From 12–17 June 2026, 24 participants from seven economies across Asia gathered in Tokyo, Japan, for the APIE Advanced Camp #04: Service Deployment, hosted by Keio University at the SOI Asia Haneda Campus.
The camp brought together participants from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, and Vietnam for an intensive learning experience focused on the design, deployment, operation, and management of Internet services. Through hands-on activities, collaborative projects, and interactions with Internet professionals, participants strengthened both their technical skills and their understanding of the Internet ecosystem.
Learning from the Internet in Action at Interop Tokyo
Participants began their learning journey with a special visit to Interop Tokyo 2026 and ShowNet.
Held annually since 1994, Interop Tokyo is one of Japan’s largest Internet and ICT events, bringing together industry leaders, researchers, engineers, and technology providers to showcase emerging technologies and discuss the future of digital infrastructure.
ShowNet is a large-scale demonstration network built within the Interop Tokyo venue, where companies and engineers collaborate to test and operate the latest networking equipment and technologies in an environment that closely resembles real-world operations. Serving as the operational backbone of the event, ShowNet provides a unique opportunity to observe how modern Internet infrastructure is designed, integrated, monitored, and managed.
Guided by Takashi Tomine (ARENA-PAC, WIDE), participants explored the ShowNet environment and learned how large-scale networks are designed, operated, monitored, and maintained. The visit provided a rare opportunity to observe real-world Internet operations and connect classroom concepts with production environments.
Designing Services at the SOI Asia Haneda Campus
Following the Interop visit, participants moved to the SOI Asia Haneda Campus for five days of intensive hands-on activities and collaborative learning.
The APIE Advanced Camp curriculum is co-designed with the Advanced IT Architect Development Association (AITAC), bringing together expertise from academia and industry. Throughout the week, AITAC lecturers Yuji Sekiya and Seiichi Yamamoto worked closely with participants, delivering technical sessions, facilitating hands-on activities, and mentoring project teams.
Building on the foundations developed through previous APIE learning activities, the Advanced Camp combined hands-on technical training, project-based learning, industry exposure, and opportunities to interact with Internet professionals. Participants explored topics including:
- Service design and service ecosystems
- Virtualization, containers, and cloud infrastructure
- Databases and web applications
- Monitoring and operations
- Availability and scalability
- Network and service security
- Internet operations and infrastructure management
Through a combination of lectures, practical exercises, and group work, participants built and deployed web-based services while exploring key concepts related to service architecture, databases, monitoring systems, scalability, availability, and security. Sessions were delivered by experts from AITAC and the APIE community, allowing participants to learn directly from practitioners with extensive experience in Internet infrastructure and operations.
A central component of the camp was a group project in which participants designed and developed an online service from concept to proof of concept, putting into practice the knowledge and skills gained throughout their APIE learning journey.
Throughout the camp, learning was driven by hands-on experience. Participants worked with virtual machines, containers, databases, monitoring tools, and cloud environments while developing group projects designed to address real-world challenges.
Exploring the Fundamentals of the Internet
One of the new activities introduced in this year’s camp invited participants to step back from the technical details and revisit the fundamental concepts that make the Internet possible.
Using the Internet Hands-on Kit, participants revisited the Internet Hands-on Model introduced in the Understanding the Internet course. Inspired by the model exhibited at Miraikan (The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Tokyo from the museum’s opening until January 2025, the kit helps learners explore the fundamental mechanisms behind Internet communication.
The kit visualizes how information travels across the Internet using balls in two different colors to represent the binary signals (“0” and “1”), making the Internet’s underlying mechanisms easy to observe and understand.
Participants were then challenged to design and deliver short peer presentations using the kit to explain these concepts to a non-technical audience. The exercise encouraged them not only to strengthen their understanding of the Internet’s fundamentals, but also to develop the ability to communicate technical concepts in an accessible and engaging way.
Connecting with the Internet Community
The camp concluded with the Meet the Internet Engineers event, which brought together approximately 60 participants, including camp participants, APIE alumni, industry representatives, members of international organizations, and academics based in Japan.
The event provided an opportunity for participants to learn more about the Internet ecosystem in Japan, hear directly from professionals working across different sectors, and explore potential career pathways in Internet engineering and related fields.
During the event, participants received their certificates of participation from Professor Jun Murai, celebrating the successful completion of the onsite camp before continuing their projects toward the final online presentation.
Looking Ahead
While the onsite camp has concluded, the learning journey continues.
Participants will continue refining their group projects over the coming weeks before presenting their work during the online Final Presentation session scheduled for 15 July 2026.
Through technical training, collaborative project work, industry exposure, and community engagement, APIE Advanced Camp #04 provided participants with opportunities not only to strengthen their technical skills, but also to deepen their understanding of the people, organizations, and communities that shape the Internet. As they return to their institutions across Asia, they carry forward new knowledge, new connections, and a shared commitment to building the future of the Internet.
