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Exposure to the Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) generated from cellular antennas is a topic of importance, and even more so since the arrival of 5G and the promise of a future with denser deployments. In this paper, we describe the planning and execution of EMF measurements in Luxembourg and the lessons learned from that process. We describe the specifics of Luxembourg, how the pilot sites as well as the measuring devices have been selected. We also discuss the results of the measurements from fixed and mobile devices, with regard to the regulatory limits. Finally, we describe the facts that limit the short-term deployment of devices and the difficulties to measure 5G exposition. All the datasets collected for this study are proposed as open-source format.

When performing a radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure assessment of a base station as described in the international standard IEC 62232, the actual maximum approach provides an assessment method based on the actual exposure level, in particular for massive MIMO base stations. Computational modeling can be used to estimate a range of applicable power reduction factors. To date, research studies have generally focused on the channel modeling of actual RF EMF exposure assuming that the attached user equipment (UE) is static. However, in real operational conditions, a UE can be moving and triggering multiple beam changes or beam adaptations. This study provides a computational model applicable to moving UEs and investigates the impact on range of applicable power reduction factors compared to modelling studies using static UEs. The results show that -1.5 dB to -3.5 dB lower power reduction factor can be considered with moving UEs compared to static UEs.

New wireless technologies significantly utilize the spectrum around 6 GHz with some of them, like Wi-Fi®6E, using both the spectrum below and above 6 GHz. At these frequencies, the main challenge for electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure assessments is due to the exposure metric changing from specific absorption rate (SAR) to absorbed power density (APD). Moreover, due to current measurement limitations, the incident power density (IPD) rather than APD is used in practice. In this context, the maximum allowed output power to ensure exposure compliance is dependent on the metric used and can lead to a discontinuity below and above 6 GHz even for different channels of the same technology. This paper studies such a discontinuity at the transition frequency of 6 GHz using a dipole antenna and a Planar Inverted F Antenna (PIFA). The study was performed at several exposure distances by means of numerical simulations as well as experimental measurements. The assessment was based on the comparison between maximum power values obtained while remaining compliant to the SAR and IPD limits for the same exposure conditions. The results have shown that for a specific source there was a distance (between 5 and 10 mm) where the highest power reduction for compliance switched from SAR to IPD. The difference or discontinuity level varied between 2 and 6 dB depending on the exposure distance and the source. In summary, SAR is more restrictive at closer distances, while the IPD induces a higher back-off power with an increase in distance.

Two outdoor base station macrocell/microcell topologies in operational Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) networks are compared with respect to average Electromagnetic Field (EMF) exposure over population in an area. A novel joint metric is used, accounting for exposure from both base stations and user equipment. The demonstrated method tends to use as much data as possible that can be extracted from various network systems, for the exact time of measurements or on long-term basis, with the aim of identifying the potential for EMF-awareness of future networks. The reduction of total exposure with the introduction of the microcell layer is shown using the proposed method with experimental measurements and compared by mobile network technologies. The introduction of the micro layer brought reduction to total population exposure of 84.6%, in the micro base station coverage area, mostly due to user device exposure reduction in GSM. UMTS user device exposure reduction was even more pronounced, 97.8%, but having less impact on overall exposure, contributing only 1%. Even with the increase in exposure originating from base stations, the reduction of total exposure was visible over the macro area as well, measuring 2.22%. The uncertainties of the evaluation method are identified and usage of advanced tools and methods is proposed to mitigate them.

This paper reports the electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure levels from fifth generation (5G) services. Three mobile operators in South Korea launched the world's first 5G New Radio networks using the 3.5 GHz band in April 2019. The transmitted power of the uplink slots and the synchronization signal reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) from user equipment (UE) were measured in Seoul. The power samples, averaged over a 1-s duration, were obtained for a traffic period of approximately 270 h from October 2019 to early February 2020 using the file transfer protocol while driving along the side streets in residential areas of Seoul. The measurement results show that the time-average level when exposed to a beam sweep of the base stations was less than 5 μW/m2. However, the UE transmitted power level approached the maximum for a considerable period of the total measurement time owing to the extremely low SS-RSRP level of the base stations.

