Radiation monitoring

The goal is to monitor the electro-magnetic radiation from wireless radio communication sources sensed at the area of the VUB campus to ensure that the deployed technologies are complying with the new approved decree of the Brussels’ Capital Region stipulating that the field strength should be limited to 3V/m; and to provide a global radiation spatial distribution figure that combines all sensed electro-magnetic radiation to ensure that the public health in the metropolitan area will not be endangered by the various wireless technologies.

The total radiation will be measured by summing the measured values of all technologies that are working in the unlicensed frequency band of a microwave oven (WiFi), in licensed bands close to this band (upper band of GSM, UMTS) and at higher frequencies, where the dielectric heating principle e.g. used in a microwave oven also could be considered; i.e. the bands basically used for WiMAX and microwave relaying.

The measured frequency bands for the radiation will be the GSM upper bound frequency band (1.71-1.88 GHz), the WiFi frequency band (2.4-2.5 GHz) and the WiMAX frequency band (3.4-3.5 GHz). The measurements will be conducted at carefully selected points to ensure covering all the area under study and produce realistic figures. Summing the radiation generated by all the contributing technologies will yield more realistic figures than focusing on a single technology only.