Bridging Connectivity Gaps and Harnessing e-Resilience | IGF 2023 Networking Session #104

Bridging Connectivity Gaps and Enhancing E-Resilience: Innovative Solutions for Underserved Areas

This networking session at the IGF in Kyoto focused on addressing global connectivity challenges and enhancing e-resilience, particularly in underserved areas and during disasters. The discussion centred around innovative solutions to connect the unconnected and make existing connections more resilient.

Dr. Toshikazu Sakano from ATR introduced the LUGS (Local Upgradable and Generative System) technology, designed to restore local communication in disaster-affected areas. LUGS comprises a battery, Wi-Fi access point, and small servers, offering social networking services like chat, video communication, and information sharing. The system can be deployed quickly in areas with disrupted connectivity, providing essential communication capabilities.

Jeffrey Llanto and Glyndell Monterde from CivisNet Foundation presented the implementation of LUGS in the Philippines. They highlighted its successful testing during the COVID-19 pandemic and its adaptation to local needs, including integration with learning management systems and use as a charging station during disasters. The project demonstrated LUGS’s potential for improving access to information, enhancing coordination during disasters, and increasing community engagement.

Chandraprakash Sharma from WISFLUX India discussed the future perspectives of LUGS in developing nations, emphasising its potential for providing critical information access in remote areas of India. He highlighted the system’s versatility in addressing various challenges, including natural disasters, and its potential for integrating edge AI to offer localised services without internet connectivity.

Dr. Haruo Okamura presented an innovative solution combining LUGS with optical fibre cables to provide internet connectivity to disconnected areas. He introduced the BIRD (Broadband Infrastructure for Rural Area Digitalization) cable technology, which uses submarine cable technology for terrestrial applications. This approach allows for cost-effective and efficient deployment of fibre optic networks in challenging terrains.

The presentations highlighted several key points:

1. The importance of local communication restoration during disasters and in underserved areas. 2. The potential of LUGS to bridge the digital divide and enhance disaster resilience. 3. The adaptability of LUGS to various use cases, including education and disaster response. 4. The combination of LUGS with fibre optic technology as a long-term solution for connectivity. 5. The role of community engagement and capacity building in successful implementation.

The discussion also touched upon challenges such as infrastructure limitations, cost considerations, and the need for sustainable, long-term solutions. The speakers emphasised the importance of phased approaches, local implementation, and adherence to international standards in addressing global connectivity challenges.

In conclusion, the session presented a range of innovative solutions aimed at bridging connectivity gaps and enhancing e-resilience. These approaches, combining portable communication systems like LUGS with advanced fibre optic technologies, offer promising avenues for connecting underserved areas and improving disaster preparedness. The speakers underscored the need for continued collaboration, adaptation to local needs, and integration of emerging technologies to achieve universal connectivity and resilience.

Moderator:
Hello, good morning everyone from Kyoto International Conference Center. Sorry we are around five or six minutes late due to some technical reasons. Today we are here in IGF and I’m Binod Basnet, Director of Educating Nepal and we’re here for a networking session, bridging connectivity gaps and harnessing e-resilience. As the global stakeholders are striving for the last mile connectivity, we know that there’s still a one-third of population that still do not have access to the internet. And if we break this down to LDCs, it’s about 64% of population that do not have access to the internet. And during the COVID, it was quite evident that connectivity is a lifeline in many ways for information access, for healthcare, for education and so forth. But it’s not just only about connectivity, even in the regions and countries that have access to connectivity, it has to be a resilient connectivity. When there are cases of disaster, the connectivity tends to get disrupted. So what is the backup plan? That is a very pertinent question. So with these two issues in hand, connecting the unconnected and making the connected resilient, today we’re proposing some innovative solution for these two cases.

