EM Risk Management for Wireless Communications: First Look and Case Study

With the increased application of wireless communication in mission and safety-critical applications, such as autonomous vehicles, concerns have been raised regarding the reliability and safety of these technologies. Especially of interest is the dependability of these technologies under Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). In the field of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), the idea of Electromagnetic Risk Management (EMRM) forms a promising way of tackling dependability related issues stemming from EMI. In the field of wireless communications, research for mission and safety-critical applications have resulted in Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) technologies. This paper draws parallels between EMRM and URLLC and provides a view on EMRM for wireless communications, which aims to make URLLC systems dependable under EMI. To support the idea of EMRM for wireless communications, a small case study is provided which shows the vulnerability of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) frame synchronization to Narrowband Interference (NBI) and indicates a necessity for research into EMRM for wireless communications.