The Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) started a new project named the New Generation Mobile Network Project in April 2002. The target of this project is the development of new technologies to enable seamless and secure integration of various wireless access networks such as 3rd and 4th generation cellular, wireless LAN, high-speed mobile wireless, wired communications, and broadcasting networks. This paper presents an overview of CRL's new generation mobile communication system that is called The Multimedia Integrated Network by Radio Access Innovation Plus (MIRAI+), as well as details the role of Software Radio Technology (SDR) in MIRAI+.

Radio access networks (RANs) for new generation mobile communication systems are required to construct economical high capacity networks. An optical wireless link is expected as a solution to the linking method in the construction of these networks. The optical wireless link provides high bit-rate transmission and allows for easy installation. However, optical-waves are severely attenuated in free-space transmission due to weather conditions and cannot provide a high level of link availability in long-distance communications. This paper describes the applicability of an optical wireless link to the RAN based on obtained atmosphere propagation properties from experiments on an 800-nm band optical wireless link from the viewpoint of link availability. The experimental results show that the BER performance of the optical wireless link exhibits a sufficiently low power penalty of less than 1 dB compared to that of the optical fiber link. Moreover, the results confirm that atmosphere attenuation of an 800-nm band optical wave due to fog and rainfall can be estimated by using a simple estimation equation. The optical wireless link could be used for RAN approach links with the range of less than 350 m to achieve the link outage rate of 0.004% from the viewpoint of the link budget design.