Non-ionising radiation-monitoring networks were initiated as a result of the public concerns about the potential health effects from telecommunication emissions. In the present study, the data acquired from such networks in Greece are used to assess the changes in the outdoor electromagnetic environment with respect to location and time. The study shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the urban (median electric field: 1.1 V m(-1)) and the rural (median electric field: 0.3 V m(-1)) installations of monitoring units and also shows that there is a median diurnal variation (daily maximum to minimum) of 20.2 and 33.8 % for the broadcasting and mobile telecommunication emissions, respectively. Moreover, there is a difference in the electric field between daytime and night, but not between morning and afternoon. The results are in line with previously published data from spot measurements, monitoring networks and personal exposimeter studies performed in several European countries.
Femtocells are low-power access points, which combine mobile and broadband technologies. The main operation of a femtocell is to function as a miniature base station unit in an indoor environment and to connect to the operator's network through a broadband phone line or a coaxial cable line. This study provides the first experimental measurements and results in Greece for the assessment of exposure to a femtocell access point (FAP) indoors. Using a mobile handset with the appropriate software, power level measurements of the transmitted (Tx) and the received by the mobile handset signal were performed in two different and typical (home and office) environments. Moreover, radiofrequency electric field strength and frequency selective measurements with a radiation meter (SRM-3000) were carried out in the proximity of the FAP installation point. The cumulative distribution functions of the Tx power at most cases (except one) show that in 90% of all points the power of the mobile phone was lower by at least 7 dB during FAP operation. At a distance of ∼1 m from the FAP (in its main beam), power flux density measurements show that there is very little difference between the two situations (FAP ON and OFF). As a conclusion, the use of femtocells indoors improves reception quality, reduces the Tx power of the user's mobile terminal and results in an indiscernible increase of the electromagnetic field in front of the unit, at values that are extremely low compared with reference levels of exposure guidelines.
Radio frequency energy harvesting has attracted considerable interest as a technique of enabling self-powered wireless networks. This technique faces several challenges, such as the receiving and the rectifying modules of a rectenna system. Multiband antennas provide several comparative advantages against the goal of maximizing the amount of energy harvesting. In this work, we present a multiband microstrip patch antenna with three slits operating in the LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) and the cellular (GSM-1800 and UMTS) communication frequency bands. A feasible solution of the antenna is obtained by the application of a recently introduced nature-inspired optimization technique, namely the Coyote Optimization Algorithm. The proposed antenna operates satisfactorily in the LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) and the cellular (GSM-1800 and UMTS) communication frequency bands. Measured results of the proposed antenna exhibit an acceptable performance (multiband frequency operation, maximum gain of 3.94 dBi, broadside operation) and demonstrate features of operation, which make it a strong candidate for various RF energy harvesting applications.INDEX TERMS Microstrip line, multiband antenna, optimization method, patch antenna, radio frequency energy harvesting.
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