Technology initiatives for the near future

After the introduction of OCN, we can expect a high level of demands from users. For example, users will be asking for higher quality, greater functionality, and lower charges for high-speed and high-throughput data transfer. To respond effectively to the wishes of such sophisticated and varied users, technology development must be pursued from the user's point of view. For this reason, research and development is being performed on middleware to open up network functions and make it possible for the user and network to cooperate with each other. With emphasis on the above technology, this paper discusses the development of major technologies for achieving an enhanced OCN, which should become a catalyst of the future multimedia network, and presents a future vision of the network.