One of the key technologies for the ubiquitous information society, expected to come in near future, is wireless communication, and we propose, in this strategic program, to proceed the R&D activity on the basic technology of the wireless communication in a consistent manner from the communication method to the circuit, device, and materials.

In future, the arrival of "Ubiquitous Information Society" is expected, in which computer chips and sensors are incorporated in a variety of surrounding things and connected to the network, which will provide convenience, safety, and economy. As being free from locational restriction, a wireless communication system must be adopted in such network. Therefore, as a core technology for supporting the social infrastructure of the near future, the significance of the wireless communication technology is expected to be much higher in future.

In terms of the wireless communication technology, Japan is traditionally superior in hardware technology such as antenna propagation, micro waves, and millimeter-waves, and network encoding technique. In these days, Japan takes the lead, with prominent researchers and engineers, in the new research fields such as cooperative wireless communication system that connects multiple wireless communication nodes. Also in the material and device technology, there are many fields led by Japanese such as crystal devices. However, the R&D activities so far tend to be proceeded independently by the researchers in respective field, and the power of the whole Japan may not have been fully aggregated and demonstrated. In the United States and Europe, the research of new generation services and applications such as the cognitive wireless technology that uses unused frequencies dynamically, the wireless sensor network that considers power consumption, and the mobile terminal devices, is already started. In this strategic program, we propose to proceed a R&D from the system, circuit, device, to the materials in a consistent concept to raise the academic and industrial engineering levels in the field, construct the social infrastructure, strengthen the industrial competitiveness, and work on the human resource development.

The basic wireless communication technology includes such elemental technologies as modulation, encoding, encryption, authentication, and multiple accesses, which are deeply related to mathematics. Therefore, we propose a research of the system initiated by wireless communication researchers and mathematicians working together. This may result in creating new idea which would not be just an extension of the conventional system. Especially, the bandwidth available for the wireless communication is limited, which should be utilized as effectively as possible. From this viewpoint, the effective use of unused frequency band, spatial multiplexing technology such as micro/pico cells, and the dynamic allocation of frequencies are important, and we propose the R&D on these new communication methods.

In addition to the new system, the research on the circuit, devices, and materials for realizing the system is also important. More specifically, the R&D themes include the high frequency circuit, Digital/Analog conversion circuit, antenna, high frequency materials, and others. They include not only the hardware elements but also the software elements. Also for such software elements, we must cooperate with the researchers of the total system architecture to specify the requirement specification of the circuit, device, and materials. An effective and harmonized R&D can be made possible by providing the feedback of the state-of-the-art technology from the device and material level to the circuit level, and further to the system level.