UNKNOWN:
So today we have a panel of speakers for our networking session. First we have Dr. Sakano from ATR, who will be talking about Lux system as a solution for disaster and backup communication system. And secondly, we have Jeffrey Lanto and Glendal from CivisNet. Jeff is the executive director of CivisNet, and Glendal is the representative of that organization. And thirdly, we have Mr. Chandraprakash Sarma from WISFLOX India Private Limited. And finally, we have one of the champions and pioneers of optic fibers and standards, Dr. Okamura-san, who will also be proposing an innovative solution to rural and unconnected populations connectivity. So without further ado, I’d like to ask Dr. Sakano to give a presentation on Lux system. Please give us an introduction of the Lux system.

Toshikazu Sakano:
Thank you. Can you hear me?

Moderator:
Yes. Okay.

Toshikazu Sakano:
So please show my slide. Okay. So I can share the slide by… Okay. Can I start? Okay. Thank you very much for the kind introduction. My name is Toshikazu Sakano from Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International

UNKNOWN:
based in Kyoto, Japan. Actually, I started research and development on ICT for disaster countermeasure. Okay. Thank you very much for the kind introduction. My name is Toshikazu Sakano from Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International based in Kyoto, Japan. Actually, I started research and development on ICT for disaster countermeasure just after the big earthquake occurred in west, east and north part of Japan in 2011 when I was working for entity laboratories. And I moved to ATR, current institution, and started the new project called Lux project. In my talk, I’d like to introduce the research and development and my idea of restore the issues that happened in the disaster situation. So let me briefly introduce our next slide, please. This is… Okay. This one slide is to introduce ATR. ATR is a private research institute founded in 1986 and the main themes are computational neuroscience, deep interaction science. This is robotics, communication robotics. You can see down right, this is Android robot developed by ATR and wireless communications and life science. And I’m from Web Engineering Laboratories, which is doing a research and development on wireless communication and other ICT issues. And I’m from Web Engineering Labs. Next please. So let me start the background of my research and development. This one slide showed the number of disasters by continent and top 10 countries in 2021. And looking at this slide, Asia-Pacific region has many disasters happens. And under this big disaster happened, please go to the next slide. Okay. Some big issue happens. So under the big earthquake or big disasters, communication network is disrupted often. For example, base station and communication buildings are disrupted. That means you can not take phone and internet anymore. And that prevent us from using daily use, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Amazon, that kind of services you can not use anymore. But at the same time, under the big disasters, the demand for communications will go up. So there is a big gap happens under the disaster situation. So this is an issue I wanted to resolve using ICT. So next slide. Next. Okay. So what I thought in resolving this issue, I focus on the locality or local communication. This one slide with a lot of characters shows other human characteristics. People communicate more with the people with more closer physical distance. This characteristic can be said communication locality. So if you are very close, you communicate with the person more frequently. That is the characteristics of human. So if you restore the local communication under the disaster situation with internet and other network service disruption, that will help to people under the disaster situation.

