Welcome Message from the General Chair

This is the 20th year of APCC history. APCC was first held in 1993 in Daejon, Korea, and then started traveling over many countries in the Asia Pacific region. It has been steadily sponsored by IEEE Communications Society (Asia Pacific Region), Chinese Institute of Communications (CIC), Institute of Electronics, Information, and Communications Engineers (IEICE) Communications Society, and The Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences (KICS), together with other local institutes. Throughout the journey of 20 years we have been refreshing technical information in broader communications field, while expanding human networking among Asia Pacific communications engineers. Today, the trend of digital convergence encompasses a broader set of communications, including computing, broadcasting/media, OS platform/software, content/applications, and even print media and advertising. It has brought in platform and eco-cluster based competition among the converged communications players. It will eventually lead us to a smart society, with human beings living a smart life. Smart life will further be complemented by a green life - a simple, healthy and sustainable life style that minimizes consumption of resources and energy and sustains the ecological system and climate. There are many issues to resolve until we can build such smart and green society, including technology, infrastructure, traffic, spectrum, privacy/security, energy-efficiency, nature-friendly development, life style change, and others. These are the issues awaiting communication engineers´ challenge and conquest, and they are the issues for discussion in APCC, today and tomorrow.