Experimental analysis of duty factor for WLAN user devices

Duty Factor (DF) of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) user devices is one of important factors for Electromagnetic Field (EMF) exposure level evaluation in modern human environment. In this paper DF measurements were conducted in three representative radio conditions (good, medium, bad), for eight most commonly used services (web browsing, VoIP call, video call, audio streaming, video streaming, file download, file upload and IPTV), and both for 802.11a and 802.11g networks. Having in mind that WLAN user devices usually transmit with the maximum power, the variety of obtained results (0.21%–74%) implies that the DF plays a crucial role in the evaluation of the average EMF exposure.