Toshikazu Sakano:
That is the thing I wanted to do. Next please. So after starting the research and development, when I was NTT, I proposed architectural concept called MDRU, Movable and Deployable Research Unit. This concept is once big disaster occurs, you can bring the resources for restoring communication service for local communication to the disaster affected areas and restore quickly for local communication. This concept was standardized at ITUT as L.392 and this was when I was NTT Labs. And next please. And after I moved to ATR, I launched a new project called LUGS. And the MDRU itself was focused on the telephone service and LUGS is almost the same as MDRU but the focus point is internet services like social networking service. So LUGS itself is comprised of battery and Wi-Fi access point and small servers. And I put software for social networking service in the server. That is the concept of LUGS. So once big disaster occurs, you can bring this LUGS to the disaster affected area with no internet connectivity, then people can access to this LUGS using Wi-Fi functionality, using their own smartphones and browsers access to the social networking service functionality. That is the basic concept of LUGS. Next please. So this is the outlook of prototype of LUGS. LUGS is comprised of LUGS server, Wi-Fi access point, battery, network hub, and some papers. All these things are packed in a portable case and that is the outlook. Next please. This is the functions LUGS offer as a social networking service. As you can see, chat function and video one-to-one or group communication and feed function and pages function. These functions are offered to people that surround these LUGS devices. So this is limited to local communication, but you can keep using this kind of social networking function. That is the concept of LUGS. Next please. So our team has conducted a series of feasibility studies, mainly in seven islands in Philippines. And detail will be presented by next person, Jeffrey, so I will skip this slide. Next please. And this is also another activity after the big typhoon in Philippines and detail will be presented later. So next please. So I have focused on disaster issues, but LUGS itself can be used for other issues in the world. So potential demand of LUGS worldwide, while the internet use is widespread in everyday life and work for many in high income countries. As Vinod said, one-third of population worldwide do not have access to the internet. That is a big issue worldwide. So to restore, to bridging the gap, LUGS must be efficiently used to people in the area where broadband connectivity or internet connectivity is not fully penetrated. Okay, next please. So this one slide, so explain the status we have. So we have run research and development of LUGS for about five years with the support of stakeholders. As you can see at the bottom of this slide, we should move on to the commercialization phases to LUGS. So I launched a startup company named Negro Networks. The objective of the company is to deliver the LUGS system and solve solutions based on it. At the same time, we extended our R&D recently to include artificial intelligence in LUGS to be efficiently used by the first responders of disasters. We call this system FLOS, or Frontline Operational System. Okay, next please. Let’s complete faster, Sakano-san. We’re running out of time. Okay, this is summary. Thank you. Thank you for your attention.

Moderator:
Thank you so much, Sakano-san. Now I’d like to request Jeff to make his presentation.

Jeffery Llanto:
I’ll be the one. Thank you, Bino. To start with, I’m Jeffrey Lianto. I’m the Executive Director of CBISnet Foundation, and together with me is Glendel Maltrede, our Project Manager. And we will discuss and we will talk about the implementation of the locally accessible cloud system in the Philippines. So CBISnet Foundation is a project of the government under the Department of Science and Technology that evolved into a foundation in the year 2000. So CBISnet is one of the pioneers to provide internet connection to the Philippines way back in 1994. So we have been working with different partners and stakeholders like ATR and APNIC. So this is the locally accessible cloud system implementation in the Philippines, started in 2019 until March 2023. Next slide please. So next slide. As mentioned, we are a government project, and it evolved into foundation. Next slide please. Then we have partners, local and international partners. We have strong partnership with the government. We also have partnership with APNIC Foundation, ATR, NTT, and USAID. Next slide please. So we have been recognized our efforts on ICT in the Philippines, and again, it’s been recognized in one of the IGF in Mexico. Next slide. So about the last project, Dr. Sacano already elaborated about the project itself. So the next slide. So this is the implementation right now. The implementation of the project, it’s in the Hilutungan Island that’s in the center part of the Philippines. It’s around 7.5 kilometers away from the nearest point of presence of the internet. So we push the signal to the island called Hilutungan. Next slide. So this is the timeline for the last project. It started in 2019 until 2023. So what is very significant on this project is this is during the pandemic area. So when Dr. Sacano tested lax in Tokyo, I mean in Japan, there are several use cases that cannot be implemented in Japan, but is at a high need to areas like the Philippines. So it started as in 2019 we did some social preparation, then eventually when pandemic came in in 2020 and 2021, there were new use cases that were introduced, like the learning management system that was integrated to the locks with the help and the development of the software coming from India. So this was not part of the original plan that we had way back in 2019. So eventually, again, I don’t know if it’s lucky enough, in 2022, disaster came in. A big typhoon went to the Philippines. And again, new use cases were being introduced, especially on the side of the hardware for locks to implement, to be a charging station so that it can also help to the devices in the island. Next slide, please. So these are the activities that we want to show you. It’s more on the pictures. In order to implement the project, you need to have them penetrated at the grassroots levels. So we need to introduce this technology at a very minimal so that the island people, the folks on the islands can get those information immediately. Next slide. Then after training them, we are going to proceed in putting up the infrastructure. Again, this is a challenge because the island doesn’t have any electricity. It relies more on solar power. It doesn’t even have a very strong internet connection. They just rely also on weak signals coming from telephone companies. OK, next slide. Then once the infrastructure is already installed, this time it’s the installation of the locally accessible cloud system. And this is the trainer’s training. Here in the picture, you notice we train the teachers and also train the students how to access the system. Next slide. For the usability, there are several stakeholders involved in this one. The school, the local community, which involves fishermen, housewives, students, and so on. So there’s a constant training to the different stakeholders. And what’s very interesting is the LUX, we try to introduce it on a non-disaster era. We tried to introduce LUX on our Christmas party in which we had some kind of games that they use it on a non-disaster era. So there’s some kind of application for normal times. Next slide, please. And the LUX data access and retrieval for this one, we tested several areas, not only in Hilutungan, but also to the neighboring islands under the APNIC project. So LUX already evolved into another project. It’s called, we call it ILEP, or the Internet for Sustainable Livelihood, Education, and Tourism under the partnership with APNIC Foundation. Next slide. Lastly, we need to empower the community. We need to train them, especially the teachers, because they’re the ones who really has the capability to understand more and grasp more information. So we train the teachers so that they can troubleshoot and they can also install the system by themselves. OK, so next slide. So I will give you to Glendale, our project manager, to give the results of the project implementation in the Philippines. OK, thank you.

