Dominance of Smartphone Exposure in 5G Mobile Networks

Abstract

The deployment of 5G networks is sometimes questioned due to the impact of ElectroMagnetic Field (EMF) generated by Radio Base Station (RBS) on users. The goal of this work is to analyze such issue from a novel perspective, by comparing RBS EMF against exposure generated by 5G smartphones in commercial deployments. The measurement of exposure from 5G is hampered by several implementation aspects, such as dual connectivity between 4G and 5G, spectrum fragmentation, and carrier aggregation. To face such issues, we deploy a novel framework, called 5G-EA, tailored to the assessment of smartphone and RBS exposure through an innovative measurement algorithm, able to remotely control a programmable spectrum analyzer. Results, obtained in both outdoor and indoor locations, reveal that smartphone exposure (upon generation of uplink traffic) dominates over the RBS one. Moreover, Line-of-Sight locations experience a reduction of around one order of magnitude on the overall exposure compared to Non-Line-of-Sight ones. In addition, 5G exposure always represents a small share (up to 38%) compared to the total one radiated by the smartphone.

Joint Uplink and Downlink EMF Exposure: Performance Analysis and Design Insights

“…1 The distance from the BS to its associated user or mobile equipment is assumed to be equivalent since the distance from the typical user to its own mobile device is much shorter than that to its serving BS, i.e., u 0 << x 0 . Unlike the downlink exposure that comes from all BSs in the network, the uplink exposure is dominated by the user's personal mobile equipment [42], [43]. Specifically, the transmit power at mobile equipment is quite low and attenuates significantly after long-distance transmission.…”

“…where κ DL (•) is given in ( 17) and (a) is from the same method in (43). Applying the PGFL of PPP [35] into (48), we have…”

Joint Uplink and Downlink EMF Exposure: Performance Analysis and Design Insights

“…1 The distance from the BS to its associated user or mobile equipment is assumed to be equivalent since the distance from the typical user to its own mobile device is much shorter than that to its serving BS, i.e., u 0 << x 0 . Unlike the downlink exposure that comes from all BSs in the network, the uplink exposure is dominated by the user's personal mobile equipment [42], [43]. Specifically, the transmit power at mobile equipment is quite low and attenuates significantly after longdistance transmission.…”

“…κ DL (x i , s) , (43) where κ DL (x i , s) = m m+sp(4π) −1 x −β i m and (a) is from the distribution of small-scale fading H in (5). Focusing on the typical user outside the hole and employing the probability generating functional (PGFL) of PPP in [35], (43) can be further expressed as…”

“…where κ DL (•) is given in ( 17) and (a) is from the same method in (43). Applying the PGFL of PPP [35] into (48), we have…”