Definition and Validation of an Exposure Measurement Method for a Typical Load of a Base Station

In the context of risk communication in mobile radio, a discussion has emerged whether exposure at common load of a base station should be presented in addition to the theoretical maximum, especially with 5G massive-MIMO. However, a reproducible measurement method for instantaneous exposure independent of the utilization of the cell has yet to be developed. To fill this gap, 10 mobile phone use cases were identified, the corresponding data rates were measured and categorized into low (20 Mbps), medium (200 Mbps), and high (600 Mbps) data rates to generate a typical base station load. A measurement method was developed, using iPerf on a user equipment to generate the data rates at a measurement point, while a channel power measurement is used to determine the exposure of all mobile radio services installed. The method was validated at four base stations, considering various factors such as reproducibility in relation to the number of users in the cell, averaging time, and application buffering. The results show the reliability of the method across different times of day and base station loads and that averaging over 30 sweeps provides reproducible exposure results. Consequently, this study presents a validated approach for measuring typical instantaneous exposure in real-world mobile network conditions.