Measuring 5G Exposure From Multiple Terminals and Base Station in Standalone FWA Networks

Despite the broad adoption of 5G terminals, public concerns regarding ElectroMagnetic Field (EMF) exposure are primarily focused on the nearby presence of Radio Base Stations (RBSs), which are currently considered the strongest source of EMF radiation. However, is the RBS exposure really higher than that generated by multiple terminals in the same location? To address this question, we design and evaluate an innovative narrow-band measurement methodology, called Electromagnetic field Measurement for Fixed Wireless Access (EM-FWA), tailored to the evaluation of the exposure from multiple terminals vs. the one radiated by the RBS in a operative 5G StandAlone (SA) Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network. Our approach, which includes a new narrow-band measurement algorithm, involves exposure assessments upon the generation of Downlink (DL), Uplink (UL) and combined DL/UL data transfers from the pool of terminals. Results, obtained from multiple locations subject to variegate propagation conditions, indicate that almost 100% saturation of the radio link resources in the DL direction is only achieved when three distinct terminals generate traffic in proximity to the RBS, thus justifying the adoption of our methodology. Conversely, terminal exposure significantly exceeds the RBS one at the cell edge, even when a single terminal is employed, with more than 1.4 V/m from CPE and less than 0.2 V/m from RBS. Furthermore, the RBS output power is influenced more by the volume of DL traffic than by the terminal propagation condition. Finally, we demonstrate that the overall exposure cost is minimized when the pool of terminals is placed close to the RBS. We believe that our work can pave the way to a new family of EMF compliance assessment procedures for 5G networks, adopting multiple terminals that generate traffic during the exposure measurements.