Time Variability of Electromagnetic Exposure Due to Wi Fi Networks

Human exposure to electromagnetic fields due to Wi Fi signals has been extensively characterized by means of electric field measurements that recorded the maximum exposure values. Nevertheless, a more detailed approach requires the measurement of actual accurate values and the assessment of their variability with time. This work presents a comprehensive analysis of the time variability of EM exposure due to Wi Fi standards IEEE 802.11n in the band of 2.4 GHz and IEEE 802.11ac in the band of 5 GHz. An extensive measurement campaign was carried out in order to evaluate the variability within one hour and along periods of 24 hours in weekdays and at the weekend. The exposure values were also compared with the ones obtained three years before at the same locations. The statistical analysis involved the calculation and analysis of several percentiles and the estimation of the best fitting theoretical distributions for the measured data.