Glyndell Monterde:
Thank you, Sir Jeff. To further discuss the use cases of LUX in the Philippines during pandemic, let me discuss the results of the research and development. First, it tested the full potential of LUX outside Japan. So this means that during pandemic, during its step four and step five of research and development, it allowed successful testing of its performance and functionalities of its features, including voice, messaging, bulletin, among others. Secondly, it integrated Philippine use cases during pandemic. So we’ve identified additional use cases, as discussed by Sir Jeff. It includes the learning management system, the voice calls, the solar charges for device, and including also the local information systems integration of the barangay. Next is, we’ve implemented the local LUX and the cloud LUX methodology. This means that all information stored on the on-premise or local LUX will now be able to sync to the cloud LUX when internet becomes available. And next, it has a remote implementation to nearby islands, which means it was successfully being implemented in the island of Hilutungan, which is more than six kilometer away from the mainland of Cordoba, Cebu. Next is, is the collaboration and deployment to late the area in partnership with the Visayas State University, or VSU. So VSU piloted the successful testing and usage of the learning management system. And of course, the synchronization feature among its two campuses. Next is, we have the formation of the Islet Connect project, in partnership with APNIC Foundation Australia and Seed4Com. So the APNIC Foundation had given grants to CivisNet to connect the unserved islands. So it has two phases. The first phase, the Islet Connect makes project, it makes the LUX as a key component for the communication support during disaster in Hilutungan Island. And its second phase, it also connects the neighboring islands of Cauhagan and the Panganan Islands. And other, next slides please. For other key results, it also made the LUX, the presentation and demonstration to partners and stakeholders, including USAID-BECON, the Department of Science and Technology Region 7 of the Philippines, and also the Department of Education, and as well as Ramon Abete’s Foundation Incorporated. And we are able to present also to international conferences and meetings, including the UNESCO. And just to also give you the potential impacts of the LUX, the implementation of LUX, it gives improved access to information, which means that LUX provides access to critical information during disasters that helps in making informed decision and take appropriate actions to protect the lives in the community. Secondly, it will give you enhanced coordination, which means LUX facilitates better coordination among different stakeholders involved in the disaster response that helps ensure that resources and assistance are effectively distributed to the community. Next, it also gives increased community engagement, which means that this allows for more inclusive and community-driven approaches to disaster management. Next, we have the reduced isolation. It is LUX being a tool that can improve the ability of the people to seek assistance and communicate their needs during disasters. And lastly, LUX will give you capacity building. It is to develop skills in disaster communication and response, and to enhance resilience and ability to cope with future disasters. So that ends our presentation from CVSNet Foundation Incorporated. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you, Glendale and Jeff. Now, I’d like to quickly request Mr. Chandra Prakash to talk about the future perspectives of LUX in terms of developing nations. Thank you. Thank you.

