The measurement of Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) is an important topic in today’s scenarios where a pervasive diffusion of cellular networks, as well as short-range and personal wireless devices, negatively affect the human exposure issues. Focusing the attention on cellular systems, despite regulators and normative committees are conveying specific guidelines for the measurements of EMFs generated by cellular networks, there are several issues still to be addressed regarding the most reliable measurement procedures and the evaluation of their measurement uncertainty. In this framework, the paper focuses on Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems by providing a large experimental analysis aimed at evaluating the repeatability of the measurement results, achieved by means of one widely recognized human exposure assessment methods, i.e. Maximum RF Field Strength Extrapolation Technique, which is recommended to give worst–case and time–independent estimations of the maximum Electric field. To this aim, a huge amount of signal acquisitions (about 112000 traces) is collected for several weeks, by considering two mobile network operators and two frequency bands. Results have shown how some factors, as instrument settings and the time interval in which the measurements are taken, can significantly affect the measurement results and their repeatability. Furthermore, in some cases, such effects become comparable to, or even larger than typical uncertainty components of the measurement chain. To mitigate these issues, authors also suggest some possible solutions to improve the measurement procedure’s overall repeatability.

LTE Human Exposure Evaluation: Maximum RF Field Strength Extrapolation Technique Repeatability Analysis

Cerro, Gianni
Membro del Collaboration Group
;
2020-01-01

Abstract

The measurement of Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) is an important topic in today’s scenarios where a pervasive diffusion of cellular networks, as well as short-range and personal wireless devices, negatively affect the human exposure issues. Focusing the attention on cellular systems, despite regulators and normative committees are conveying specific guidelines for the measurements of EMFs generated by cellular networks, there are several issues still to be addressed regarding the most reliable measurement procedures and the evaluation of their measurement uncertainty. In this framework, the paper focuses on Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems by providing a large experimental analysis aimed at evaluating the repeatability of the measurement results, achieved by means of one widely recognized human exposure assessment methods, i.e. Maximum RF Field Strength Extrapolation Technique, which is recommended to give worst–case and time–independent estimations of the maximum Electric field. To this aim, a huge amount of signal acquisitions (about 112000 traces) is collected for several weeks, by considering two mobile network operators and two frequency bands. Results have shown how some factors, as instrument settings and the time interval in which the measurements are taken, can significantly affect the measurement results and their repeatability. Furthermore, in some cases, such effects become comparable to, or even larger than typical uncertainty components of the measurement chain. To mitigate these issues, authors also suggest some possible solutions to improve the measurement procedure’s overall repeatability.
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11695/94865
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 9
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact