This investigation should be looking frequency by frequency at patterns of power over time.

High frequency use is directional (and fairly new) "whereas lower frequency is for coverage (and not so new)

Hope this helps

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Agree with Renaud. 5G is too broad to mean anything, in this context. 5G operates from down in the UHF band, where exposure to radiation would follow the same rules as we've known for a long time, to up in the mm wave regions, say from about 30 GHz on upwards, where we have much less experience on health effects of persistent RF emissions.

I'd focus the research on 5G's use of very numerous, very small cells, radiating power in the mm wave part of the RF spectrum. The example that comes to mind being, those "cell towers" mounted on top of street light poles, only a few meters from your bedroom window, at 30-60 GHz.

For that matter, this research should also help understand the health effects of the newer WiFi variants, the ones after IEEE 802.11ac. These newest WiFi variants also operate in the mm wave bands, will also require more numerous access points than 802.11ac and older variants, so many of the same considerations as 5G mm wave will apply.

Thank you very much for your answers Albert Manfredi and Renaud Di Francesco. Albert Manfredi Are you sure that cell towers has 30-60 GHz in few meters? Anyways, I will have a look on related works on TV or cell Towers RF influences of near by inhabitants.

Moreover, there was a good idea by Renaud Di Francesco to make frequency by frequency experiment at power patterns over time...

Khurshid,

Are you sure that cell towers has 30-60 GHz in few meters? Anyways, I will have a look on related works on TV or cell Towers RF influences of near by inhabitants.

Not all 5G will use mm waves. But the crucial point is, the 5G that does not use mm wave will be quite unimpressive. You won't see any big improvement, compared with 4G. In fact, we are starting to see how the user experiences are proving this, in the early, lower frequency variants of 5G. You can find accounts online, where surprise surprise, you cannot fool mother nature!

The only way to achieve those very high bit rates, for 5G, is to use the very wide channels possible with mm waves. We are talking about more than 2 GHz per channel, and aggregation of up to four of these channels. As opposed to 20 MHz per channel, aggregated up to only, say, 160 MHz, in the lower frequency bands, and also possible with 4G.

Plus, there isn't close to enough bandwidth available, let's say in the 600 MHz spectrum which is being made available for 5G, to get anywhere close to impressive bit rates of wireless capacity. In fact, T-Mobile, a US company which uses the 600 MHz band for 5G, only has 30 MHz available down there. That's nothing. It might travel long distances, but you won't notice any improvement over 4G, at all.

There is no magic here. Shannon's equation still holds.

Take a look at this:

https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Tutorials/5G-millimeter-wave-tutorial.html

It will show you the range to be expected. It says 300 meters outdoors, 2 meters indoors, but even that is not explicit enough.

Assume fixed service, assume 10 Gb/s available from each cell base station (about 10 times as much as typical 4G max). How many houses or apartments can a single base station feed, if each one must experience, say, 1 Gb/s service? Only 10, correct? So, what kind of maximum range can we expect, if the goal is to feed individual homes with 1 Gb/s broadband service each? Not very much distance at all. Many homes will inevitably see a base station right next to them!

You can play around with the numbers, of course, but the results will always be that any kind of impressive bit rates, those they like to show in exaggerated advertisements, will require (a) very high frequency channels, and (b) few subscribers per base station, at any given time. So for example, if you push 5G to 20 or 30 Gb/s per base station, now you will be able to feed more homes with a single tower. But at what cost? You will need to increase RF power, to reach a little further away, and you will still have some homes very close to that tower (light pole) with the base station.

One thing to keep in mind is the beam forming that 5G massive MIMO will permit. So this means that the RF energy can be focused in the correct direction mostly, depending on the geometry of each specific case. This should mitigate the level of exposure, for those who are not using the service. And this tight beam forming is only possible, practically, also in the mm wave regions. Anything down in the UHF range, or even the frequencies less than 3-6 GHz, will not look much different from 4G.

So, I would focus my attention on mm wave effects on the human body, and short range. Other than that, whatever analyses are available for exposure to 4G RF energy should apply also to 5G.