Mobile communications: Innovations for less radiation exposure

Many people are concerned about the increasing radiation exposure from mobile phones. Fortunately, there are also rays of hope and innovations in dealing with this invisible danger. Three of them are presented in the following article.

Due to the heavy use of data-intensive services, the transmission networks in many cities are reaching their performance limits. In order to be able to further expand the infrastructure of conventional macrocell technology (conventional mobile phone masts), Swiss mobile network operators and their associations are attempting, according to a report by www.diagnose-funk.org For some time now, politicians have been calling for the Swiss precautionary limits for non-ionizing radiation to be raised so that the existing macrocell sites can be further upgraded.

St. Gallen: More data with less radiation

Instead of further expanding the network of mobile phone antennas, St. Gallen opted for a different solution. A vision was developed on behalf of the Office for Environment and Energy of the City of St. Gallen: St. Gallen-Wireless. The idea behind it is compelling: more data with less radiation. The project was designed, convinced by the city parliament and city council, and approved in a referendum. Strong opposition came from the mobile network operators, who described the project as technically unfeasible. However, the vision has been successfully implemented in its first stages.

Only one network for all users

The project went into normal operation in 2014. According to the report on diagnose-funk.org, St. Galler-Wireless fulfills four important requirements for creating a high-performance, low-radiation wireless network:
– There is only one network for all users.
– The radio link is kept as short as possible with a small cell network.
– The indoor and outdoor supplies are separated from each other.
– Routers/access points are shielded from buildings and installed in such a way that radiation into buildings is avoided or minimized.

Maximum radiation exposure enormously reduced

In practice, the project is clearly a success. Smart phone and tablet users can communicate free of charge via the city’s WLAN network, which consists of micro-cells, and are then redirected internally to their respective provider. The maximum radiation exposure in the outdoor area could thus be reduced enormously. As the user is always close to a radio cell, the cell and the user can transmit at minimum power. Compared to conventional coverage, this is a threefold improvement: because the radio cells transmit at low power, radiation exposure remains low even in the immediate vicinity of the transmitters. The apartments are not illuminated from the outside. The end devices can receive and transmit with low power.

Visible Light Communication (VLC): Optical mobile communication

The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin has developed a data transmission technology in which the light from commercially available LED lamps used for room lighting is used as a data carrier with an embedded microchip. The wireless signal transmission works with a microchip embedded in the LED bulb. This will enable a transmission rate of 150 MBit/s. The data is modulated onto the luminous flux at very high frequencies, which are not perceptible to the eye in this way. Optical sensors (photodiodes) on the end devices read the data from the luminous flux. Conversely, the data streams from the mobile end device are sent back to the LED lamp in the infrared range. Wireless optical data communication is an impressive alternative to existing data transmission via WLAN and Bluetooth. It is an attractive solution for schools in particular, as there are special requirements for the protection of children and young people from the risks of mobile phone radiation and these must be taken into account. The idea of switching from microwave radiation to visible light originally came from Keio University in Japan. In the meantime, it has spread worldwide.

Europe’s first VLC project on the island of Mainau

Europe’s first practical project with optical data transmission – Visible Light Communication (VLC)– was launched on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance on May 20, 2015. This could be the start of a new phase for mobile communications. The project partners’ press release states: “The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI is equipping an existing conference room on the island of Mainau with Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology in order to create an optical WLAN environment. This means that the existing radio-based WLAN solution can be replaced. The upgrade is to be carried out in several stages and will provide insights for practice-oriented parameter optimization. The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector. The ‘Bodensee Mobilfunk’ initiative is committed to minimizing radiation and came up with the idea for the project on the island of Mainau.

Swiss Harmony: Protection against harmful radiation

Another innovation against mobile telephony and electrosmog comes from “Swiss Harmony” in Grellingen. Swiss Harmony products for harmonizing houses and apartments ensure that the electricity that supplies a building with electricity receives a different message. They transmit the information of the visible light spectrum to the passing current via the resonance path, which in turn distributes it throughout the entire effective range of the circuit. The electromagnetic field of the apartment or house becomes a harmonious field. In-house WLAN transmitters or cordless telephones are interference-free because they are connected to the harmonic current field and therefore emit the same harmonic information.

Generate a harmonic oscillation field

The law of resonance states that no resonances can occur in an oscillating field with oscillations whose frequencies lie outside those of the field. In other words: In a harmonic oscillation field, artificial radiation has no effect, regardless of who generates it, whether it comes from a neighbor or a nearby mobile phone mast. The mobile products from Swiss Harmony (BioRing, BodyCard, BioBracelet and the BioPatch) harmonize the human body by transmitting the harmonic vibration as information to the human energy system. This means that artificially created radiation fields can no longer resonate.