Analysis of Instantaneous and Maximal RF Exposure in 4G/5G Networks With Dynamic Spectrum Sharing

From mid of 2020 to mid of 2021, the 3G mobile radio network in Germany was gradually replaced by the successor technologies 4G and 5G. Therefore, dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) was introduced in the 2100 MHz band, which allows a parallel operation of 4G and 5G. There is an increasing need of public information with regard to a possible change in human RF exposure associated with 5G and DSS. Hence, investigations were carried out to study the instantaneous and maximal exposure of persons to base stations in the 2100 MHz band. Our study shows, that the instantaneous exposure has remained comparable before and after the introduction of 4G/5G with DSS. Regarding the maximal RF exposure, code-selective measurements of 3G and 4G with DSS show no significant change in exposure. To analyze the maximal exposure to 5G with DSS, code-selective measurements have been applied for the first time and compared with the 4G exposure in the same band. The results show no significant difference in maximal exposure between 4G and 5G. Furthermore, the need of code-selective measurements in comparison with the frequency-selective method for 5G is demonstrated if different parts of the electromagnetic field that contribute to exposure have to be assigned to selected base stations.