Category Award Open Category
Solutions Category Award

Grand Prix

Outline

The Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) concept involves providing communications services from space and the stratosphere. It will employ Skylo (geostationary orbit satellites), OneWeb (low earth orbit satellites), and HAPS (a telecommunication platform based in the stratosphere). SoftBank will promote the global deployment of NTN to provide these services.

Assessment

The increasing importance of IoT means there is a growing need for a wide variety of devices to be connected to the Internet, wherever they are located. As a way to eliminate connectivity “dead spots”, NTN solutions providing network coverage from the sky are attracting a great deal of attention. A special feature of this project is the variety of services it will offer, serving multiple applications from different altitudes – stratospheric, LEO, and GEO. Commercial services are scheduled to start in 2022, and a wide variety of applications is envisaged. This award recognizes the merits of this project, particularly the range of services that are planned for meeting the needs of various industries. NTN is expected to offer the business sector a roadmap for early introduction.

Semi Grand Prix

Toshiba's QKD Creates a Secure Online Society

Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Exhibit Area:General Exhibit Area

Outline

Strengthening the security of data communications is a prerequisite as we move toward ultra-smart societies. Toshiba's Quantum Key Distribution will realize societies in which everyone will be able to securely transmit important and valuable data online. Current encryption technology is under threat of being decrypted by quantum computers. Quantum cryptography is a communications technology that has been theoretically proven to be absolutely unbreakable. Thus, sending and receiving data with cryptographic keys that are guaranteed not to be intercepted ensures unconditional security.

Assessment

Cryptographic communications technologies are becoming more and more important as societies become digitalized. However, cryptography difficult to break with current technologies will be broken in the future with the commercialization of quantum computers. Although writing and transmitting cryptographic key information in a single photon makes interception theoretically impossible, there are limitations such as communication speed and distance. Toshiba's Quantum Key Distribution is superior to those of its competitors in terms of transmission speed and distance, and has a proven track record in Japan and overseas. The technology is anticipated to become a main player in the industry, not only for its high security and other technical capabilities, but also for its ease of use.

CEATEC AWARD 2021: Award categories and judging criteria

The awards will be selected from a wide range of projects involving new technologies, products, services, software, applications, solutions and business models to sustain and enrich industry, business, society and daily life. The awards will be presented to those projects that are evaluated to be outstanding in terms of their innovativeness, concrete feasibility, and contribution to society.