The Computer and Communication Research Center (CCRC) of National Tsing Hua University was established in September 1994. Its research activities mainly focus on high-speed networking, wireless communications, multimedia communication systems, and their applications. The primary missions of the center are the followings:

1. Coordinate academic research efforts on computer communication;
2. Foster joint research activities between industry and academia;
3. Disseminate developed technologies to industry and train competent engineers;
4. Exchange information and collaborate with researchers in other countries to develop joint research projects;
5. Provide the university with services related to computer communication.

In the past few years, CCRC has yielded the following results:

We have coordinated more than 17 integrated research projects related to high-speed networking. These projects involved researchers from major universities and research institutes in Taiwan.

We have initiated several industry-academia joint projects on ATM, LAN, WAN, and the Internet. The developed technologies have been transferred to domestic industry.

We have sponsored more than 77 seminars, workshops, and training courses on high-speed networking, with over 4000 attendees.

Currently, CCRC is actively involved in the project, Advanced Technologies and Applications for Next Generation Information Communication Networks. The project is a multi-year, multi-million dollar excellence project sponsored by the Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities, Minister of Education, R.O.C. The primary goals of the project is to develop technologies and applications for next-generation information communication networks, with a purpose of carrying related research into excellence and readies our society for the information new era. We will also integrate our research results with the National Telecommunications Project, and continue strengthening our close ties with local industry by nurturing more joint projects and transferring pertinent technologies. In lieu of these anticipated efforts, CCRC will assert itself as a primary force in pushing high-speed networking technologies through to reach global excellence.

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Organizational Structure

Figure 1 depicts the organizational structure of CCRC. The Executive Committee has fifteen members and is the operational body of CCRC. The Center Director, who supervises the Center’s operations and coordinates activities with other research institutes and domestic industry, heads this committee. Current director is Prof. Chen, Wen-Tsuen, and the two deputy directors are Prof. Chen, Yung-Chang and Prof. Yang, Shi-Nine. The Center consists of five divisions:

General Affairs: This division establishes CCRC research directions, coordinates projects, and supports general administrative affairs. Prof. Soo, Von-Wen is the Division Director.

Industry-Academia Cooperation: This division promotes and disseminates CCRC’s research results and provides related services. Prof. Wang, Jia-Shung is the Division Director
Research and Development: This division assesses and evaluates future directions for technologies and applications related to high-speed networking. Prof. Huang, Nen-Fu is the Division Director.

Promotion and Service: This division helps promote the activities of the center and provide related services. Prof. Wang, Chin-Liang is the Division Director.

International Relationship: This division seeks international collaboration and coordinates related activities. Prof. King, Chung-Ta is the current Division Director.

CCRC also has an Advisory Committee consisting of a group of leading experts, who provide guidance on the Center’s future directions and counseling on technologies related to high-speed networking.

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Achievements

CCRC has achieved the following concrete results in the past few years.

(1) Projects conducted:

The Study and Design of a High-Speed Network Environment for Multimedia Applications (83/8-85/7)
The Design and Implementation of Multimedia Routers on ATM-based High-Speed Networks (84/8-87/7)
Distributed Multi-server Video-on-Demand System (84/8-87/7)
Data-Parallel Programming Environment on High-Speed Network (84/8-87/7)
The Design and Analysis of Scalable Parallel Algorithms (84/8-85/7)
The Study of Video-on-Demand Services over High-Speed Networks (84/8-87/7)
Virtual Classroom over ATM：Application, Management, and Evaluation
(84/8-87/7)
Design and Implementation of VOD Systems on ATM Networks (84/8-87/7)
Internet/Intranet Telephony Server Systems (87/11-88/12)
Develop Technology of Computer Interface and System Design for Users with Vision Barrier (86/8 – 89/7)
Research and Produce for Technology of Mobile Information Environment System –Police Information System Application (87/8 – 90/7)
Research for providing Quality of Service Guarantee for Wireless ATM Network System (87/8 – 90/7)
Research and Implement Software of Broadband CDMA Radio Trans/Receive System.(87/8 – 90/7)
Research and Implement for High Speed Multi-Level Switcher (87/8 – 90/7)
Provide Quality of Service guarantee for Mobile Multimedia Information System (87/8 – 90/7)
Develop an Internet Phone System and Service in Broadband Network (87/8 – 90/7)
Research and Implement Internet Switch-Routers in a New Generation (87/8 – 90/7)

(2) Participating research institutions and researchers:

Researchers from more than fourteen universities in Taiwan have participated in CCRC-sponsored projects, including those from National Tsing Hua University, National Taiwan University, and National Chiao Tung University. Several research institutes and companies have also been actively involved in CCRC projects, including Computer & Communications Research Laboratories of Industrial Technology Research Institute, Institute for Information Industry, D-Link Corporation, and Acer Netxus Inc.