An exposure system was designed and implemented for the purpose of joint large-scale animal experiments conducted in Korea and Japan using a reverberation chamber (RC) in both countries. Prior to the start of the animal experiments, the parameters S21, electric field (E-field) uniformity, and Q factor were evaluated to confirm the performance of the developed chambers. The E-field uniformity, which is the most important performance factor of an RC, was evaluated at 900 MHz on 150 measurement values taken at 150 points in a loaded chamber with 80 live rats and in an empty chamber. The conditions of the loaded chamber with the rats are almost the same as the actual experimental environment and in which the rats, watering systems, animal bedding, cages, and cage racks were included. Two mean body weights of 330 and 470 g for the 80 rats were considered. The E-field uniformity was within the mean ± 1.0 dB and mean ± 2.3 dB under the empty and the rat-loaded conditions, respectively.

The design of a massive MIMO network requires a channel model that captures the Spatio-temporal dimensions of the propagation environment. In this paper, we propose a novel method combining Hybrid Raytracing - Finite difference time domain (FDTD) and network planner tools to address this requirement. This method provides accurate and realistic EMF exposure models for the design of a massive MIMO network. Using this method, we proceed with the optimization of the BS's locations under the low power consumption and low EMF exposure constraints. Assuming equal preference of the optimization objectives, the simulations show that the uplink localized 10g dose appears to be the dominant factor of the localized 10g EMF exposure. Moreover, a massive MIMO network designed to serve 224 simultaneous active users at the same time-frequency resource is subject to an increase of the total whole-body dose (2 times higher in downlink and +18% in uplink), compared to a design with 14 active users. However, in the same conditions, the downlink localized 10g dose reduces (20 times lower) whereas the uplink localized 10g dose increases (+23%) in comparison with the scenario with fewer users (14). Besides, the electromagnetic field strength in all locations obtained with this new method is 2 times weaker compared to a 4G LTE network, while complying with the international guidelines.

This paper presents a numerical approach for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) human exposure assessment. It combines ray-tracing for the estimation of the wireless channel and the finite-difference time-domain method to simulate the exposure of a realistic human phantom. We apply it to estimate the exposure in a model of an industrial indoor environment with a single massive MIMO base station (BS). The exposure scenarios include line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight propagation with the BS using equal gain transmission precoding at 3.5 GHz. Calculated channel parameters are discussed in comparison with the data available in the literature. The exposure in the phantom's head is evaluated in terms of the peak-spatial specific absorption rate averaged over a 10-g cube and referenced to the free-space time-averaged Poynting vector magnitude at the same location.

Advanced antenna technology in the form of massive multiple input multiple output (mMIMO) antennas has been deployed in fourth generation (4G) long term evolution (LTE) mobile networks and will be a standard feature in fifth generation (5G) networks. A characteristic of mMIMO is beamforming in which a large array of antenna elements is used to concentrate energy in specific narrow directions to improve data throughput. Assessing the electromagnetic field (EMF) compliance boundary around a beamforming capable mMIMO antenna using a traditional approach that assumes maximum power is simultaneously transmitted in every possible direction and the radio base station (RBS) is fully loaded (100% traffic utilization) may produce very conservative results. In this study we report on measurements of the 6-minute time-averaged EMF levels in front of a mMIMO antenna operating in a 4G LTE time division duplex (TDD) network and compare results with conservatively computed EMF levels. The RBS serves users scattered throughout a dense urban environment characterized by low rise commercial/industrial buildings. When scaled to 100% RBS traffic loading and taking TDD operation into account, the highest measured EMF level was 7.3% to 16.1% of the ICNIRP occupational reference level compared to a conservative computed level of 79.3%. This represents a far-field reduction in the occupational compliance boundary of between 2.2 and 3.3 times and is consistent with other statistically based theoretical studies. An additional reduction in the compliance boundary can be expected due to actual RBS traffic loading often being much less than 100%.

In this paper, a model for time-averaged realistic maximum power levels for the assessment of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure for the fifth generation (5G) radio base stations (RBS) employing massive MIMO is presented. The model is based on a statistical approach and developed to provide a realistic conservative RF exposure assessment for a significant proportion of all possible downlink exposure scenarios (95th percentile) in-line with requirements in a recently developed International Electrotechnical Commission standard for RF EMF exposure assessments of RBS. Factors, such as RBS utilization, time-division duplex, scheduling time, and spatial distribution of users within a cell are considered. The model is presented in terms of a closed-form equation. For an example scenario corresponding to an expected 5G RBS product, the largest realistic maximum power level was found to be less than 15% of the corresponding theoretical maximum. For far-field exposure scenarios, this corresponds to a reduction in RF EMF limit compliance distance with a factor of about 2.6. Results are given for antenna arrays of different sizes and for scenarios with beamforming in both azimuth and elevation.