A Measurement-Based Trade-Off Analysis of EMF Exposure Levels and QoS in Mobile Networks

As mobile services rapidly expand, network operators face the challenge of carefully rolling out advanced networks that meet strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements while adhering to electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure limits. In this study, we present a trade-off analysis based on real data collected through a measurement campaign between EMF exposure levels from all operating cellular technologies and main QoS parameters experienced by users, namely data rate, received signal strength and quality indicators. This work investigates the relationship and interplay between the EMF exposure levels and QoS received by the mobile users at different frequency bands in use by network operators, relying on real life measurement data. The results show that the mean value of measured electric field (E-field) samples is between 0.2-0.9 V/m for all frequency bands included in the study. Fewer than 10% of samples exceed the value of 1 V/m, while the maximum value recorded is 5.46 V/m. In terms of trade-off analysis, we observe that there is a tendency for higher data rates to be associated with lower E-field levels. Our results show that 90% of samples with high E-field values are associated with data rates lower than 1 Mb/s, while 50% of samples with low E-field values exhibit data rates that are above 1 Mb/s. From all quality indicators, our results show that the received signal strength indicator shows the strongest relationship with the E-field level and could be used as a reliable predictor for EMF exposure when planning future EMF-aware networks.