5G is on everyone’s hot topic radar in 2019 and was certainly one of the most talked about technologies at the recent CES technology show in Las Vegas.

It is expected to provide greater capacity, as well as download speeds of 1Gbps, which is a 100 times faster than the current 4G networks. That would mean loading the HD version of the Avengers: Infinity War movie in a few seconds, rather than minutes it currently takes.

“5G is set to revolutionize wireless communications and play a major role in our future connected society and facilitate the road towards a more advanced Internet of Things,” says Mike Wood, who chairs IEC Technical Committee (TC) 106, which prepares International Standards on measurement and calculation methods to assess human exposure to electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields.

When fully deployed, the technology promises not only to increase downloading and uploading speeds over the mobile network, but also to reduce latency, which is the time taken by networks to respond. That will drastically lessen the annoyance of time spent buffering.

Currently, 5G field tests are underway around the world and several operators have already announced plans for commercial rollout later this year. 5G will serve as the communications backbone necessary for the large growth in data and connectivity of today’s modern society, from the IoT with billions of connected devices, to self-driving cars and smart cities.

With worldwide rollout planning underway, the IEC is well advanced in the development of standards for human safety and device compliance. TC 106 is playing a key role.

IEC 62232, issued by TC 106, provides methods for determining the radio-frequency field strength near the radio-communication base stations with the intention of evaluating human exposure. This Standard takes into account the mmWave frequencies to be used for 5G networks.

For devices, TC 106, together with the IEEE, has established a new joint working group to develop international standards for 5G device testing by 2020 and is developing a Technical Report for publication in the first quarter of 2019.

“Knowing the importance of 5G and wireless communications on a global scale drives our experts who dedicate many hours, including significant personal time, to work on international standardization,” says Wood.♦

Date of Release: 27 February 2019