Measure 5G carefully

Advances in technology and new applications always raise many questions: what are the possibilities and technical challenges, and are there adverse effects or risks? To investigate this, the European Union launched a consortium to understand and map the potential effects of 5G technology. Researchers from around twenty organizations are collaborating in the European NextGEM project to determine and measure the characteristics of 5G.

Marco Spirito, Associate Professor of Electronic Circuits and Architectures at TU Delft, and John Bolte, Professor of Smart Sensor Systems at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, are conducting the research together on the TU Delft Campus.

“With every major change to the standard telecom network, we want to know if the system is properly embedded,” says Marco Spirito. By adding layers and layers (i.e., frequency bands) to the electromagnetic field, we want to know whether this has direct consequences for humans and animals. Can a link to stress be identified? It is very interesting to investigate this! This consortium brings together experts from various backgrounds: chemistry, biology, and natural sciences. All these fields of knowledge combined ensure a thorough approach and ultimately a reliable research result.

Demand for knowledge

His fellow researcher John Bolte was already involved as lead researcher in the study on the effects of 4G, commissioned by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). With every new generation of the mobile network, the EU establishes a safe limit based on very extensive measurements. “But the 5G network is a completely different type of network,” says John. “It consists of multiple and different frequency bands, and the layout is also different. We notice that there is a great demand for knowledge regarding exposure and potential health risks associated with 5G. Are there effects on the body, for example on the nervous system? Can you suffer from fatigue, experience concentration problems, or a sleep disorder? We are conducting this using a double-blind study to prevent influencing the participants and to rule out the so-called nocebo effect. This is the opposite of a placebo: if you think something can make you sick, it probably will.”

The various partners in the consortium each have their own mandate and focus, although the individual components complement one another. Part of the research is conducted by partners in other countries. For example, the cognitive research takes place in Belgium, and the analysis of blood samples in Switzerland and Israel. Marco: “We are pleased to be able to use the 5G facilities of the Do IoT Fieldlab because we can fully adjust and determine all settings and preconditions ourselves. The fieldlab is fully set up for this. We are literally conducting our measurements in space, which is an important step in putting into practice a technology developed in a lab. The research in Delft largely concerns exposure to FR2 frequency bands, so that is primarily 26 gigahertz. For this, we designed measuring equipment that people can wear during the day without problems. It is difficult to draw conclusions from these measurements because we do not have complete control over the environmental factors. Even if we measure twice in the same place, in the real world, the environment is actually no longer the same. So whether I walk through the city center of Delft during the day or at night, the level of exposure is different. We can reproduce the research results on many points, but not 100%. So, at a higher, theoretical level, we will have to do our best to understand what the correlations are. The scientists will have to rack their brains over this.”

Many gigabytes

Although 5G is not yet widely used, a few experimental facilities and production companies are utilizing the 26-gigahertz frequency band with a trial permit. “We have measured what the actual exposure is and what the typical or maximum exposure is that people and workers might face,” explains John. “The EU will naturally set a limit value that is much lower than the actual maximum exposure. We are trying to determine what that limit value should be. We notice that exposure to electromagnetic fields increases slightly every year, because more and more applications use wireless connections. If you download or stream movies on a train, that puts a heavy strain on the network. The use of data communication is increasing on a small and large scale; it all adds up.” “The major telecom companies will configure their network based on coverage, not electromagnetic field strength,” adds Marco. “By joining forces in Europe, we are accelerating the development of regulations and safety measures. Of course, we are not going to reinvent the wheel. A great deal of knowledge has already been gathered globally, and as scientists, we know where the gaps lie. At the local level, TU Delft and The Hague University of Applied Sciences combine their expertise and complement it: my team devises the concepts; after the laboratory experiments, we test the sensors in a realistic environment, the field lab, and John and his team own the use case. We then make adjustments based on their input regarding the hardware, which is crucial for achieving usable and tangible results. We are so far ahead in technology that some things have not yet been invented. Which is, of course, a huge driving force for everyone involved.”

“That is indeed correct,” confirms John. “At the same time, we know from experience that experiments always turn out differently than we had planned or anticipated. So you get incomplete measurements… and you have to repeat them again and again. That causes a lot of frustration, and you have to be able to deal with that. It is a lot of work, but ultimately very worthwhile once we have the data and can start analyzing it. For this, we draw on our own experience with 4G, acquired knowledge, and the international knowledge exchange with our project partners.”

The NextGEM project runs until 2027. However, according to John, that will not quite mean the end of all 5G research: “I think there is still a lot of work to be done, and I am quite certain that the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment will continue to collect information for at least the next ten years. In any case, health effects are being permanently monitored in society.”

More information

NextGEM is an acronym for Next Generation Integrated Sensing and Analytical System for Monitoring and Assessing Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Field Exposure and Health. It is a 4-year research project funded by the EU.

For more information about the project and the partners: https://www.nextgem.eu.