By Tim Childers July 17, 2019

The fifth generation of cellular technology, 5G, is the next great leap in speed for wireless devices.  This speed includes both the rate mobile users can download data to their devices and the latency, or lag, they experience between sending and receiving information.

5G aims to deliver data rates that are 10 to 100 times faster than current 4G networks.  Users should expect to see download speeds on the order of gigabits per second (Gb/s), much higher than the tens of megabits per second (Mb/s) speeds of 4G.

“That’s significant because it will enable new applications that are just not possible today,” said Harish Krishnaswamy, an associate professor of electrical engineering at Columbia University in New York.  “Just for an example, at gigabits per second data rates, you could potentially download a movie to your phone or tablet in a matter of seconds.  Those type of data rates could enable virtual reality applications or autonomous driving cars.”

Apart from requiring high data rates, emerging technologies that interact with the user’s environment like augmented reality or self-driving cars will also require extremely low latency. For that reason, the goal of 5G is to achieve latencies below the 1-millisecond mark.  Mobile devices will be able to send and receive information in less than one-thousandth of a second, appearing instantaneous to the user.  To accomplish these speeds, the rollout of 5G requires new technology and infrastructure. 

The new network

Since the earliest generation of mobile phones, wireless networks have operated on the same radio-frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. But as more users crowd the network and demand more data than ever before, these radio-wave highways become increasingly congested with cellular traffic. To compensate, mobile providers want to expand into the higher frequencies of millimeter waves.

Millimeter waves use frequencies from 30 to 300 gigahertz, which are 10 to 100 times higher than the radio waves used today for 4G and Wi-Fi networks.  They are called millimeters because their wavelengths vary between 1 and 10 millimeters, whereas radio waves are about centimeters.

The higher frequency of millimeter waves may create new lanes on the communication highway.  Still, there is one problem: Millimeter waves are easily absorbed by foliage and buildings and will require many closely spaced base stations, called small cells.  Fortunately, these stations are much smaller and require less power than traditional cell towers and can be placed atop buildings and light poles.

The miniaturization of base stations also enables another technological breakthrough for 5G: Massive MIMO.  MIMO stands for multiple-input multiple-output and refers to a configuration that takes advantage of the smaller antennas needed for millimeter waves by dramatically increasing the number of antenna ports in each base station.

“With a massive number of antennas — tens to hundreds of antennas at each base station — you can serve many different users at the same, increasing the data rate,” Krishnaswamy said.  At the Columbia high-Speed and Millimeter-wave IC (COSMIC) lab, Krishnaswamy and his team designed chips that enable both millimeter-wave and MIMO technologies.  “Millimeter-wave and massive MIMO are the two biggest technologies 5G will use to deliver the higher data rates and lower latency we expect to see.”

Although 5G will require more base stations, they will be much smaller and require less power than traditional cell towers. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

 Is 5G dangerous?

Although 5G may improve our day to day lives, some consumers have voiced concern about potential health hazards. Many of these concerns are over 5G’s use of higher energy millimeter-wave radiation.

“There’s often confusion between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation because the term radiation is used for both,” said Kenneth Foster, a professor of bioengineering at Pennsylvania State University.  “All light is radiation because it is simply energy moving through space.  It’s ionizing radiation that is dangerous because it can break chemical bonds.”

Ionizing radiation is the reason we wear sunscreen outside because short-wavelength ultraviolet light from the sky has enough energy to knock electrons from their atoms, damaging skin cells and DNA. Millimeter waves, on the other hand, are non-ionizing because they have longer wavelengths and not enough energy to damage cells directly.

“The only established hazard of non-ionizing radiation is too much heating,” Foster said, who has studied the health effects of radio waves for 50 years.  “At high exposure levels, radio frequency (RF) energy can indeed be hazardous, producing burns or other thermal damage, but these exposures are typically incurred only in occupational settings, near high-powered radio frequency transmitters, or sometimes in medical procedures gone awry.”

Many of the public’s outcries over the adoption of 5G echo concerns over previous generations of cellular technology.  Skeptics believe exposure to non-ionizing radiation may still be responsible for a range of illnesses, from brain tumors to chronic headaches. Over the years, there have been thousands of studies investigating these concerns.

In 2018, the National Toxicology Program released a decade-long study that found some evidence of an increase in brain and adrenal gland tumors in male rats exposed to the RF radiation emitted by 2G and 3G cellphones, but not in mice or female rats. The animals were exposed to levels of radiation four times higher than the maximum level permitted for human exposure.

Many opponents to the use of RF waves cherry-pick studies that support their argument, and often ignore the quality of the experimental methods or inconsistency of the results, Foster said.  Although he disagrees with many of the conclusion’s skeptics have about previous generations of cellular networks, Foster agrees that we need more studies on the potential health effects of 5G networks.

“Everyone I know, including me, is recommending more research on 5G because there’s not a lot of toxicology studies with this technology,” Foster said.

