Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd. The future of peer-to-peer communication device

Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd.
Senior director, Mikio Mizutani


The Matsushita Electric group announced a reorganization under the slogan: "The establishment of the ubiquitous network society and contribution to creating a society where humankind and the global environment can co-exist." Part of the reshuffle included the establishment of Panasonic Communications which started as a fixed-line communication equipment firm. The company says it will specialize in the development and manufacturing of phones, facsimiles, digital devices gateways and PBX.
We asked Mikio Mizutani, senior director of Panasonic Communications about the company's endeavors.

Panasonic Communications Co. Ltd
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/


IPv6 to determine the future of business

IPv6style: Panasonic Communications has aggressively dealt with IPv6 ever since the company's launch. What is the background and motive behind such a policy?

Mizutani: The company is a result of merging Kyushu Matsushita Electric, Matsushita Denso System Inc and the PBX and telephone business of Matsushita Communication Industrial. It was established in order to specialize in the development, manufacturing and sales of fixed line communication equipment, including document related equipment. Sales of communications-related equipment has been dominated by devices such as the phone and fax, where the terminals have conducted peer-to-peer communication under the narrowband. Since the days of the former Matsushita Denso System, we have tried to shift from this kind of communication to the IP network through endeavors such as the international standardization of the internet fax. But under the current circumstances, it's not easy to have the P2P terminals operate within the IP network, given the various problems of IPv4. Since our main business in the future is going to be products such as the phone, fax, and IP cameras which require a receiver, unless it becomes easy to acquire a global address with IPv6, business itself is going to be difficult. For example, VoIP service was launched in Japan last year, but itxßßcomplicated to connect the P2P terminals like the phone to the router. Unless problems facing IPv4, such as the NAT issue, are addressed, we cannot resolve the problem of setup. In this sense, I believe the rapid shift to IPv6 is an irreversible trend.

IPv6style:Most companies take the stance of merely acknowledging IPv6 as a new possibility, but does this mean Panasonic Communications will actually engage in IPv6 as the main thrust of its business?

Mizutani: Given the fact that our business category itself is about real-time, interactive communication terminals, IPv6 is an issue which will determine the future of our business. While our business is mainly terminals, I feel we have to move into the business of edge routers used by the ISPs in order to resolve the problems. We have no history of ISP station equipment and the equipment itself won't sell until IPv6 business actually starts up commercially, but rather than waiting for that to happen, we want to make our company one that can actually provide the infrastructure itself.


Home gateway, the first stage

IPv6style: Your company has been dealing with the internet fax from an early stage, and has announced the intention to become IPv6-aware, but what is likely to be the first such IPv6-aware product?

Mizutani: I think we will start with home gateway in the homes and the IP camera. The routers, particularly with a wireless LAN function, will be a dual stack of IPv4 and IPv6, so they can actually be used when the IPv6 service business is launched. While our main business is terminals, we think we first must come up with a dual stack gateway. Only with this will there be any sense in making IPv6-aware terminals.

IPv6style: You have already exhibited an IPv6-aware home gateway.

Mizutani: We have released a gateway with wireless LAN capacity as an OEM product to carriers, so our next order of business this year is how fast we can turn that into that dual stack. Of course, there will be new products in the future where the ADSL model and the router and the terminal adapter of the VoIP would be incorporated into one. Products to be shipped will basically be dual stack. I'd like to see a IPv6-aware home gateway shipped during fiscal 2003.

IPv6style: With the proliferation of VoIP, we'll be seeing a service where phones and faxes will be integrated into the IP network.

Mizutani: Our gateway development engineer has also worked on developing modems for personal computers 15, 16 years ago. The fax modem and PC modem developed different standards, and there was no need to apply a receiving function in a PC dial up modems. Internet started with a communication means of calling only. If the development had started with the receiver terminals, things may have been different, but the standard of a PC dial up modem only required a calling function. That's why we thought back in 1992 that fax and phones using the IP network was impossible, but with the bandwidth continuing to expand since 1995, it became possible to conduct P2P communication using the IP network. That's when the problems of IPv4 began to be noticed. Maybe we should have started with IPv6 when fulltime broadband connection became possible.

IPv6style: Different companies have different approaches to the home gateway, with some emphasizing on linking it with AV equipment. What is your company's approach?

Mizutani: While our company specializes in fixed line communication terminals, when we look at the Panasonic group as a whole, home gateway is our turf. In other words, our position is to incorporate Panasonic's various upstream and downstream communication technology and create a kind of "household switchboard" where AV equipment like the TV and other household appliances will all be connected. The problem is that the various terminals, like the refrigerator and the air conditioner, will not be IPv6-aware from the beginning. Since the home gateway can take care of the problem of authentication from outside access, the in-house network of household appliances can maintain a local specification and have that communicate with the home gateway. While the ideal would be to have all terminals IPv6-aware, in the process of approaching such an environment, the home gateway, as "Panasonic's home gateway," has the role of experimenting with connection for household appliances.

IPv6style: Some household appliance manufacturers have the home gateway serve as the AV server as well. Would it become possible, for example, to view a video from Panasonic's HDD recorder through Panasonic Communication's home gateway?

Mizutani: There are different ways of thinking about where to have the storage. E-mail and Web servers should be located before the firewall, or close to the home gateway. On the other hand, if you think about video storage, there would be a different approach. Where the storage would be located would likely vary according to the usage.

IPv6style: When VoIP becomes mainstream, wouldn't it be possible to use number 050 as it is to send the fax signals over VoIP and use it like the current fax?

Mizutani: A fax converts digital data into analog and compresses the data for transmission into signals similar to sound signals. The problem with transmitting it over VoIP is that the fax would not work if any of the packet is disrupted. Since fax data is digital, it would be actually advantageous to send the visual signal as it is on an ordinary IP packet. Internet fax does not rely on analog signals and sends the fax as a mail attachment. This structure is suitable for faxes. When this is transmitted over sound, the quality would suffer, but then in actuality, that may have to be the case. When in the future the sound and data can be send over the IP network, the ideal would be where sound is transmitted as sound and fax as fax, rather than the sound and fax signals being sent together.

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