Year: 2011 Page 1 of 2

Singapore: Carrier Ethernet 2011

On 2011-12-14

Tori Bennett and Ingerid Sørgaard, the EO of Carrier Ethernet World Forum I attended last year in Hong Kong, contacted me in the middle of this year, asked me to join the annual event this December, to perform the similar rituals similar like in Hong Kong last year. This year, the conference took place at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore. I thought that at the end of the year I would have enough spare time, so I agreed. But this November I was again too busy with requests in the office, plus the preparation of Indigo Fellowship 2011 and the IEEE Tencon 2011, plus others. The result was like a déjà vu of Hong Kong.

But at last I landed in Singapore on the first evening of December. The weather was still fresh, sprinkled with spotty rain, with scattered clouds in the sky. Disregard the proposal of the conference organisers, I chose to stay at Porcelain Hotel, on Mosque Street, around Chinatown. I am indeed nosy: always try to find a different atmosphere each time I visit this small island. This time I got the right choice: Porcelain is a small hotel but fresh and comfortable. And with the MRT, I was just about 10-15 minutes only from Resort World Sentosa.

This conference series discusses the Carrier Ethernet, which is the backbone, regional, and access network to deliver information in high-speed packets. In the backbone network, CE is implemented with DWDM with tera routers. Regional networks are developed using Metro Ethernet as aggregator that is connected via DWDM or SDH. And the access networks are deployed using various schemes of optimised GPON FTTX with MSAN and XDSL. Various schemes of networks architecture and design optimisation will require interconnection and interlayer supports among network, service, and applications. This is the theme I presented at this conference, titled Service-Optimised Broadband Internet Technologies.

My presentation was scheduled on the second day, 2 December at 12:55, just before lunch & networking time. The presentation began with a general view about Indonesia and how the public consumes information here. Then I jumped into the development of tera routers and metro ethernet by Telkom Indonesia, and then also its broadband access network. IPTV is also presented, emphasized to the usage of metro ethernet, GPON, and MSAN/XDLS in its network. For the upper layer, I described how the network planning would be linked to service development, that are expected to grow through a new partnership, incubation, and community-generated applications (Internet 2.0). Here the schemes of IMS and SDP are discussed. We intend to set up future products and business models that are personalised and customisable, integrated with the network, and easily commercialised to market (as opposed to the current expectation of startups for advertising or acquisitions only).

This year, I was not the only speaker from Indonesia. There were two other speakers: Mr. Ahmad Rosadi Djarkasih, who presented Enabling Cloud Services to the Enterprise; and Ms. Candra Agnesia Sulyani (aka Mrs. Djarkasih), who presented Driving Profitability in Carrier Ethernet Services for Business the previous day. Unlike last year, this year I refused Ingerid’s request to speak at the panel session. But during the break session (a.k.a. networking session) I talked quite a lot to some of the participants of the conference, discussing the interesting things we had presented, and also discussed the opportunities for them to enter Indonesia IT industry.

After the conference finished, I wandered to Somerset, to visit my favorite bookstore: Harris Bookshop. I knew this unique bookstore last year by accident. I used to visit HMV at Orchard to hunt music CDs that were not easily found in Jakarta. But then HMV moved to Somerset in 2010. And next to HMV, I found Harris: a bookstore with a niche segment. Even for a fans of eBooks like me, who could easily enter Kinokuniya without buying any books (other than buying eBooks even more via the Kindle), Harris is always tempting and enchanting.

The next Carriet Ethernet World Forum will be carried out next year in Hong Kong. Again. I don’t know whether I will be invited. But, with or without me, I suggest you, professional Internet network and service providers, to attend the event next year in Hong Kong.

Tencon 2011 in Bali

By Koen

On 2011-11-24

In Event, IEEE

Last week, Indonesia hosted some regional events: SEA Games, ASEAN Blogger Conference, ASEAN Summit. These days, the IEEE Region 10 (Asia Pacific) carries out its official annual conference IEEE TENCON on Sanur Beach, Bali. This conference has been prepared since a couple years ago, starting by submitting the proposal from Indonesia to the IEEE Region 10, bidding, recording in the IEEE, and the processes that include the calls for papers, paper reviews, event planning, and event organising. The whole process has involved senior academics in various parts of the earth. The event is organised by the IEEE Indonesia Section and University of Indonesia. Two IEEE society chapters are also involved as technical sponsors: the Comsoc Chapter and the MTT / AP Joint Chapter. Since the event is held Denpasar, Udayana University sends some volunteers to support the conference. Busy days :).

