Site:                Toshiba Corporation
                      Digital Media Equipment Systems & Services Company
                      1-1, Asahigaoka 3-chome, Hino City
                      Tokyo 191-8555 Japan

Date Visited:  31 May 1999

WTEC Attendees: T. Itoh (report author), L. Young, W. Stark, N. Moayeri

Hosts:            Mr. Shigekazu Hori, Deputy General Manager, Mobile Computing & Communications Development Center
                      M. Ishibe, in charge of silicon technology
                      N. Sugi, in charge of systems hardware
                      T. Hirose, in charge of software
                      S. Saito
                      T. Saeki

BACKGROUND

Toshiba is one of the largest enterprises in Japan engaged in worldwide operation. It had net sales of $48 billion in 1998. Toshiba operates many research, development, and manufacturing sites and organizations all over the world. Recent reorganizations have streamlined operations.

SYNOPSIS

Mr. Hori explained the operation of this organization and the work on system LSI and terminals developments for GSM, W-CDMA, and wireless access. He provided interesting statistics quite different from the United States in terms of the use of the wireless handset. In Japan, ~ 35% of wireless traffic is data, as opposed to 5% in the United States. However, within this rate, 80% is short message service and digital data transfer; and only 20% is PC-based data transactions. This is largely due to cultural specifics among the younger generation. PHS systems are more aggressive for data service. Toshiba has recently introduced a handset called TEGACKY (Te Ga Ki means handwriting) that is a pen-based no-voice handset. This is used frequently even in crowded trains and subways to transmit handwritten messages.

Toshiba is working on products for W-CDMA to be introduced in early 2001.

Researchers are also working on fixed wired systems similar to LMDS at 24 GHz and 28 GHz (with 200 MHz bandwidth).

DISCUSSIONS OF FUTURE APPLICATIONS AND ISSUES

Mr. Hori asked his staff to prepare some responses to the WTEC questionnaire "Wireless Communication Technology Issues and Questions." Questions and Mr. Hori's responses follow:

What are the important emerging applications for wireless communication over the next 5, 10, and 15 years in the following areas?

• personal communications? Internet access, mail communication, information access, other multimedia contents service, Karaoke, motion video, TV phone, stereo (music and comical story telling), weather forecast, position information, electronic match making
• automotive applications? access to the Internet, mail, and computer from a moving vehicle, conversion of visual information to audio so that a driver can concentrate on driving
• mobile Internet service? Internet commerce, ticket service, Internet phone
• fixed service?

What technologies will be important for wireless communications in 5, 10, and 15 years to satisfy these applications?

• low cost, small size, low power (low voltage/low current), and system LSI
• data interface hard/software (USB, BT, etc.)
• man-machine interface (Browsers such as C-HTML and WAP, input/output devices such as LCD, keys, headset, microphones, speakers)
• anti-fading technology, error correcting technology, QOS
• world standardized protocols, software downloading
• high speed CPU, DSP, and other MPU technologies
• memory technology - high speed, on-chip, high integration, FROM
• automatic interpreter: voice synthesis, recognition, and conversion
• low cost (including terminals and services)
• all types of securities

Can conventional wireless communication technologies meet the requirements of these applications in 5, 10, and 15 years?

• It is believed that the fundamental technologies are already in development or in conceptual stages. However, further advances as described above are continuously needed. Also, some problems such as standardization are not resolved. The patent issues are also of great concern.
• The most needed technologically is the optimization of the terminal under different environments. The difficult environments are urban and suburban areas and the base station area and sector. Also, developing the terminals with new technology/new system should be considered while interoperability with an existing communication system is maintained.
• The key technology lies in the LSI chip set. The tradeoff on the algorithm and power consumption is affected by the miniaturization of the LSI. This is not directly but deeply related to wireless communication technology. The weight and capacity of the batteries are also important.

Is a major change expected in the leading technologies used for wireless communication in the next 15 years?

• Renovation of the realization methods of the terminal corresponding to the application is expected. For instance, an ultra-thin card type radio is needed for data communication, a low power liquid crystal for visual terminals, and a protocol processor for multimode operation.
• Technologies to realize antenna-less terminal
• High density packaging: bare chip

What are the prospects for breaking the bottlenecks?

• Bandwidth
  • For Terminals: renovation of anti-spurious/EMC technology, wideband receiver, low distortion transmitter
  • For Wireless systems: cell structure/base station allocation, optimization of power control and adaptive bandwidth use technology
• Channel loss (fading, interference)
  • Learning by the moving speed of the terminal, location of use and user habit
• Portability
  • Miniaturization, low power techniques, operability
• Interoperability
  • Improvement of wireless circuits, optimization/multimode of protocols, high gain/high performance antennas

Mr. Hori provided the following observations:

• Instead of a smart handset (adaptable to different operating wireless systems), he has indicated a need to study smart base stations in which the base station recognizes the handset type and adjusts itself to the protocol and the system for which the terminal designed. (This is believed to be cumbersome at least at this time.)
• In terms of frequency, he considers that 4 GHz and 5 GHz would be needed for mobile access while 24, 28, 30, and 60 GHz would be needed for fixed wireless service. He also pointed out that in the IP application, sophisticated architecture to decrease the packet overhead should be developed.
• He is concerned about a significantly reduced level of research on materials and devices. Nothing new has appeared recently except for Si, GaAs, InP, and SiGe in the materials and no new device structures after HBT and HEMT. He would like to see investigations of new junction structures.

CONCLUSIONS

The future technological direction at this site seems to be significantly influenced by cultural aspects in Japan. Toshiba has tried new applications and products to fit the Japanese market. In addition, Toshiba would like to mix the software/system issues with hardware. The company insists that mobile IP will be the key technology in 3G wireless communication.