Chandraprakash Sharma:
Can you put up the slides, please? So good morning, everyone. I’ll start with my introduction. So I’m Chandra Prakash Sharma, CEO and founder at WISFLUX. We are proud to be representing the Indian collaboration on this wonderful project, which has so much impact on developing nations. And thank you, Dr. Sakano and the wonderful team for pursuing this project. I really appreciate the dedication of everyone who are present here towards the resilient infrastructure that we all are seeking in developing nations, especially after the wonderful traditional drums and fireworks and the party we had last night. It was difficult probably to wake up early this morning. So going forward, let’s move on to the next slide. So I want to, so far we have done trials in Philippines and Japan, but next target is India and other developing nations. And Indian government right now is pushing very hard on the digitalization of the governance and infrastructure overall. And we have some wonderful projects going on in terms of digitalization, but the challenge remains because, although there has been tremendous progress in last few years about connecting the people in remote areas, but still, I think we have around 50% of population which doesn’t have access to the internet. So not just the access to the internet, but the access to the information is more important. You can say the internet maybe reaches later, but access to the critical information about government policies and schemes that are available for people in tribal areas or the poor remote areas that we have in different parts of India, because very diverse country geographically as well. We have mountainous region, hard to reach, hard to implement any infrastructure. We have desert and then we have deep forest where many tribal population is living. So to help them access the many advantages the government is offering, the schemes that government is offering, I think this kind of solution is very important for them. And then again, we have variety of disasters that can occur naturally in India, especially on the coastal regions. And we have earthquake prone regions as well. So after one disaster is hitting, this kind of device is very useful as we have seen through the implementation in Philippines. Going faster to save time for the next presenter here, you can see that this device has a lot of potential. Dr. Sakano talked about the inclusion of AI on this device. And it’s not just the AI access through the cloud services, but the wonderful thing about it is that you are able to access it locally. Probably you will understand in better terms by the term edge AI, which is for the people who are not connected to the internet. So it has good potential for the e-education as well. And we have in India, a public distribution system where government helps by distributing rations to people who cannot afford those. So digitally providing the information and solutions based on such device is very impactful. Next slide, please. I want to give you a perspective of the future of this technology, not in, I mean, it may seem simple in a way, but it has a huge potential. So right now the privileged who have access to the cloud are able to access the servers databases, the services from the cloud, including the very powerful and huge potential AI services we have nowadays available. Going forward, the cloud providers or the service providers are now trying to bring services as close as possible to the users by deploying the content and services in the edge of the cloud. But then you have the edge where user is sitting, which is the user local area network in which the lax network is basically, you can technically understand, this is where the lax architecture sits. And services now can be available within the local area network of the user with or without the connectivity of the upper layers. And then finally, you have the edge where the user devices are sitting, which connect to the upper layer, the local area network accessing the lax services. Next slide, please. And as we discussed, the impact of the AI is going to be tremendous on all the sectors, and especially if it can be made available local to the remote communities for farmers providing insights about, for example, the diseases, if they can upload a photo and understand better about the farming, the healthcare, local healthcare workers, the safety workers, the emergency responders, and even in the education. And the benefit of such AI is because it is local, it can offer the faster data processing and enhance security with the less consumption of bandwidth and being energy efficient. As already discussed that this portable device that we have here is capable of being charged by solar panels as well, which was tried in Philippines already. So next slide, please. So thank you very much, everyone. And now Dr. Okamura will present his wonderful contribution.

