&D

Overview

• Project on Hyper-connected Cloud to Embrace Megatrends in ICT

With significant changes occurring on a daily basis, the information and communications technology (ICT) industry is coming to a major turning point, potentially facing an imminent paradigm shift or business revolution. Fujitsu Laboratories being part of it, it is crucial that we are prepared to embrace new trends while maintaining the previous system integrator (SI) business models. As the Group's R&D wing, Fujitsu Laboratories plays an increasingly significant role in the group-wide enterprise. In this paper, we present an overview of the recent ICT megatrends and future prospects from a technological perspective. We then describe the strategic R&D on the future "hyper-connected cloud," as well as the research themes for its realization.

Introduction of Overseas Research Establishment

• Research and Development and Support Activities at Fujitsu Laboratories Overseas Bases

As the core research and development organization driving innovation in the Fujitsu Group, Fujitsu Laboratories utilizes a system of global collaboration with three overseas research laboratories: Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Fujitsu Research and Development Center (China), and Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe. These overseas laboratories research and develop key technologies in close collaboration with Fujitsu Laboratories using local personnel of the highest quality while also pursuing standardization activities and original R&D projects reflecting the distinctive features of their regions. They are also active in open innovation through tie-ups with leading universities and research institutions in their respective areas. Furthermore, to support Fujitsu's business activities in their regions, they are committed to business incubation as exemplified by their collaboration with venture startups and introduction of advanced technologies through forums and exhibits. This paper introduces the research and development and associated activities at each of these overseas research laboratories, which play an important role in supporting the Fujitsu Group.

Cutting-edge Devices and Manufacturing Technologies that Support ICT

• Silicon Photonics Optical Transceiver for High-speed, High-density and Low Power Consumption LSI Interconnect

The next-generation servers and supercomputers with advanced functions and low-power consumption require not only CPUs with an enhanced processing capability, but also signal transmission technology that connects CPUs with other CPUs or memories at high density and low power consumption. The conventional signal transmission technologies are becoming outdated and in the near future they will not be able to provide the signal transmission bands required by the CPUs used in high-end servers and supercomputers. Optical transmission technology makes wide-bandwidth, long-distance transmissions possible, and thus, there are high expectations that it will be a key technology. Especially, silicon (Si) photonics technology has been attracting much attention in recent years because it is considered to be promising for reducing the size, increasing the density and lowering power consumption of optical transceivers. This paper explains Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories' small, energy-efficient Si photonics optical transceiver technology. The key factors for realizing a small, high-density optical transceiver with reduced energy consumption involve enhancing optical devices and driver circuits, and optimizing the mounting structure to supply good power and signals. We proposed a novel configuration of silicon photonic transceiver utilizing a bridge structure that enabled high-density integration without wiring, and we optimized the design of optical/electronic devices based on this structure. We achieved the world's best performance in terms of high signal density and low energy consumption, and hence it validated the technology.

• Automatic Generation of Image Processing Programs for Production Lines

Image processing systems are applied in many stages of a production line, such as through manufacturing/assembly and visual inspection. Because changes take place frequently in production lines, as in facility or parts alterations, image processing programs need to be developed and/or modified promptly to accommodate those changes. Using one of the machine learning techniques―Genetic Programming―Fujitsu Laboratories is pursuing the development of technology to automatically create image processing programs simply by feeding in input images and correct data which is the correct processing result. One of the biggest challenges in applying it to production lines was the learning speed. In tackling this challenge, we attempted to restrict the hierarchical depth of the program structure, and developed an appropriate evaluation method according to the shapes of target objects and an auto-selection system of necessary learning data. As a result, we succeeded in generating an automatic program for high-precision image processing applied to a parts assembly facility while managing to reduce the time required for the learning process to one-tenth of the conventional systems. In this paper, we explain this technology to automatically generate an image processing program, and describe the evaluations of its application to a production site.

• Exhaustive Test-case Generation using Symbolic Execution

Software testing has been one of the major challenges in the development of software for enterprise systems because it takes between 30% and 50% of the total development cost required. Meanwhile, such testing has increasingly become important, because the upcoming paradigm for ICT system development, such as test-driven development and continuous integration, is directed at automated testing. Over a period, Fujitsu Laboratories has pursued R&D of software testing, mainly focusing on the test-case generation, which has a major impact on ensuring software quality and minimizing the development cost required. Such test-case generation has been successfully realized in the test function of the FUJITSU Software Interdevelop Designer―Fujitsu's business application development platform. We have recognized great potential in symbolic execution since the early days, a method which has become a popular academic research topic today. This paper presents an exhaustive test-case generation technology that utilizes symbolic execution. We describe three challenges in its practical application, aiming to improve the efficiency of program unit testing and regression tests for version upgrades. That is followed by accounts of the approaches adopted to overcome these challenges. This paper also describes some cases in which we evaluated its application to working software assets.

