A methodology to characterize power control systems for limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields generated by massive MIMO antennas

The fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR) cellular network has been launched recently. The assignment of new spectrum bands and the widespread use of Massive MIMO (MaMIMO) and beamforming techniques for better radio coverage are two major features of the new architecture. They imply both opportunities and challenges, one of the most daring one among the latter ones is the research for methods to assess human exposure to electromagnetic fields radiated by the base stations. The long-term time-varying behavior and spatial multiplexing feature of the MaMIMO antennas, along with the radio resource utilization and adoption of Time-Division Duplexing (TDD), requires that the assessment of exposure to electromagnetic fields radiated by 5G systems is based on a statistical approach that relies on the space and time distribution of the radiated power. That, in turn, is determined through simulations based on the actual maximum transmitted power - defined as the 95 percentile of the empirical distribution obtained from historical data of radiated power - rather than on the nominal one. To ensure that exposure limits are never exceeded, a monitoring and control system (usually referred to as Power Lock (PL)) that limits the transmitted power can be used. In this paper we propose a methodology, independent from the specific technical solution implemented by the manufacturer, to characterize such control systems and determine their capability to limit the average power transmitted over a given time interval to a value that keeps the corresponding average exposure to electromagnetic fields below a specified value. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the methodology and that it can also be used to identify when the PL interacts with the higher levels of the MaMIMO system architecture.