A new generation network — beyond NGN —

This paper discusses requirements and several research activities of new generation networks (NWGN) coming after Next Generation Network (NGN) currently driven by ITU-T. The detailed research profiles of Japanese governmental projects such as AKARI project are introduced with possible future applications. Photonic technology has been applied for high speed communications, possible high speed communication services are also investigated in this paper. This paper addresses that photonic technology is also important for energy reduction of these services, which is one of the keenest issues in the world for the next decade. Among other concerns to increase power consumption of communication services, network appliances and sensors are not negligible because of their number and the penetration rate in ubiquitous or pervasive network services. This paper also introduces the maximum power consumption of these sensor devices required for keeping sustainable services.