Evolving Technologies to Operate ICT systems and Utilize Data

• Software Technology Offers Real-time Analysis of Super-fast Telecommunications at 200 Gbps

Smartphones and tablets have become widely and readily available, and the expanding scope of applications for datacenter use has stimulated the advancement of cloud services. Thus, it is becoming crucial to maintain the quality of IT-network-based services. Meanwhile, an ever-increasing volume of data traffic and further sophistication of system structures are leading to service disruptions such as slow data propagation speeds and difficulties in establishing network connections. For early detection and swift recovery of such service disruptions, it is essential to analyze and distinguish between their causes to know whether they are due to network (connection) quality or lie in application programs. This requires detailed, real-time behavioral analysis of each telecommunication packet. For complicated cases, evidence of the errors may need to be accumulated for later in-depth analyses. In order to meet these requirements, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed technology that facilitates real-time analyses of telecommunication packets on super-fast communication networks, as well as high-speed data accumulation and queries. The technology has been realized in the form of software that requires no expensive, purpose-specific hardware, and it is installed on a versatile system. This paper describes the software technology that enables to analyze, accumulate and search data from high-speed telecommunications. It also explains the system structure.

• Wireless LAN Remote Failure Diagnostics Technology

Many offices and work sites have been recently switching local area networks (LANs) or machine to machine (M2M) systems for connecting on-site devices to wireless networks. Wireless LANs are being utilized in more and more places because they are accessible and affordable means of constructing a network. However, wireless LANs are susceptible to interference from other devices, and their communicable ranges are limited. This property of wireless LANs makes their operation difficult, as the environmental factors always affect the data communication quality. In order to maintain stable performance, therefore, it is important to establish an operational system capable of quickly detecting failures of wireless network and promptly recovering it. To address this issue, we set out two requirements for the wireless LAN management at low cost: no additional device functionality to be needed, and an ability for network administrators to isolate the causes of problems or affected sections of the network without having to be present on site. We thus developed a network-driven remote failure diagnostics technology to meet these requirements. We then verified the developed technology for its effectiveness using a computer simulation. This paper describes the basic principle of this network-driven remote failure diagnostics technology and the results of the evaluation.

• Next-generation Network Architecture Led by Information-Centric Networking

The Internet was originally aimed at sending and receiving data between host computers. However, developments in recent years have been focusing on using the Internet as a distribution system for information such as video and music data. Given this as a background, there is a growing interest in research on the Information-Centric Networking (ICN), a new networking architecture that caters to the new ways of information-centric Internet usage. The core notion is that the network architecture does not depend on locations (servers), but on the named data, making them directly accessible to users. The notable characteristics include more efficient data access through in-network caching, simplified content request messages for mobility support, and content-specific security functions. Many universities and corporations are utilizing this architecture and reporting their development projects on protocol specifications, open software, prototype systems and so on. Although these are still in the research phase, so much could be achieved in the future. This paper outlines the basic paradigm of ICN and characteristics of various types of ICN architecture. It also describes the current trends in the research and initiatives taken by various organizations, together with descriptions of the research conducted by Fujitsu Laboratories of America.

• Identity Mapping Solution for Open Data Federation

The use of open data is growing, especially since the launch of open-data government initiatives such as DATA.GOV and DATA.GOV.UK. Open data are freely available to everyone to use and republish. However, the lack of publishing standards means that open data are usually in a proprietary format. Moreover, the data sets are always siloed. To address these problems, Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe (FLE) has been developing an identity mapping based solution for federating siloed open data regardless of their format. In this paper, we introduce the two fundamental technologies used by this solution: semantically enhanced reliable entity identity reconciliation and mapping based federation. Our solution facilitates open data utilisation in organisations, leading to better decision making and improved competitive advantage.

Technologies to Transform Business and Lifestyles by Linking Terminals with Clouds

• Sensing Middleware for Easy Development of Energy-efficient Apps

Information services can be more useful if mobile devices are adapted to gather information in our surroundings using built-in sensing functions. Mobile devices, however, work with batteries, and various approaches are taken to tackle the major challenge the sensing and telecommunications mechanism poses in terms of their power consumption. Generally, mobile products tend to benefit from energy-saving effects more if their purposes or devices to use are more specific. However, saving energy by specifying the usage is likely to lower the products' versatility when it comes to reapplying them to other uses or devices, making it necessary to write apps and firmware every time the usage or applied devices change. Against this background, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed sensing middleware technology that makes it possible to choose and continually execute the least energy-consuming sensing method simply by using the app to specify what kind of information is required, while the middleware collects and manages the power composition of available sensors. This paper presents this middleware that significantly reduces development cost while increasing the app's mobility for mobile sensing.

