Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 24-8 - 35

Operator -
Table 1 - Week analysis of the maximum variability range
Maximum Variability range (dB)
Frequency Band
OP1 - B1
OP2 - B1
OP3 - B1
OP1 - B2
OP2 - B2
OP3 - B2
Day 1
4.7
2.5
2.9
3.4
9.9
6.0
Day 2
4.6
1.3
3.3
3.5
7.9
5.9
Day 3
4.7
2.4
3.1
4.2
8.0
6.2
night's hours, but significant variation is clearly visible
also in the daytime intervals.
As said, to analyze the long-term repeatability of the results,
the experiments were repeated for each day of a week.
Table 1 reports the maximum variability ranges evaluated over
each day of a week. From the analyses of such results some
considerations can be drawn:
◗ Each analyzed configuration (in terms of operatorband)
shows how the extrapolated values generally vary
during the day and over the week. As a consequence, the
measured values depend on the time interval and day in
which the measurements are performed.
◗ Whatever the operator and the frequency band, the
observed variation ranges are not neglectable concerning
the typical measurement uncertainty due to the instruments
chain (typically the standard uncertainty should be
kept less than 2.0 dB). In some circumstances (see OP2-B2
and OP3-B2), the variation ranges are larger than 5 dB and
approach 10 dB in the case of OP2-B2.
On the whole, despite that the features of the PBCH signal
should assure a value of EPBCH not dependent on time
interval and day in which the measurements are collected, the
experimental results show that the maximum electric field extrapolated
(EMAX
) can vary in very wide ranges over the day
and the week, thus affecting the reliability of the comparison
with the applicable limits on human exposure.
Conclusions and Open Issues
The measurement of human exposure to RF EMFs is a topic
of great interest today because of the growing diffusion and
fast evolution of communication technologies. Due to the
importance of the topic and the technical difficulties arising
from the ever-increasing level of complexity of the communication
technologies and experimental scenarios, worldwide
researchers are involved in designing and fine-tuning measurement
methods, standard procedures, and instruments for
achieving reliable results of human exposure.
The practical examples in this paper highlight how the research
in this field needs continuous updates, and it should
involve long-term experimental campaigns for assessing the
reliability of measurement techniques and procedures in several
experimental conditions and scenarios. These statements
are strongly supported by current trends that push to employ
November 2021
Day 4
4.9
2.5
2.8
3.0
8.6
5.7
Day 5
4.6
2.8
2.9
3.7
8.4
5.9
Day 6
4.9
2.9
2.9
2.4
8.4
6.2
Day 7
7.9
2.5
2.8
2.5
8.8
5.9
DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) and 5G cellular technologies
which will offer new challenges for the measurement of
human exposure to EMFs generated by these kinds of sources.
In particular, the antenna beamforming and the complexity
of 5G technology will require the design of new and effective
measurement techniques and protocols able to warrant an
adequate tradeoff between accuracy and time needed to completely
characterize human exposure in high-density urban
scenarios, where several base stations simultaneously operate
in the same area. These aspects shall be investigated for both
narrowband and broadband approaches.
Furthermore, the estimation of the measurement uncertainty
will be an important topic to be addressed, taking
into account several quantities of influence among which
the response of the antennas, probes, and instruments to
the signals generated by modern communication systems,
as well as the long-term variability of the power emitted by
the related Base Stations in given points of analysis should
be examined.
References
[1] " Natiflife project, " Interreg Italia-Malta. [Online]. Available:
https://natiflife-project.eu/.
[2] L. Gallucci, C. Menna, L. Angrisani, D. Asprone, R. Schiano Lo
Moriello, F. Bonavolontà, and F. Fabbrocino, " An embedded
wireless sensor network with wireless power transmission
capability for the structural health monitoring of reinforced
concrete structures, " Sensors, vol. 17, no. 11, Nov. 2017.
[3] L. Angrisani, P. Arpaia, F. Bonavolontà, M. Conti, and A.
Liccardo, " LoRa protocol performance assessment in critical
noise conditions, " in Proc. of 2017 IEEE 3rd Int. Forum Research and
Technol. for Soc. Industry, Sep. 2017.
[4] F. Tramarin, A. K. Mok, and S. Han, " Real-time and reliable
industrial control over wireless LANs: algorithms, protocols, and
future directions, " in Proc. IEEE, vol. 107, no. 6, pp. 1027-1052,
2019.
[5] M. Rizzi, A. Depari, P. Ferrari, A. Flammini, S. Rinaldi and E.
Sisinni, " Synchronization uncertainty versus power efficiency in
LoRaWAN networks, " IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 68, no. 4,
pp. 1101-1111, Apr. 2019.
[6] G. Giorgi and C. Narduzzi, " Precision packet-based frequency
transfer based on oversampling, " IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol.
66, no. 7, pp. 1856-1863, Jul. 2017.
IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine
35
https://natiflife-project.eu/
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