Moderator:
Thank you, Mr. Chanaprakash, and thank you for making that quick because at the end of this session, we are also looking to take some questions from the audience. So to not delay the question and answer session, I think we’ll go on with the last presentation. Dr. Okamura-san, the floor is yours.

Dr. Haruo Okamura:
Thank you very much for this opportunity. The title of my talk today is Connected and Unconnected in a Phased Manner. We have been listening to the presentation. We have been listening to the previous presentations, mainly the use of RACs in an independent manner to create not internet, but the intranet. But finally, my goal is to provide internet connectivity to the world, almost all the disconnected or not connected area in a phased manner in a very practicable way. So the combination of the RACs, multiple RACs plus optical fiber cable is my presentation. The next one, just briefly, I am a global planning president, and I am an expert of fiber optic systems and strategy standards. Actually, I am currently the international chairman of IEC, Fiber Optic Systems and Active Devices. And also, I am a developer of the solution board and the corresponding ITT standards. The presentation that I’m going to tell you is based on ITT recommendations, three recommendations that I have worked for as a editor, L.1700, L.110, and L.163. Next, please. This is all the concept of the phased approach, step-by-step approach. That means from intranet, based on the use of the independent RACs, into internet connectivity. For example, if you have a village A, one day introduces RACs, one RACs, that generates a intranet capability to the village people, maybe maximum 256 people. And next day, village B introduces another RACs, and village C, another RACs, independently. What will happen if we can connect those three multiple intranet RACs by using optical fiber cable, broadband optical fiber cable? As you can see in the slide, there’s a big mountain or a difficult terrain. Basically, we have been thinking that laying the optical fiber cable in difficult terrain has been very, very costly and difficult, and takes a long time for construction. But my idea will be eliminate that difficulties by using submarine cable. Submarine cable, you can imagine, that is very robust against high water pressure. pressure, you can lay the submarine cable directly on the surface of the ground. That eliminates all the cost of construction so that you can have affordable connectivity. And it is something not easy to understand so that I tried to make those trials as international ITT standards. So finally, Village ABC can be connected by using optical fiber cable and one day in the future you can connect maybe Village C to the internet so that all of a sudden those communities become internet capable large communities. This is my idea. So you can see the slide photograph here. The local people with bare hands is now implementing optical fiber cable on the surface of the ground of the unexplored jungle. That really happened in 2019 in Nepal mountain village. Next please. So what is BIRD? This is optical fiber cable so I will be very briefly touch upon what is the BIRD cable. That BIRD is broadband infrastructure for rural area digitalization. My invention. Next please. This is optical fiber cable as I said submarine cable based so that you have a very thick wall thickness stainless welded tube within that up to 48 fiber cores are included. And the total diameter of the cable is even 11 millimeter finger size. That is based on the submarine cable technology and also supported by ITT recommendations. That’s applicable to all terrain. Even in the sky or in the water or on the ground surface or the underground. Next please. This is one example of Japanese quality. This is a cross section picture of Japanese cable and the cable from other country. So you can clearly see that the quality of the cable structure and also the welding portion of the wall of the stainless steel tube very much difficult to use because of the cable outlet is the same but the inside is very different. Next one. Operator if you can go click the down portion of this slide the helicopter can fly. Like this. Thank you. This is just happening in March this year at the altitude of 5,300 meters to carry the cable drum into this high altitude area trying to lay the optical fiber cable board to mount a base camp. Thank you. Next one. So this is a cost reduction. About 90% cost reduction has been achieved because of a construction can be done on the surface of the ground. And this project has acquired WSIS World Summit for Information Society last year championship because this is a real solution opening the door for the globe to be connected and connected practicably by using lux plus optical fiber cable. Next one. So summary the top priority for ITU is connected and connected. It is very much often spoken about but we have been not available the real solution, physical solution and I have now presented the solution here based on the Japanese technology plus ITU standards and that is lux plus ITU compatible solution board that affordably safely bring broadband Wi-Fi hotspots practicably phase-wise across the decline in DIY basis, do-it-yourself by local people. And CAPEX of the board laying cable is about 6,000 U.S. dollars per one kilometer. This is dramatically reduced cost for the implementation. And the criteria for board cable and its deployment complies with the ITU standards. That concludes. Thank you very much.

