Analysis of Electromagnetic Waves Spatio-Temporal Variability in the Context of Exposure to Mobile Telephony Base Station

With the increasing number of mobile phone users, new services and mobile applications, the proliferation of radio antennas has raised concerns about human exposure to electromagnetic waves. This is now a challenging topic to many stakeholders such as local authorities, mobile phone operators, citizen and consumer groups. The study of the spatial and temporal variability of the actual downlink exposure is a very important requirement to find an accurate exposure assessment. In this paper, a concept of exposure areas linked to specific variations of the electric field is introduced. Then a measurement campaign of the temporal variability of the electric field in urban environment is presented, considering different technologies and mobile operators in the previously defined exposure areas. This study allowed to determine updated daytime and nighttime exposure profiles. A second result yielded the averaging duration needed to reach a stable evaluation of the electric field exposure levels, inside each exposure area and according to each technology.