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INFORMATION HIGHWAYS AND SERVICES
© Secretary of State for industry - France An examination of the response to the call by the government in December 1994 for proposals on the information highways and services confirms that trials must be accompanied by a major effort to develop technology. The changes going on in the communication and information technology sector which apply to services and techniques effect the entire signal chain and are, at present, far from coming to an end. Three large domains are involved : * components which make up the technological base of this industry * transmission systems and equipment for professionals and the general public * technologies which make it easier to access and use the services The action which the state can take in this domain is on two main axes. It implies, on the one hand, giving support to technological development linked to the information society and, on the other hand, making conditions favourable to increase the use of these services.
The establishment and development of the information society relies as much on the availability of an offer of infrastructures and services as on the acceptance and incorporation of these new uses by professionals and the general public who make up the market. As a factor for competitiveness, it is vital that small and medium sized businesses have access to information services in the best conditions and incorporate their use for internal operations as well as with their clients and suppliers. Given their size and limited human resources, this access must be made easy, using existing procedures. For the development of all leading edge equipment, as for the reduction of costs of standard equipment and consequently of associated services, a major part of the effort relies on the development of high-performance electronic components which incorporate a large part of the improvement of the performance level brought to the mean cost. Improvement is 15% per annum for silicon integrated circuits. High-performance, low-cost components are part of all systems used in the projects, whether in the infrastructure (servers, switches, cables, land radio or satellite transmission systems, aerials;...) or in the terminal equipment (general public terminals, portable telephones, workstations;...) These represent the technological base for which a significant effort is required to achieve a rapid decrease in costs. Agreements between system manufacturers and their component suppliers must be reinforced on the basis of the contacts already begun and most notably through the vertical cooperation initiative which was part of the JESSI programme. Based on ratios noted at present in existing products, and which are increasing, a reduction of up to 20% of the costs of development of equipment must be agreed for components (integrated circuits and interconnection and visualisation systems). Several themes seem to take priority: - miniaturisation, which is a prerequisite especially for portable systems and "mobile" objects, is a crucial factor in reducing costs, - reducing power consumption is essential for portable systems, but also to allow for the integration of complex functions, as well as for transmission equipment (repeaters in isolated areas, satellites ...), - increasing frequencies is essential for high-bandwidth transmissions but also to cater for data rates linked notably with video and multimedia, - interactive functions with regard to the increase in the types of communication with a machine :quality screens of ever-increasing size, using less power, touch screens, graphic tables, etc. - complex functions required by transmission techniques, coding and decoding, compression, interface management
Transmission systems are based on the use of digital techniques. Important developments must be foreseen for land radio transmission and for improved quality television systems. Professional equipment is directly linked to the development of video servers used to supply video-on- request and multimedia telematic services. These make up one of the most complex and crucial elements of the image chain. They also represent the greatest uncertainty at present with regard to the technologies, architectures and functions to develop. Equipment for the general public the importance of which is greatly underlined in the projects submitted in reply to the call for proposals especially for the trial platforms. This concerns most notably interactive terminals for the general public which require components and functions to be integrated which up to now have been reserved for professional users. Access to the new services must not only be made technologically possible, but must also be made easy enough to use the new and sometimes complex concepts involved. The attractiveness of these services will be even greater if access to them is easy, simple, reliable and safe from intrusion, transparent from a tariffs point of view, and only if it is easy to find a particular service.
Several proposals were identified which sought to make it easier to use the new services. More especially, the following themes appeared to be particularly relevant and were the subject of proposals which were often joint proposals made by state laboratories and companies. They merit special attention, and probably appropriate financial encouragement. Access protection and identification of users One of the main weaknesses of networks like the Internet is the lack of guarantees provided on security and reliability. A number of cases have been discovered of the network being used by unscrupulous persons. Several industrialists and research laboratories plan to work in this area. It is appropriate to note that the use of microchip cards as a means of identifying a user is a method suggested by several companies and laboratories, and that this system is beginning to be accepted by many at an international level. Given the lead that French industry has in this domain, it seems especially relevant to encourage this type of initiative. Tariffs and billing for services Some of the information may be made available on a payment basis. Work in this area, of which the compulsory corollary is progress of efforts to define the rights of ownership of subjects distributed electronically, will help to allow, at the same time, the development of marketing services in other domains. Directory Management This represents an important factor in giving access to the resources available on the networks and within "service sets", the inventory of which remains poor. Ergonomics and the person-to-machine interface On the last point a number of obstacles remain to be lifted to make conditions favourable so that a maximum number of people can use research networks. The development of the World Wide Web is the result of European norms in the area of document management. Several projects are designed to tackle this problem. It is up to Europe to recover the initiative in this area, which is followed closely by the public across the Atlantic. The INRIA was selected by the Commission to lead work in this area. It is also essential that we make the most of this opportunity. It is also important that work in these domains be carried out through partnerships between users, technology suppliers and network operators, so as to develop solutions which are efficient and easy to use.
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. The French approach
. The technological stakes
. Electronic trade and encryption