Recently, technology roadmaps have been actively constructed by various organizations such as governments, industry segments, academic societies and companies [1]. While the common basic purpose of these roadmaps is sharing common recognition of the technology among stakeholders, there exists a specific role for each organization. One of the important roles of academic societies is to show the directions in which society is moving. The IEICE technical group on Concurrent System Technology (CST) established in 1993 stands at a turning point and needs to move forward in new directions after more than a decade of activities and contributions. However, neither top-down (market-pull/requirements-pull) nor bottom-up (technology-push) roadmapping is suitable for CST because CST is a kind of systems engineering. This paper proposes a new technology roadmapping methodology (middle-up-down technology roadmapping) for systems engineering and shows three future directions of CST and one roadmap for service systems that integrate CST and services science.

An optical communications technology roadmap leading up to the second decade of the 21st century has been investigated to provide a future vision of the optoelectronic technology in 15 to 20 years. The process whereby technology may progress toward the realization of the vision is indicated. A transmission rate of 100 Mbps for homes and a rate of 5 Tbps for the backbone network will be required in the first decade of the 21 century. Two technology roadmaps for public and business communications networks are discussed. It is concluded both WDM and TDM technology will be required to realize such an ultra-high capacity transmission. Technical tasks for various optical devices are investigated in detail.