Kunitake Kaneko

Real time switching and streaming transmission of uncompressed 4K motion pictures

In this paper we describe the worlds first Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic real-time switching and streaming transmission of uncompressed 4K motion pictures. This demonstration, of an advanced networked media application, conveyed the 23rd Kyoto Prize events, held on Nov. 10 and 11, 2007, from Kyoto, Japan to Stockholm, Sweden in real-time with life-like image quality. Multiple live 4K streams from different cameras were switched over the network into a single uncompressed stream at the directors request, and transmitted to Stockholm via 10 Gbit Ethernet connections over 21,000 km using the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF). We introduce several new technologies, including an uncompressed 4K video streaming system using Internet Protocol (IP) transmission and a shared line approach to gap-less video switching control. The Kyoto Prize 2007 demonstration proves the feasibility of using the IP infrastructure for next generation video switching and distribution networks, even at very high speeds across great distances.

Beyond 4K: 8K 60p live video streaming to multiple sites

The high definition of 4K motion pictures makes them applicable to a wide variety of purposes. The development of 4K image equipment such as cameras, displays, and playback systems has made easy viewing of 4K video possible. Video frame rates have also become higher, enabling 4K-60 fps progressive (60p) video streams to be transmitted over IP networks. However, problems remain in increasing video image resolution to 8K or more so as to build systems in which many people collaborate at the same time. This paper describes a video transmission system that attains image resolution of 8K-60p or higher by synchronizing multiple 4K transmission systems we have developed. Since 8K-60p transmission over IP networks has extremely high traffic rates, schemes for achieving robust transmission such as forward error correction (FEC) must also have very high rates. We have also developed techniques for attaining reliable transmission, i.e., the use of low-density generator matrix (LDGM) codes to achieve high throughput FEC, application-layer multicasting, and monitoring network status at multiple points.

4K applications beyond digital cinema

4K that became a digital cinema standard in 2005 is now recognized as the next high quality image technology of HD in the market. This paper describes what 4K is, the status of 4K, and 4K applications other than digital cinema. We introduces three 4K applications, 4K alternative content with live transmission, 4K usage in dome theaters, and 4K video conference with our proof-of-concept experiments over the world.

Fast handover mechanism for high data rate ground-to-train free-space optical communication system

We developed a fast handover mechanism using a high-speed image sensor for a high data rate ground-to-train free-space optical communication system in order to achieve a continuous communication between passengers and the Internet. Using the new handover mechanism, we were able to achieve handover time of 21 milliseconds in the best case, which is short enough to offer live streaming Internet services such as Skype, YouTube, and Internet Radio.

Tri-continental premiere of 4K feature movie via network streaming at FILE 2009

The aesthetic potentials of 4K digital cinema are an impetus for creative practitioners of cinematic arts to undertake full investigations of the methods and expressive possibilities of this end-to-end digital medium. This includes new approaches to production, distribution and the forum of theatrical experience. A group of artists, film-makers and computer scientists have been developing a series of 4K digital cinema projects that have diffused and grown the manner in which 4K cinema is experienced between Brazil, the US and Japan. The recent culmination of this was an event in July 2009 in which a 4K feature length movie had its world premiere on three continents, streamed from Brazil to the US and Japan. This was accompanied by an HD video teleconference (VTC) between the three sites. To the knowledge of the participants, this was both the first uncompressed HD VTC between the northern and southern hemispheres as well as the first feature length 4K film to be streamed across three continents. Through this work, the new creative affordances of 4K cinema were highlighted, along with the new capabilities of cinematic distribution, production and experience.

