Special Section on Multi-dimensional Mobile Information Networks

Wireless communication is truly indispensable for us in our daily life. It is reported that the number of subscribers of cellar phone in Japan is approaching 118 million as of the end of July this year, which corresponds to the penetration rate of 92%. With this situation, LTE (Long Term Evolution) system will be put into commercial use very soon to provide high speed signal transmission for ubiquitous multimedia services. Also we find R&D activities on 4th generation mobile communications. The major objective of wireless communication at the beginning is to obtain the wide coverage service area. After we successfully accomplished this, new systems with narrower coverage have been considered to provide attentive and attractive services to the end users. Furthermore, such new concepts as harmonization of communication and broadcast, medical ICT (Information and Communication Technology) have been brought up to provide useful, safe and secure systems. In relation to these matters, research on multi-dimensional mobile information networks is highly required.