• Place-based Services Platform Quickly Establishing Connectivity Services between Smart Devices and Equipment at Purpose-specific Places

Recent years have seen the increasing adoption of smart devices in places where people gather for specific purposes, such as shops and schools. Hitherto, the realization of services to link people's smart devices to others' smart devices or equipment at a given place required a multitude of prior set-up processes for users, on the one hand, and complicated programming for application developers, on the other. Thus, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed platform technology for place-based services, enabling connectivity services to be established quickly, linking people's smart devices or others' smart devices or equipment at a given place without a need for member registrations or driver installations. The technology may achieve a reduction of up to 90% in the time required for developing application programs to enhance the connectivity at places where people gather for particular purposes. Potential applications of this technology include facilitating group study in a school, providing product information to a customer's smart device in a store, or introducing merchandise by linking devices to a big screen display. This paper explains the component technologies for the place-based services platform and its applications, drawing on some actual cases.

• Technology for LED Lighting with Embedded Information on Objects

Recently, smart devices have become widely distributed and the telecommunications environment has grown for accessing the Internet, allowing users to obtain information whenever and wherever they are. This has changed user behavior so that it is now commonplace for them, when they come across a certain object, to search the Internet and obtain relevant information about it on the spot. However, the extraordinary volume of information on the Internet sometimes makes it difficult for users to find the information or service they want immediately. In order to make it easier to find information about things on the Internet, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has developed technology to embed ID information in light, which is cast on the identified object, and recover the ID in the reflection cast back from it, using image processing technology. This technology makes it possible to easily access information on things simply by capturing the object with a built-in camera on a smart device. Service providers may use this technology to increase communication channels with end users and expand the services they provide. This paper presents an outline of this technology, and explains its usage and applications.

• Use of Shape Deformation to Seamlessly Stitch Historical Document Images

In China, efforts are being made to preserve historical documents in the form of digital data so that they can be effectively used while being protected. Stitching technology is expected to play a role in these efforts by dividing a large-sized historical document into multiple areas, scanning those areas using a compact contactless scanner, and cleanly connecting the resulting images. However, historical documents are often on paper of low quality and have an uneven surface. The resulting local distortion in the scanned images makes it difficult to stitch them together. To solve this problem, Fujitsu Research and Development Center Co., Ltd. has developed a seamless image stitching method using shape deformation. This method first deforms one of two images to approximate the other image and then estimates single or dual optimal seams to minimize deformation and maximize consistency. With this method, high-quality images of historical documents can be obtained. This paper describes the problem associated with the stitching of historical document images, proposes a method for solving it, and evaluates its performance.

New Initiative for Social Innovation

• Projects on New Energy Services

Demand for electric energy systems is diversifying to counter global warming, address resource depletion and secure safety. In this context, renewable energy is an important option that meets all these requirements, and its wide diffusion is highly expected. However, renewable energy generation systems are characteristically unpredictable due to the fluctuation of power generation as they depend on natural phenomena such as the sun and winds. This aspect makes it difficult to adopt them in terms of supply-demand control. To address this point, the future power generation systems must utilize information on power consumption in coordination with the power supply system, and this is stimulating efforts to develop standards in this field. Meanwhile, the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing its utility, connecting all kinds of items including computers and other information devices. We consider that the future will see a new form of energy service that amalgamates highly IT-enabled energy systems with IoT. This paper describes the trend to standardize energy systems and IoT, and it explains Fujitsu Laboratories' projects in this area and its efforts to realize a new energy service.

• Efforts for Disaster Prevention/Mitigation to Protect Society from Major Natural Disasters

Natural disasters of devastating scales are happening more often. As these are becoming a major issue in many countries, there is a growing need for effective countermeasures using information and communications technology (ICT). Fujitsu Laboratories pursues the development of technology for disaster prevention and mitigation, drawing on expert knowledge of specialists in this field. Effective ways to reduce the impact of natural disasters include early detection of disasters, and prediction of the vulnerable areas and the scale of potential damage. In this paper, we first describe the enhanced estimation technique involving the social networking services (SNS), in order to quickly identify the locus of the disaster. Reliable information on disaster-stricken areas can be obtained by combining data from SNS with other sources. We then describe a method to optimize a flood forecasting simulator that helps to identify high-risk areas of flooding in large river basins. This makes it possible to automate parameter configurations, which had been difficult to do before.