Construction of Routing Information Knowledge Base towards Wide Area Network Management

Nowadays each network management system (NMS) adopts different methods for collecting network information and different data structures. This makes NMS cooperation difficult, especially in multi-AS wide area network management. The current goal of the KANVAS (Knowledge base system in wide Area Networks with general Versatility, Availability and Scalability) project is to realize wide area network management by constructing a knowledge base system in networks. This paper discusses construction of a knowledge base system in a single AS (Autonomous System) towards the future wide area network management. This paper also shows the design and implementation of the knowledge base system that collects network configuration information from OSPF and SNMP, and stores it as instances of our proposed network ontology called Bonsai. Additionally, a prototype application that accesses the stored knowledge was implemented. The evaluation of basic performance and scalability of the system was carried out using a real AS topology and synthetic topologies and it was made sure that the prototype application works correctly. As a result, this paper shows that feasibility of the future wide area network management that adopts the knowledge base system.

Catalogue: graph representation of file relations for a globally distributed environment

Text-based search engines are widely used to find files in the Internet. However, the users require to understand contexts existing in files and notice appropriate keywords even if the users do not have deep insights of the topic. In addition, text-based search engines require exhaustive search to make keyword indexes. This paper proposes the concept of catalogue that represents relations among files based on grouping and associating by a directed graph. Grouping of files by a catalogue without any text label lets us notice some relations represented by the catalogue. Moreover, a directed graph within a catalogue which associates files can express more detailed relations. We design catalogue system that stores and shares catalogues globally in a distributed and autonomous way. Generalized graph expression of catalogues shared over the Internet bridges any owners, types, and fields of files as long as the files share a same relation. Various services such as digital museums and digital archives are expected to work on top of the shared catalogues.

Impacts of Periodical Burst Packet Loss on Streaming Applications -- Focusing on a Mobile Network in a High-Speed Train

This paper investigates impacts of periodical burst packet loss on three typical streaming applications: YouTube, Internet Radio, and Skype, supposing a mobile network in a high-speed train. Although the characteristics of YouTube and Skype are well analyzed, the characteristics of Internet Radio and the characteristics of these applications under periodical burst packet loss have not been analyzed. First, this paper analyses how much these applications are tolerant to periodical burst packet loss. Second, this paper analyses correlation between application layer protocols and transport layer protocols. As a result, some correlations between transport layer protocols and application layer protocols were found. For example, in YouTube, if TCP segment retransmissions frequently occur before starting content download, a client tries to download the entire content with a single HTTP request while a client repeatedly downloads a chunk of the content with multiple HTTP requests under ordinary network condition.

Content Espresso: A System for Large File Sharing Using Globally Dispersed Storage

Sharing files over the world with higher access throughput and with lower storage cost is a growing demand for the applications that use large files. However, the existing file sharing systems do not realize these two conflicted requests and no research has been found. This paper clarifies the requirements of a global large file sharing system and defines the design goal consisting of three users perspectives: fast retrieving, user defined file availability, and owner-based file management, and one system operators perspective: flexibility in bytes placement. Content Espresso satisfies this goal by approaching with four techniques: three sections model, distributed chunk storage, forward error correction, and UDP retrieving. Content Espresso delivers large files to a client utilizing as much bandwidth as the client access link even servers are located far away from the client.

CLINEX: An Inter-node Cross-Layer Cooperation Architecture to Adapt to Dynamically Changing Network Situation

To efficiently adapt to dynamically changing network environment such handover and link failure, cross-layer cooperation mechanisms are indispensable. This paper first introduces the following five requirements to cross-layer cooperation architecture through a discussion, (1) cooperation between a layer in a node and a layer (not necessary the same layer) in another node, (2) abstraction of control information, (3) definition of primitives in each layer, (4) availability in a wide area network, and (5) implementation. Although there are a lot of proposals of cross-layer cooperation architecture in the literature, none of them satisfy the five requirements. This paper designs an inter-node cross-layer cooperation architecture called CLINEX (Cross-Layer and Inter-Node information EXchange) so that it satisfies the five requirements. CLINEX is implemented in the user space and the kernel space of Linux. Two scenarios are tested in our test network composed of eight machines. One scenario is congestion detection at a remote node, which results in sending rate control at the end node. Another scenario is link failure detection at a remote node, which results in failover in an SCTP association. The measurement results show that the processing time of CLINEX is negligible in comparison with packet transmission latency.