I jumped from Jakarta to Denpasar last Sunday. I saw the valley in the vicinity of Mount Ijen, Bali Strait, 10 minutes southwest coast of sunny, clear, sloping, sandy white, soft, and wavy beaches, and then finally the Ngurah Rai airport. Apparently ASEAN Summit still left some activities, so we had to revolve around Bali’s southeast coast for 40 minutes before landing. Then travel overland to Sanur Beach: Inna Bali Beach Hotel.

Unlike 2009, this year I can not seem up to enjoy the magnificent nature and culture of Bali. Representing IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, I had to prepare a tutorial session, then assist the event organising. Even today! 🙂

The tutorial was held on Monday, November 21 at 10:00 sharp. Prof Dadang Gunawan opened the session; then I took over to deliver a lecture on Digital TV and IPTV. My presentation focused on the network architecture, standards, how-it-works, services and content, and to the issues of convergence. Quite a lot, considering the time the tutorial was quite long. The next tutorial session was then filled by Mr Satrio Dharmanto Ms Agnes Irwanti, with emphasis on migration into DigitalTV.

The conference was officially commenced on 22 November. As the organising chair, Dr. Wahidin Wahab open the conference with his typical fun and exciting speech. The plenary session was then filled by four keynote speakers, with two moderated by Mr. Arnold Djiwatampu (himself the general chair of the event), and two by me.

The theme of the keynote speakers were very interesting. Prof. Nurul Sarkar discussed a breakthrough in engineering education strategies. Prof. Ke Wu explored IC Substrate (SICS) that are applied for future electronics and photonics in GHz and THz scale. Prof. Rinaldy Damini detailed energy scenarios taken by various countries after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. And Prof. Jong-Hwan Kim explained and demonstrated the robot-that-thinks (RTT). More than that implied by the titles, each presentation provided interesting inspirations. Prof. Ke Wu, for example, explained by pictures the history of waveguides: metals, coax, intrachip waveguide, etc. Meanwhile, Prof. Kim, who is also called the Father of Robot Football, explained the philosophical level of how the minds are recomposed by contextual info, fuzzy logic, and social intelligence.

After the photo session, the conference was splitted into seven rooms, each with its specific focus. I chose Room 5, which is focusing on the architecture, traffic, and other aspects of the wireline and wireless networks. In Room 5, dozens of papers are presented in several sessions from Tuesday to Thursday (today). Each presentation sets out in 20 minutes, followed by questions and answers. The theme is no longer a matter of philosophy or research direction, but instead the details of research results. The presenters are researchers, engineers, geeks, etc, so you can imagine how their presentations are. Just totally like me 😀

There was a dinner session, for networking while observing a small part of Balinese culture. There were a couple minutes (only) to walk to the Sanur beach not far from the hotel. But the rest are continuous controlling on the event.

Hopefully IEEE Tencon will result well, improving the good reputation for Indonesia that is capable to organise an international academic event almost with no sponsor, improving the interests for the Indonesian academics and engineers to consistently do the researches, and transforming Indonesia to be a respected technology innovation and development country.

The next Tencon will be carried out in Cebu and Mactan islands in the central part of the Philippines. See you next year in Lapu-Lapu city!

IEEE Day in Jakarta

By Koen

On 2011-10-07

In Event, IEEE

Since 2010, the IEEE celebrates its own IEEE Day in October. This year the celebration day is on October 6th 2011. So this week we planned, arranged, and carried out the event titled IEEE Day Lectures on LTE Development. The organisers are the IEEE Indonesia Section and the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, supported by IEEE Student Branch University of Indonesia and IEEE Student Branch Telkom Institute of Technology.

The venue was at @America. @America is a public room owned and managed by the US Embassy in Jakarta. Located in a business centre just in the centre of Jakarta, it is a high-technology cultural centre where people can explore, experience, and express their interests in fresh and exciting ways. In its physical and virtual spaces, the visitors can experience cool and cutting-edge technology, interactive games, and live events designed to generate interest and create communities.

Since my chairmanship at Comsoc Chapter, we have carried out a series of lectures, seminars, and technical meetings discussing the aspects of 4G Mobile Networks. This year, some network providers have started to implement some of the technologies discussed. The IEEE Day Lectures was to open the discussion of current implementation of technologies related to 4G Mobile in Indonesia. It would start a series of discussion about many aspects, including the LTE Deployement, WiMAX positioning, IPTV implementation over 4G, cognitive radio, policies on spectrum, context-aware applications, etc.

