Abstract
This paper describes the assessment of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure from fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) base stations in a commercial NR network in Bern, Switzerland. During the measurement campaign, four base station sites were investigated and the exposure induced by the NR massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MaMIMO) antennas was assessed at 22 positions, at distances from the base station between 30 m and 410 m. The NR base stations operated at 3.6 GHz and used codebook-based beamforming. While the actual field levels without inducing downlink traffic were very low (<0.05 V/m) due to a low traffic load and low antenna input powers of up to 8 W, setting up a maximum downlink traffic stream towards user equipment resulted in a time-averaged exposure level of up to 0.4 V/m, whereas the maximum extrapolated exposure level reached 0.6 V/m. Extrapolated to an antenna input power of 200 W, values of 4.3 V/m and 4.9 V/m, respectively, were obtained, which amount to 0.5–0.6% of the reference level recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). In Bern, it was found that the impact of the NR network on the total environmental RF exposure was very limited; with maximum downlink, it contributed 2% on average. Finally, it was also concluded that extrapolation to the maximum exposure level can be done without prior knowledge of the radiation patterns, directly based on the measurement of the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) resource elements.
Highlights
Numerous studies have already been conducted regarding the everyday exposure to environmental radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) [1]
In [16], drive-test measurements in three new radio (NR) networks operating in the 3.6 GHz band were performed, collecting samples of the transmit power (Tx) and of the synchronization signal reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) received by a mobile device, while millions of Tx power samples from user equipment were recorded in two commercial NR networks in [17]
The highest normalized Eavg was found at a distance of 190 m from an NR base station, there was a large variation between field levels at about this distance
Summary
Numerous studies have already been conducted regarding the everyday exposure to environmental radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) [1]. The advent of the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communications technologies, including the new radio (NR) radio access technology [2] and the widespread use of massive multipleinput-multiple-output (MaMIMO) and advanced antenna systems (AAS) as well as the opening up of new frequency bands, brings about questions from the general public on their additional contributions to the environmental RF exposure. Accurate characterization of the impact of the ongoing roll-out of 5G NR networks on our exposure to RF-EMF is essential, in particular for the communication of scientific [3,4,5] and legislative bodies [6] to the general public. In [16], drive-test measurements in three NR networks operating in the 3.6 GHz band were performed, collecting samples of the transmit power (Tx) and of the synchronization signal reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) received by a mobile device, while millions of Tx power samples from user equipment were recorded in two commercial NR networks in [17].
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