Moderator:
Thank you, Dr. Okamura for the wonderful presentation. Now we’ve just got over 10 minutes of time and the floor is open for questions. If you want to ask any questions to any of our speakers, you’re ready to do so. Anyone from the audience, if you have any questions, you can come up to the mic and ask the question.

Audience:
Thank you. Hello. Good morning. Carlos Rey Moreno from the Association for Progressive Communications. Thank you very much. I really think it’s a very interesting solution. I’ve been following your work on fiber for many years on ITUT and it’s very interesting how it is evolving the connectivity of different access, you know, like bringing connectivity to the village or to whatever remote area it is now with low earth satellites or with microwave links and then from there start with lux and relying it with fiber to the next village or even within the village because of the interference of the Wi-Fi. I was thinking there is obviously a distance in between the lux, in between the villages that the fiber can go without a repeater and how you’ve been considering that in the model that you were presenting and what would be the increased cost of adding, you know, OLTs somewhere to the lux or, you know, the overall cost because definitely it has some legs and particularly in mountainous regions where villages are close by but you need repeaters too. You cannot do microwave, right? So thank you.

Dr. Haruo Okamura:
Thank you. You have presented a lot of issues. So first one is wireless or wired. Wireless connectivity, microwave or satellite, Elon Musk launched 12,000 satellites and by using 10 billion U.S. dollars and yet the life is only five to seven years and the transmission capacity is only maximum one giga BPS per one, you know, kind of satellite beam. So the fixed microwave also is the maximum at this moment is about one giga BPS, maximum transmission. And fiber can provide more than 10 times higher capacity than those, but one fiber. And as you can see, 48 fiber core can be included, the finger size cable, so the enormous improvement by using fiber. And next question is how long the fiber can connect each other. The maximum distance without any repeater is more than 500 kilometers today if you introduce state-of-the-art technologies by using a fiber amplification or 300 kilometers or 100 kilometers. Just if you’d like to go only 50 kilometers, the very cheap commodity type, yeah, a media converter can just transmit to 50 kilometer or even 100 kilometers, so there is no issue.

Audience:
Thank you. Sorry. Just to caveat a bit of my elements. One thing would be, you know, like 500 kilometers or more for sure, but then if you have several villages, you start to need to multiplex and you cannot have one single cable. So you need repeaters or multiplexers in between. And then in relation to LEOS, 100% on the capacity, microwaves on the capacity, but the $6,000 per kilometer for villages that cannot eat and that are far from wherever it is, I think, you know, long term for sure, fiber, but in the short term, maybe we need to use solutions that are more cost effective for the back home to get there and then, you know, little by little, building up the economies, no? Okay. Okay.

Dr. Haruo Okamura:
The maximum length of the one cable is about 12 to 15 kilometers due to the size of the cable drum. If you go to the submarine cable, it can just, because of the 40 kilometers, 80 kilometers per one segment, because of the cable range and the well equipped manufacturing, everything facilities are available, but for this terrestrial usage, the cable drum at this moment is, you know, only 12 to 15 kilometers. And each 15 to 12 kilometers, you need a splicing box, like, look like a repeater, but the inside is only fiber splicing, that’s all. So there is no difficulty to, you know, connect to 100 kilometer away villages. Thank you.

Audience:
Okay. Thank you very much. My name is James Ndufuye from Nigeria. I have two quick questions. Great presentations anyway. Great presentation. The first one, very nice solution, bold solution, like this is targeting the underserved areas. What percentage of your, of Nepal, of the country would this cover? And now, soon, do you project it can be covered? Then secondly, if you compare this to TV-wise space technology, TV-wise space technology, you so, yes, TV-wise space technology, which also can be applied in rural area. So what are the advantages and disadvantages? Thank you.