The IEEE Day Lectures itself presented the speakers:

Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, Introduction to IEEE, and 4G Mobile Technology
Anto Sihombing, Digital Video Broadcast over LTE Network
Hazim Ahmadi, Lesson Learnt from LTE Trial in Indonesia
Arief Hamdani Gunawan, Regulatory and Industry Aspects of LTE

The attendance number is about 50. Attendees include those who come from universities, government, operators, consultants, and other parties who have interests in LTE and its implementation. Thank you for @America, for the IEEE volunteers, the attendees, and the speakers. We have celebrate the IEEE Day quite successfully!

Comnetsat

By Koen

On 2011-08-12

In IEEE, Technology

This morning (12-08-2011) I attended an IEEE Indonesia Section officer meeting. Held in UI Salemba, the meeting continues the discussion on our plan to carry out our own conferences. The conferences themselves will be carried out next year, optionally in Bali. The proposed names will be:

International Conference in Communications, Network, and Satellite (ICCNS). Site = comnetsat.org
International Conference in Cybernetics, Information, and Computing (ICCIC). Site = cyberneticscom.org

Also in that meeting, I met Mr Arifin Nugroho for the first time. He’s a prominent expert in satellite communications. I guess I would get some more tasks in technical issues with ICCNS.

New Speedy Site

By Koen

On 2011-08-11

In Telkom, Web

This evening, at last we launched the new design of TELKOMSPEEDY.COM. This is the site for Telkom’s broadband internet product.

When our new (reconfigured) Multimedia division was (re-)formed, the then EGM ad interim, Mr Widi Nugroho appointed me personally to be the PIC of the main site of Speedy products, until a definitive unit could handle that tasks. Just after a few days, I found out that the site was very complicated with unnecessary features and contents. Surely I tried to fix it. But at last I gave up, and decided to redesign the site to make it simpler, easier to operate, and more elegant. The redesigning itself was not easy. Our division is not the only stakeholder of the site. We needed to talk to at least two directorates, within which there are more units with interests to the site. I could not start the redesign before making a consensus among all stakeholders. Again, this was not easy. The consensus itself was at last accepted just last May.

The redesign would take months, but I planned it into stages. The visual redesign seen today is just the first phase. I will not expose the details here. But after the first stage, at least the site could be operated simpler, easier, with significantly less error than the previous maldesigned site.

Any comment for the new design?

Mobile Monday

By Koen

On 2011-08-09

In Mobile, Tech

Mobile Monday was carried out yesterday (08-08-2011), at FX Senayan. I guess FX itself stands for Flaza Xenayan. The traffic of Central Jakarta was not friendly, so I was late more than 1 hour :(. Anyway, I was still able to see some great presentations.

The 1st I saw was MENOO, by Sandy Colondam. It is a location-based service (LBS) social-network-service (SNS) for resto directory. Some common 2011 mobile features were forcefully embedded to the app: social media, badges, augmented reality, etc. I guess I need to try the app before judge it. Will do :).

Then, BOUNCITY, by Kevin Osmond. Kevin and Wenas visited my office about two weeks ago to tell about this app, and I have installed it myself to my BB. So this is not quite new for me. Bouncity is an LBS SNS offered for malls, brands, organisers, to attract and engage the community to their program. The users are offered some challenges (defined by brand owners) to get badges and other benefits. Recommended to try, both for brand owners and for us users.

The next presentation, surprisingly, is also about an app I have used: Blue Bird’s Taxi Reservation app, presented by Seatech Mobile. This is only the first phase of the apps, launched to celebrate the anniversary of Blue Bird. Reservation using this app could reduce the reservation processing time, from 15 mins to be less than 5 mins. Personally I have proven it :). I could work well because the Blue Bird Group itself has a great infrastructure in car locating (8000 of their cars have been equipped with GPS) and reservation. Another interesting feature is that the customer could easily locate the taxi and estimate the time the car reachs him. nd Next we had the honor see a different kind of application. This one is from Seatech Mobile, presented by Tjuk Indarsin. They worked closely with BlueBird group to develop the first taxi ordering application in Indonesia.

Last, I talked to the Mobile Monday’s co-founder, Andy Zain, about the Jakarta Founder Institute. Then, home 🙂

Groovia IPTV

By Koen

On 2011-07-13

In Technology, Telkom

The last weekend before my departure to Kyôto, I attended the grand launching of Telkom Group’s IPTV product. We call this new product Groovia. The name was obviously taken after the word groovy. But Telkom also planned to have a kind of product with similar success to Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Joomla, and other 2.o products (i.e. products with two consecutive letters o).

