A Comparative Study of In Situ Methodologies for Assessment of RF EMF Exposure From a 5G FR2 Base Station

Samuel Goegebeur; Kenneth Deprez; Davide Colombi; Jens Eilers Bischoff; Carla Di Paola; Bram Stroobandt; Leen Verloock; Sam Aerts; Christer Tornevik; Wout Joseph

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3424262

IEEE Access (Jan 2024)

A Comparative Study of In Situ Methodologies for Assessment of RF EMF Exposure From a 5G FR2 Base Station

Samuel Goegebeur,
Kenneth Deprez,
Davide Colombi,
Jens Eilers Bischoff,
Carla Di Paola,
Bram Stroobandt,
Leen Verloock,
Sam Aerts,
Christer Tornevik,
Wout Joseph

Affiliations

Samuel Goegebeur: ORCiD; Department of Information Technology, imec, Wireless, Acoustic, Environment and Expert Systems (WAVES) Group, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Kenneth Deprez: ORCiD; Department of Information Technology, imec, Wireless, Acoustic, Environment and Expert Systems (WAVES) Group, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Davide Colombi: ORCiD; Ericsson Research, Ericsson AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Jens Eilers Bischoff: Ericsson Research, Ericsson AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Carla Di Paola: ORCiD; Ericsson Research, Ericsson AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Bram Stroobandt: ORCiD; Department of Information Technology, imec, Wireless, Acoustic, Environment and Expert Systems (WAVES) Group, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Leen Verloock: ORCiD; Department of Information Technology, imec, Wireless, Acoustic, Environment and Expert Systems (WAVES) Group, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Sam Aerts: Research Group of Smart Sensor Systems, Faculty of Technology, Innovation and Society, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Delft, The Netherlands
Christer Tornevik: ORCiD; Ericsson Research, Ericsson AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Wout Joseph: ORCiD; Department of Information Technology, imec, Wireless, Acoustic, Environment and Expert Systems (WAVES) Group, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3424262
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12
pp. 132552 – 132564

Abstract

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In this work, in situ measurements of the radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure have been conducted for an indoor massive MIMO 5G base station operating at 26–28 GHz. Measurements were performed at six different positions (at distances between 9.94 and 14.32 m from the base station), of which four were in line-of-sight and two were in non-line-of-sight. A comparison was performed between the measurements conducted with an omnidirectional probe and with a horn antenna, for scenarios with and without a user equipment used to actively create an antenna traffic beam from the base station towards the measurement location. A maximum exposure of 171.9 mW/m2 was measured at a distance of 9.94 m from the base station. This is below 2% of the ICNIRP reference level. Moreover, the feasibility to measure the power per resource element of the Synchronization Signal Block - which can be used to extrapolate the maximum exposure level - with a conventional spectrum analyzer was shown by comparison with a network decoder.

Published in IEEE Access

ISSN: 2169-3536 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6287639

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