Rakuten Mobile and KDDI Selected by Japan's NEDO for R&D Project to Optimize Virtualized Infrastructure for Sustainable Telco

Rakuten Mobile, Inc.
KDDI Corporation

Tokyo, May 15, 2026―Rakuten Mobile, Inc. and KDDI Corporation today announced their joint selection on May 13 by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for a research and development project aiming to reduce power consumption in mobile data centers. Under the key theme of "Development of Simultaneous Optimization Technology for Virtualized Base Stations and Computing Infrastructure" [1], the project is part of NEDO's "Research and Development Project of Enhanced Infrastructures for Post-5G Information and Communication Systems / Development of post-5G information and communication systems."

Following this selection, both companies will undertake joint research and development to achieve substantial energy-efficiency and sustainability gains in next-generation network infrastructure.

KDDI brings extensive experience in mobile communication R&D and commercial operations, complemented by its global and domestic expertise in large-scale data center management. Rakuten Mobile has developed all of its cloud, RAN software, and Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) in-house for the virtualized Open RAN network it built and operates in Japan.

Through this collaborative initiative, both companies will leverage their respective strengths to develop technologies that further enhance communication infrastructure and achieve significant reductions in power consumption by 2030. The project aims to reduce data center and RAN power consumption by approximately 40%.

Through this project, Rakuten Mobile, KDDI and their business partners aim to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society and the revitalization of industries across Japan.

■Project Overview

The research and development activities will span five key domains, to realize communication infrastructure that efficiently processes the immense computational load of AI and virtualized RAN processing while minimizing power consumption.

(I) Virtualized Network Optimization

• To realize optical-based data center networks that eliminate the need for electrical processing, network equipment between GPU clusters will be transitioned to optical networking.
• The project will establish technologies for cluster generalization, power-efficient control of transport devices, and resource optimization according to traffic demand and computational load.

(II) AI-Driven RAN Optimization

• To achieve energy savings while maintaining mobile network quality, this initiative will leverage virtualization environments and AI to optimize RAN radio transmission in real time according to traffic fluctuations.
• The project will address the reduction of communication traffic and power consumption from IoT devices through edge AI data processing and video compression technologies.

(III) Energy-Efficient and Compact Cooling for Computational Infrastructure

• To deliver high-performance cooling solutions to meet growing data center demand, the project will enhance the efficiency and miniaturization of air-cooling systems.
• The project will integrate the control systems of cooling equipment and IT devices to establish technology that optimizes cooling based on IT equipment load.

(IV) Enhanced Security

• As part of security measures toward the social implementation of this project, the initiative will strengthen the security of Open RAN networks in preparation for the era of open base stations.
• To reduce power consumption by minimizing the volume of security-related data, the project will realize a secure computing environment for computational infrastructure.

(V) Cooling Solutions for TDP3000W Class GPUs

• To ensure the stable operation of ultra-high-performance GPUs aligned with AI advancements, the project will establish water cooling and immersion cooling technologies capable of supporting GPUs in the TDP3000W class.