Towards Future Low Exposure Mobile Cellular Networks

Abstract

Explosive growth of different type of wireless networks in the last decade has raised an issue of influence of electromagnetic fields originating from radio frequencies to human health. Thus, more and more researchers working on the solutions for the next generation wireless communication systems now have in mind the necessity of keeping the level of radiated power on the minimum level necessary for achieving the required performances. In this paper we analyze solutions for human exposure reduction in dual-hop Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based decode-and-forward (DF) relay systems, as this type of relay system is adopted for LTE-Advanced networks, also denoted as 4G. In our approach we seek for the solutions that keep the certain performance metric, i.e. system capacity in this analysis, on the same level like in baseline OFDM DF relay system, but attain exposure reduction from relay station (R) on downlink (DL). In one of the considered solutions, R station, having more than one antenna for DL communication, implements transmit antenna selection (TAS) on subcarrier basis, jointly with ordered subcarrier mapping (SCM). TAS solution assumes that on each subcarrier position, the transmit antenna having the best subcarrier channel transfer function is chosen. Ordered SCM is a technique where subcarriers from the first hop are mapped to corresponding subcarriers on the second hop in accordance to their instantaneous signal-to noise ratios. It is proven to be a mapping scheme that maximizes the achievable capacity in OFDM based DF relay systems, enabling bit error rate improvement at the same time. Besides this solution, we analyze the level of human exposure reduction in the cases where only SCM technique is implemented at R, as well as where only TAS is implemented. We have developed a simulation model for assessing the level of human exposure to EMF, with included real-case simulation parameters given in LTE-Advanced relay reference scenario. In this way, we have obtained and analyzed data on the level of human exposure reduction attained with the proposed solutions in indoor and outdoor environment, and for the different positions of end-users relative to R station.