(3) Technology transfers:

(a) ATM and LAN related technologies:

• Transferred IP switching related techniques to Institute for Information Industry, Computer & Communications Research Laboratories of Industrial Technology Research Institute, Accton Technology, Acer Netxus, Alfa, and Cnet Technology.
• Transferred SNMP ATM and Java network management techniques to Institute for Information Industry.
• Transferred Virtual LAN techniques to Acer Netxus.
• Transferred IPv6 related techniques to Institute for Information Industry, Computer & Communications Research Lab. of Industrial Technology Research Institute, Acer Netxus, and Formosa Industrial Computing.

(b) WAN related technologies:

• Transferred cable modem and ADSL technologies to Macronix.

(c) JAVA related techniques:

• Transferred JAVA acceleration card to Institute for Information Industry.

(4) Seminars held:

CCRC has organized more than 77 invited lectures, seminars, workshops, training courses, and panels. Over four thousand participants have attended these events, with more than four hundred attendees from research institutes and another four hundred from industry.

(5) Other services:

CCRC has accumulated valuable information for research, including personnel information on researchers working in related fields, new technologies developed by academia and research institutes, R&D needs of local industry, as well as specifications and documents on future-generation network and communication products. This is an on-going effort and new information is added whenever available. The accumulated information is open to the research community and industrial partners.

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The Excellence Project

A current major undertaking of the center is the excellence project: Advanced Technologies and Applications for Next Generation Information Communication Networks, sponsored by the Minister of Education, R.O.C. The primary goals of the project are to develop technologies and applications for next-generation information communication networks, with a purpose of carrying related research into excellence in the next decade. The project started in March 2000 for four years with a total budget of 14 million US dollars. It consists of nine subprojects. Six of them are executed in the National Tsing Hua University and the other three are in the National Chiao Tung University.

The six subprojects executed in the National Tsing Hua University are the followings:

Subproject 1 aims to develop key technologies for next generation internet switching, including core switching technologies, internet telephony, next-generation network management, and new protocol testing technologies.

Subproject 2 develops the theories and techniques related to agent-based platforms, software, languages, components, and abilities on the next-generation Internet.

Subproject 3 studies essential research subjects related to the integration of Internet and mobile computing. Research subjects include: quality-of-service guaranteed wireless IP, roaming users location management, connection management and multicast, etc.

Subproject 4 develops techniques related to effortless networking and pervasive computing, which aims to allow effortless and seamless access to network services and resources.

Subproject 5 studies content-based multimedia synthesis and retrieval technologies. Different abstraction levels of multimedia representation such as conceptual level and feature level will be investigated. Mechanisms for transforming high-level conceptual structure to low-level feature structure will be devised. Technologies for scaling up multimedia processing will also be studied.

Subproject 6 aims to explore the capabilities of the Internet in education and investigate the impact that the Internet will bring to societies and life-long learning. This project focuses on two aspects: (1) the establishment of a large virtual Educational Park in promoting the rationale of life-long education, and (2) the investigation of the potential issues and new social problems in the information society.

A unique feature of this project is that it is cross-disciplinary and cross-collegiate, joined by researchers from College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, and College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University. In addition, we have invited many researchers from other universities and research organizations, domestic and abroad, to participate. We have visited several outstanding research laboratories abroad and exchanged first-hand experiences. The project also cooperates closely with R&D institutions, such as CCL of ITRI, III, and industries to enhance the research and development capabilities of the nation and thus increases our competitiveness into the next century. With these outstanding researchers and our existing research infrastructure, we expect to develop in this project most advanced techniques and applications for next-generation information networks. This in turn should promote networking related research in our university to world excellence.

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Conclusions

CCRC has successfully coordinated and promoted research on high-speed communication and network systems across a wide body of academia, industry, and research institutes. CCRC has also undertaken many research projects on high-speed communication and networking, either proposed internally or charged from outside sectors. Such endeavors have all been successfully executed, with the desired goals attained as well. With the accumulated research capabilities, CCRC will continuously seek further opportunities to serve the industry and cooperate with any interested party. CCRC will also strive to promote international collaboration and cross-strait exchanges. With such efforts, CCRC aspires to carry Taiwan's high-speed communication and networking research into the global arena and enhance international competitiveness in related industrial sectors.

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