For the proponents of 5G, many believe the benefits 5G can provide to society far outweigh the unknowns.

“I think 5G will have a transformational impact on our lives and enable fundamentally new things,” Krishnaswamy said.  “What those types of applications will be and what that impact is, we can’t say for sure right now.  It could be something that takes us by surprise and changes something for society.  If history has taught us anything, then 5G will be another example of what wireless can do for us.”

Additional resources:

• Learn more about previous generations of cellphones and why 5G is the next step.
• What do other health experts have to sayabout cellphone usage?
• Find out if5G is available in your area.

Are we there yet?

I am from a generation gap that watched Star Trek every day.  The Original Series (1966–1969).  Star Trek: The Original Series, frequently abbreviated as TOS, debuted on NBC on September 8, 1966.  I was ten years old; I could not stop watching this TV series.  The show tells the tale of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise and its five-year mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

I saw an announcement of some thermal gloves of cutting edge technology, and in my appreciation, they were too thick.  When you claim advanced technology, you have to consider many variables, for example, electric, solar, mini, or sub-mini and very thin components, state of the art practical wear.  You want to have these capabilities to freely move around.  They would be outstanding if that technology were as slim as skin.  You want to keep your hands hot.  In turn, this will send a message to the brain, saying that you are warm, but you also want to have the feeling that you are not wearing anything.

Sorry I am from the 60s Star Trek and all related series that follow.  Star Trek Generations, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, but I have yet to see more advanced technology after 50+ years of the commencement of the series.  All this talk about future Fantasy.  I do not include Star Wars that was released on May 25, 1977.  First subtitled Episode IV – A New Hope in the 1979 book The Art of Star Wars, or Back to the Future Back to the Future opened on July 3, 1985, on 1,200 screens in North America and all that has come out afterward.  I know we as a human race have come a long way in technology but, 50+ years?

Let us present a few examples: I am a USAF veteran that served from December 1974 through November 1982.  I have seen up and close the Aircraft SR-71 most commonly known as Black Bird.  It is more like a spaceship than an aircraft.  For reference, I just did a Google search on the information of the Black Bird design and in-service.  Google is telling me, and I quote: “ The original Blackbird was designated the A-12 and made its first flight on April 30, 1962. The single-seat A-12 soon evolved into the larger SR-71, which added a second seat for a Reconnaissance Systems Officer and carried more fuel than the A-12.  The SR-71’s first flight was on December 22, 1964. This information is taken from Lockheedmartin.com.

In my duty station, I was informed that SR-71 was coming to the base.  I talked to the Captain in charge of my unit, and he told me, maybe to impress a young adult, that the design was started in 1956, 63 years ago.  Could you imagine that?  1956.  Back in 1978, this aircraft was Top Secret and it was immediately taken in a hanger so that no one could see it.  This jet is a long-range, supersonic reconnaissance aircraft capable of flying at Mach 3.2.

When it first flew, it was a fantastic performer and still is after three decades of unmatched capabilities. The SR-71 has serviced the United States for more than 35 years.  What the public sees now is what the government or whatever power wants you to see.  Behind sealed doors, there is more than meets the eye.  (Believe it or not, I am not troubled by it).

The second example I want to acknowledge is medical technology.  While in the military, I hurt my cervical, back spine, and my right knee.  In 1976, MRIs or CT Scans did not exist.  Some x-rays were taken and dismiss it as nothing to be a concern.  In the first series of Star Trek, they had what was called a Tricorder.  It would function as scanning anything, life signs, medical conditions, universal translator, database information, and recording anything the explorers could gather.  Are we even closed to this miniature technology?  Our CT-Scan and MRI machines are humongous.  Can we see through walls, can we replicate any components or food?  Can we dematerialize and rematerialize in another part of the world?

Do you remember the movie “The Fly”?  The Fly is a 1958 American science fiction-horror film produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and starring David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, and Herbert Marshall. The screenplay by James Clavell based on the 1957 short story of the same name by George Langelaan.  The film tells the story of a scientist who was transformed into a grotesque creature.  A common housefly enters unseen into a molecular transporter he is experimenting with, resulting in his atoms being combined with those of the insect, which produces a human-fly hybrid.

Can we produce paper-thin bulletproof glass (Remember when Kirk had to return to earth to bring back a humpback whale to save the planet?  How about cars so light that their body is made of plastic harder than stainless steel.  Can we make Sky Walker laser sword or canons, sonic weapons, I know some exists but not used, and I am talking miniature?

Today we are yet to see a supercomputer that mimics the human brain.  The Human Brain Project was or is part of research to produce this technology by 2020, but it seems a dud.  I honestly was looking forward to this project’s success.  They intended to treat neurological illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.  This treatment, in turn, would provide viable solutions to emotional conditions, in general, like schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and many other neurological issues.  Many brotherhood Veterans like me would have benefited greatly from this technology.

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
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