Groovia is not just the implementation of IPTV to distribute television content over the Internet. IPTV is intended as a synergy between the power of the Internet with its web interactions, with the power of broadcast television media. IPTV is regarded as the next step in developing the service platform for multimedia interactions services.

In the first year, Groovia planned to include the following services:

TV on Demand: a service to offer television content with interactivity, and with a recording facility in the network; which allows such control as the video service: pause, rewind, replay, scheduled reports, and others.
Video on Demand: non-television multimedia contents that are included in this service, including video films, music, karaoke, etc., with various forms of interaction.
Web Service: the interactivity of the cyber world that is integrated into the television system. The services consist among others the social networks, news, weather, stocks info, and others.

The next year, more services such as e-advertising, e-transaction and e-shopping are expected to be integrated into Groovia. In infrastructure layer, the integration of IPTV, SDP, and other platforms, such as store content & applications, is expected to be carried out smoothly, establishing an efficient and comfortable multimedia interaction ecosystem.

But the users will ask: ain’t it costly? The customers of Telkom Speedy with data rate 1, 2, or 3 Mb/s will need only to pay about US$ 5 more to its Speedy monthly subscription to have the Groovia service. Not too expensive for the status as a taste-maker :). Richer contents could be selected according to individual needs of every user. Unfortunately, Groovia is still in the initial deployment phase, and is available only in certain areas in Jakarta. Deployment to other Indonesia cities will begin later this year.

For more information, please visit: Groovia.TV

Elegance

By Koen

On 2011-07-01

In Culture, Life

When we talk about elegance, usually we refer to designs: product, web, programme, etc. But, while we’re in it, we can discuss about elegance in life: how to set the maximal simplicity to our way of life, while maintaining the highest performance possible in it.

Life is beautiful, right?

Gamelan

By Koen

On 2011-06-29

In Life

Gamelan is a suite of musical instruments from Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. While some neighboring countries are currently using gamelan as one of the icons to attract prospective tourists to visit the regions in Southeast Asia, and there is no doubt that any reginal cultures result from mutual influence of the neighbouring ethnics, it has been admitted by international communities that the musical orchestra suite called gamelan is indeed a culture of Indonesia.

Javanese gamelan was once performed in the U.S. in the 19th century. Also to European countries at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, the composer Claude Debussy was so enthralled. “Compared to this Javanese music, the European music is really decadent,” he implied. Then we could see many works of Debussy referring to the style of gamelan. Previously, the young Debussy was heard complained, “All the beautiful tones have been written by Wagner. What could be left for our generation?” But then who would have thought that, in addition to atonal music style, he also fled to the gamelan?

In Indonesia, we could see the Javanese gamelan that is gentle and philosophical, Balinese gamelan that is very dynamic, Sundanese calung, and other variations.

I spent my childhood in Malang city in Java. As in many other places, local cultures were included to the formal education. At school we were taught how to play the gamelan, how to sing Javanese tembang, how to write old Java script (aksara Jawa), etc. Our teacher was an expert who has a great passion in traditional art. He recognized that I plays gamelan quite well, technically. But he also said that I do not have the artistic soul. Particularly, I know he hated it when I tried to play rock and roll with the kendang when the the auditorium was still quiet. But, when conducting a performance in front of students parents, he appointed me in the position of kendang, which according to him was not equivalent to the drums or timpani, but more like a conductor: to lead the rhythm.

I must recognize that in fact I’m not a real fans of Javanese culture. I love universal culture. What’s the point of having Ronggowarsito in Java, when we also had Marx or Nietzsche in the same era. But gamelan is different. It remains as my interest. A few years later, after graduating from Coventry, I got a feeling that I missed gamelan. So I volunteered to join the traditional art ensemble in Bandung to play gamelan. That was not simple: I had to spend 2 nights per week to improve my play, with people who were as tired as I was, after office hour.

At that time we managed to perform The Legend of Ande Ande Lumut in the form of Wayang Orang, with full gamelan orchestration. I held an instrument called Bonang Penerus. This position was quite stressful, visually. At the other instrument players could look at the stage, my position required me to look at the audience. I could not play while viewing what’s on stage, but continued to see the expression of the audience.There were some other small events when we casually play the gamelan, including accompanying a wedding ceremony of the son of our R&D Division’s boss. It was surprising. The brides parents actually invited us, and wondered why many of our team did not appear to come. After finishing playing, we greeted the family. The boss stunned as he realised that some of the guests he expected were really playing the gamelan orchestra for the ceremony.

