A Study of Experiment-based Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Field Exposure Evidence on Stochastic Nature of A Massive MIMO System

TL;DR

This study uses a sophisticated mMIMO testbed to experimentally assess RF-EMF exposure in indoor environments, revealing the stochastic spatial variation influenced by beam profiles and data rates in 5G systems.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of RF-EMF exposure variability in real-world indoor 5G mMIMO deployments, considering multiple influencing factors.

Findings

RF-EMF exposure varies spatially around the mMIMO system.

Beam profiles and data rates significantly influence RF-EMF levels.

Experimental data supports stochastic modeling of RF-EMF exposure.

Abstract

In this paper, a massive multiple-input-multiple-output (mMIMO) testbed that is capable of mimicking realistic 5G new radio (NR) base station (BS) beamforming performance has been utilised to gather experimental-based evidence of 5G BS RF-EMF exposure within a real-world indoor environment. The mMIMO testbed has up to 128 RF channels with user-programmable software defined radio (SDR) capability. The stochastic nature of the 5G NR mMIMO system has been statistically assessed by evaluating the spatial variation of the RF-EMF exposure surrounding the mMIMO testbed when taking into account different beam profiles and data rates. Several other factors that influence the RF-EMF of mMIMO system have also being considered.