Dr. Haruo Okamura:
As I said, that in Nepal, I have been, we have been doing a project, as I said, up to, from Namche Bazaar, is the foot of Mount Everest, to the base camp, 42 kilometers. Now, as you can see, the helicopter flying, that carried in the cable drum already this much. So I don’t know what percentage of the, but the National Telecom Authority of Nepal declared that the use of this solution to Mount Everest region and Mount Annapurna trekking route. And we have already been doing in the west part of Nepal for about 10 kilometers. So I don’t know how much percentage this can cover, but this is all terrain type. Go to mountains, underwater, in the water, everything. I should not say everything, but I don’t know, go to the Mount Everest top is very difficult. And the use of fiber and open space for wires in TV space, I don’t know, at the capacity change, capacity difference is very large, so that I don’t have a good idea. Maybe Sakano-san could tell about it. I think TV wide space spectrum can be used for extended area of lugs, not the substitute of optical fiber. So TV wide space may be possible to be used for extending the area, but bandwidth will be limited. Because TV wide space has a large, you can cover a large area, but bandwidth is low. So we can think of that kind of technology can be included in our lugs solution. Thank you.

Audience:
Hello. Does it work? Yeah. Hello. My name is Niels Brock from DW Academy in Drasomatica. Great presentation. Two questions about the lugs. How much open software and open hardware is in this device? Thinking of also customization possibilities for local communities to get their hands on to pitch it to their very needs. And also about, this is a question more for the region, so if something is broken, how are the supply chain situation? Is this going to be like a waste very quickly, or do you have other solutions if there is a piece that is broken to quickly replace it? Thank you.

Toshikazu Sakano:
Okay. Thank you very much for good questions. For the first one, lugs can be replaced, as CP says, lugs can be used as edge computing. So if you include any softwares, you can use the functions the software provides locally. For example, in our feasibility study, we installed e-learning management software inside the lugs and used for school, that kind of thing you can use. So you can use in various way and for various applications with our solutions. And second one?

Chandraprakash Sharma:
Yeah. I would like to add to this answer. So as Jeff here wonderfully talked about the implementation in Philippines, I think one important thing that they did in Philippines was to actually train the people there so that they can repair if anything were to happen to this device, they could implement taking a box by themselves in a remote region without any help from us. And it’s built from off-the-shelf components that are readily available, not just in Japan or one locality, but they can replace by the hardware available in Philippines or hardware available in India. As for your question about the open hardware, right now we don’t have, but let’s say there is definitely a possibility to include capable hardware available like Raspberry Pi or if there were other open hardware available that can sustain the kind of server that we run in this. So yes. I hope it answers.

Jeffery Llanto:
Maybe I can add something for that one. LUX is a platform. So under the auspice of Dr. Sakano, and it evolves to different modules. So it started with file repositories, calls, and all those areas. So eventually the use cases started to come in based on real scenario on the community. For example, LUX is useless during disaster, especially typhoon, when all the devices in the island doesn’t have any power. Where do they charge? So again, technology is defeated. So I asked Dr. Sakano if you can look for solutions. So they talk with India. Then LUX become a charging station to the devices on the islands. So again, LUX is a platform, and we learn a lot from it. And we just met Dr. Okamura, and he said point-to-point connection or wireless connection is expensive. So maybe you could look for ways, let’s say a low-cost fiber optics. So again, we are learning a lot from LUX and through this project. And hopefully Dr. Sakano with the new one, they call it the new project. Yeah, FLOS, the Frontline Operations System.

Moderator:
Jeff, we’re out of time now. That’s all we can do for today. Thank you everyone for joining us today. And we also have a booth on the first floor, so we can always join in and talk about this informally outside. So thank you everyone for joining in. Let’s collaborate, let’s network, and let’s find solutions to bridge the digital divide together. Thank you so much. Have a good day.