OK, the last picture here is not a real performance. Last week I had to provide a presentation about Mobile Blogging at the Telkom Building in South Jakarta. In the hall, I saw a quite complete set of a gamelan instruments. After my presentation, just before the lunch, I spent a couple minutes to play the Bonang Barung instrument, very-very softly. And the prominent blogger Priyadi took my picture.

Kyoto: Comsoc AP-RCCC

By Koen

On 2011-06-19

In Event, IEEE, Travel

This year the IEEE carried out the annual ICC conference in Kyoto, Japan. As usual, this greatest infocomm conference is accompanied by a couple of technical and organizational meetings, held by the IEEE or IEEE Comsoc. Representing the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, I had to be present in Comsoc AP-RCCC. I got the invitation on April, so I had enough time to renew my passport, prepared the visa, airline tickets, hotels, etc. However, these are also the busiest month here at Multimedia Division of Telkom. I could not find enough spare time to relearn hiragana, katakana, kanji, and basic Japanese expressions, or to prepare the social visits.

I got the most affordable airline. It took me from Jakarta to Tokyo via Kualalumpur, and landed at Haneda Airport around midnight. I took the first Shinkanzen super-express train from Shinagawa to Kyoto. I reached Kyoto on June 8th at 9 o’clock. After reporting my attendance to the organiser, I took a couple hours to explore Kyoto.

ICC and the other meetings were held at KICC, a quite vast resort in north-east end of Kyoto. Apparently this place is well prepared to carried out international scale conferences and summits. I did not attend any ICC sessions more than some workshop sessions. But the AP-RCCC I attended was held in the same place.

Last March we had conducted the IEEE Region 10 Meeting in Yogyakarta, which was the highest annual organizational meeting of the IEEE in the Asia Pacific region. IEEE Comsoc AP-RCCC is the annual organizational conference of the IEEE Communications Society in the region. Focusing on the issues in Asia Pacific region, the meeting was attended by President of the IEEE Communications Society, the VPs and directors, a representative of both North America and South America, and the chairmen or other representatives of the Asia-Pacific Comsoc chapters.

Comsoc President, Byeong Gi Lee, keynoted by describing the current challenges in the field of communications field. The convergence has been passing some stages in the digital information, and now we are in the middle of the convergence of digital services and management. The convergence is not just among the fields of communications and computing, but extends also to consumer electronics, media, and other areas. Comsoc has anticipated this with various approaches: educational approach and content, industrial approach, and the standardization approach. This is also trailed by restructuring the organization of IEEE Comsoc. Various aspects relating to further convergence has sparked fairly interesting discussions.

Then, some VPs and directors presented some reports and guidances. And each chapters presented their reports, plan activities, and other things. The first chapter to deliver the report is Indonesia. From Indonesia, I delivered a report, exploring the chapter’s activities that are still focused on technical and organizational campaigns, including our supports in the formation of the first four IEEE student branches in Indonesia, serial roadshows, and other approaches. Our plan ahead includes the preparation of a larger conference (more than the current form of thematic seminars or lecturing). However, it would require assistance and support from the Region 10 and neighbouring chapters. Also presented are the preparation of TENCON in Bali in November 2011, and our request for distinguished lecturer & distinguished speakers on recent progress in the field of infocomm. Some officers expressed their support for IEEE Comsoc activities in Indonesia.

After the conference, I returned to the Kyoto centre by the MRT with Prof. Hsiao-Hwa Chen of IEEE Comsoc Tainan Chapter. I know this gentlemen even before the conference. Last year we made some correspondence to arrange a seminar in Singapore. But in MRT, he showed his other side: an avid culture observer. After talking about chapter management and infocom platform management, we spent the time to talk about the history of Japan, Kyoto, etc. He suggested me to spend more days to explore Japanese cities and cultural centres.

So the next day I spent my time to pay a visit to historic areas: Nara (the first capital of Japan as an emerging imperial), Kyoto (the capital of Japanese Imperial for 1000 years), before finally returned to Tokyo (the capital of Japan since the Meiji Restoration). In Kyoto, I got the opportunity to visit the Imperial Palace for about 1 hour. An excellent palace, I must admit. Also I visited Tokugawa shogunate palace.

I know I should now spend more time to report my cultural journeys. Indeed I have written them in my travelling blog, koen.cc, but only in Indonesian. I guess I will someday translate them and put them here.