Authors: Authors: Lee, A.-K.; Jeon, S.; Hong, S.-E.; Wang, S.; Wiart, J.; Samaras, T.
IEEE Access, 2026, vol. 14, pp. 134636–134653, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2026.3728447
Abstract
As 5G mobile networks become increasingly widespread, realistic assessment of radio-frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure in modern mobile-network environments is becoming increasingly important. This study characterized real-world downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) RF-EMF exposure across different urbanization levels in South Korea using commercial 3G, 4G, and 5G mobile networks. DL electric-field strengths and UL transmit powers were simultaneously measured in urban and rural environments using frequency-selective field measurements and mobile-network logging systems. The measured exposure levels were used to calculate brain specific absorption rate (SAR) using anatomically realistic child and adult numerical models. The results showed that, under the measurement and dosimetric conditions considered in this study, brain SAR associated with DL exposure from base-station infrastructure was comparable to or exceeded that associated with UL exposure in most tested scenarios. Urban–rural differences in whole-brain-averaged SAR reached 6.2 dB for the child model and 5.7 dB for the adult model, whereas age-related differences were substantially smaller. These findings indicate that environmental and network-infrastructure factors are major determinants of RF-EMF exposure variability in dense modern mobile-network environments. By integrating real-world measurements with anatomically realistic dosimetry, this study provides a practical framework for RF-EMF exposure assessment and characterization in evolving mobile communication networks.