Assessment of Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields from Distributed MIMO Antennas

Sammanfattning: Research on 6G telecommunication networks has been initiated. Among all potential technology components, the distributed multi-input multioutput (D-MIMO) technology is one of the promising enablers. Due to the new technology solutions, additional methodologies for assessment of electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure need to be developed. This study provides methodologies and results for EMF exposure from D-MIMO operating at 3.5 GHz in an indoor industrial environment using CST Studio Suite®. The D-MIMO access points (APs) are mounted on the 7 m ceiling. The EMF exposure is statistically evaluated in a subvolume that extends up to 2.5 m above the floor, using receiving antennas that are pseudorandomly distributed over space. The resulting EMF exposure levels of DMIMO were compared to those of a ceiling-mounted reference massive MIMO array, considering different receiving antenna orientations and AP densities. The results from zero forcing (ZF) precoding were compared to those based on maximum ratio transmission (MRT) precoding. For a total radiated power of 1 W, the 99th-percentile power density values in the D-MIMO deployment are found to be 2.9 mW/m2 or lower, in all studied cases using the MRT-based precoding. This is about 0.03 % of the EMF exposure limits for the general public specified in international guidelines. The corresponding results from the reference massive MIMO array are found to be 7.7 mW/m2 or lower. In the ZF precoding case, the total radiated power and the EMF exposure levels are reduced and the reduction in the D-MIMO deployment is found greater than the reduction in the massive MIMO array. At the 99th-percentile, the power density value is found to be 0.090 mW/m2 in one of the cases of D-MIMO deployment and 5.1 mW/m2 in the corresponding case with the massive MIMO array. The effects of receiving antenna orientations and AP density on the EMF exposure levels are found to be small. This work benefits further studies by providing estimates of realistic EMF exposure and by demonstrating a simulation method for EMF exposure assessment for D-MIMO.