This paper presents a layered hierarchical switching-software technology, which is based on an object-oriented design approach, that improves software reusability and productivity. This technology enables a non-stop, service-enhanceable software environment (called NOSES), which satisfies customer demands for quick provisioning of new service features without interrupting service, and which improves software reliability. This technology was developed as part of our overall plan to establish a communications software platform that can be customized for use by various communications systems, such as STM, ATM, and IN. The developed non-stop service enhanceable software techniques are call-recovery restart, system file update, and on-line partial file modification; they were achieved by using dynamic program modification. A system file update inevitably affects calls in service, despite efforts to save in-service calls by copying the call data from the old file to the new one. We have therefore developed a different approach: on-line partial-file modification. Our prototype switching system has proven the effectiveness of this modification method and has shown that it can cover a limited range of service feature additions (which meets customer demands for quick service provisioning), as well as all bug fixes (which can lead to higher software reliability due to not using conventional machine code for software patching), without interrupting service. This paper describes on-line partial-file modification, which can be applied to communications systems that require resident program modification or initialization without program loading; that is, the program exists permanently in main memory. An evaluation of this approach also showed that the productivity of service-layer software increases about two times and that the total increase in systems development productivity is about 25%.

20-Gbps non return-to-zero (NRZ) – binary phase shift keying (BPSK) using the silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator is demonstrated and characterized. Measurement of a constellation diagram confirms successful modulation of 20-Gbps BPSK with the silicon modulator. Transmission performance is characterized in the measurement of bit-error-rate in accumulated dispersion range from -347 ps/nm to +334 ps/nm using SMF and a dispersion compensating fiber module. Optical signal-to-noise ratio required for bit-error-rate of 10-3 is 10.1 dB at back-to-back condition. It is 1.2-dB difference from simulated value. Obtained dispersion tolerance less than 2-dB power penalty for bit-error-rate of 10-3 is -220 ps/nm to +230 ps/nm. The symmetric dispersion tolerance indicates chirp-free modulation. Frequency chirp inherent in the modulation mechanism of the silicon MZM is also discussed with the simulation. The effect caused by the frequency chirp is limited to 3% shift in the chromatic dispersion range of 2 dB power penalty for BER 10-3. The effect inherent in the silicon modulation mechanism is confirmed to be very limited and not to cause any significant degradation in the transmission performance.

We fabricated a 1.55-µm polarization insensitive Michelson interferometric wavelength converter (MI-WC). The MI-WC consists of a two-channel spot-size converter integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SS-SOA) on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) platform. Clear eye opening and no power penalty in the back-to-back condition were obtained at 10 Gb/s modulation. We also confirmed the polarization insensitive operation on the input signal. Moreover, for an application of the MI-WC to DWDM networks, we demonstrated the selective wavelength conversion of 2.5 G/s optical packets from Fabry-Perot laser diode (FP-LD) light to four ITU-T grid wavelengths. We confirmed the good feasibility of this technique for use in DWDM networks. The wavelength conversion we describe here is indispensable for future all-optical networks, in which optical signal sources without wavelength control will be used at user-end terminals.

We fabricated a 1.55-µm polarization insensitive Michelson interferometric wavelength converter (MI-WC). The MI-WC consists of a two-channel spot-size converter integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SS-SOA) on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) platform. Clear eye opening and no power penalty in the back-to-back condition were obtained at 10 Gb/s modulation. We also confirmed the polarization insensitive operation on the input signal. Moreover, for an application of the MI-WC to DWDM networks, we demonstrated the selective wavelength conversion of 2.5 G/s optical packets from Fabry-Perot laser diode (FP-LD) light to four ITU-T grid wavelengths. We confirmed the good feasibility of this technique for use in DWDM networks. The wavelength conversion we describe here is indispensable for future all-optical networks, in which optical signal sources without wavelength control will be used at user-end terminals.

This paper describes a method for describing a three-dimensional (3-D) scene by integrating color and range data. Range data is obtained by a feature-based stereo method developed in our laboratory. A color image is segmented into uniform color regions. A plane is fitted to the range data inside a segmented region. Regions are classified into three types based on the range data. A certain types of regions are merged and the others remain unless the region type is modified. The region type is modified if the range data on a plane are selected by removing of the some range data. As a result, the scene is represented by planar surfaces with homogeneous colors. Experimental results for real scenes are shown.

For people with serious disability, it is most significant to be able to use the same communication methods, for instance a telephone and an electronic mail system (e-mail), as ordinary people do in order to get a normal life and communicate with other people for leading a social life. In particular, having communications access to an e-mail is a very effective method of communication that enables them to convey their intention to other people directly while at the same time keep their privacy. However, it takes them much time and effort to input an e-mail text on the computer. They also need much support by their attendants. From this point of view, we propose a multi-modal communication system that is composed of a voice recognizer, a pointing device, and a text composer. This system intend to improve the man-machine interface for people with physical disability. In this system, our voice recognition technology plays a key role in providing a good interface between disabled people and the personal computer. When generating e-mail contents, users access the database containing user keywords, and the guidance menu from which they select the appropriate word by voice. Our experimental results suggest that this communication system improves not only the time efficiency of text composition but also the readiness of disabled people to communicate with other people. In addition, our disabled subject on this paper is not able to move his body, legs and hands due to suffer from muscular dystrophy. And he is able to move only his fingers and speak command words with the assistance of a respirator.

We propose an information-sharing network system, capable of forming and dynamically reconfiguring multiple information-sharing groups on the same network platform by using wavelength routing and distributed shared memory technologies. The network system comprises information-sharing terminal nodes equipped with a shared memory and a wavelength-tunable transmitter, network management terminal and an arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG). The information-sharing terminal nodes are connected to an AWG by a pair of optical fibers, forming a star-shaped topology. Information is shared among the information-sharing terminal nodes through the establishment of a logical information-sharing ring. This is accomplished by adjusting the output of the wavelength-tunable transmitter at each terminal node to an appropriate wavelength according to the wavelength-routing characteristics of the AWG wavelength router. We developed a prototype information-sharing network system, in which, as preliminary experiments, HDTV and SDTV videos were used for real-time information sharing. The dynamic reconfiguration of information-sharing groups and a simple automatic restoration technique have been successfully demonstrated. The system is applicable to distributed computer processing systems and high-capacity information-sharing applications such as high-quality videoconferences.

This paper reports a new operational mode, Group Transit Switching (GTS)" applicable to transit switching centers in a switched communication network. Group Transit Switching (GTS) proposed here is a kind of transit switching where a multiple number of trunk circuits is assigned to a route and reset in proper time as a group. In this approach, cascaded trunk circuit groups are kept connected for a period of time between specific two switching centers via so-called group transit switching center(s), where the number of trunk circuit groups being increased or decreased according to the change of traffic flow pattern on group basis. Thus, it is possible to save control load of the transit switching centers and to improve the adaptability of the communication network to traffic pattern variation. This paper also reports quantitative investigation on the traffic characteristics of GTS and the switching control load of group transit switching center, as well as some GTS application field. It is indicated that this GTS system can realize a saving of transit switching center switching control load and the flexible operation of the communication network without sacrificing the trunk efficiency of corresponding trunk circuit too much.