Authors: Apostolidis, C.; Samaras, T.
BioEM 2024, Chania Crete, 16-21 June, 2024
Abstract
This work explores the impact of beamforming on exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) in office environments. The study focuses on a realistic office setting with five workstations and investigates exposure variations when a Wi-Fi 6 access point (AP) is operating at the frequency range of 5GHz. Exposure levels are compared between cases where static radiation patterns are utilized and when beamforming is employed. Using a numerical tool developed in MATLAB, the incident field is calculated considering propagation paths and interactions with the environment. The study evaluates scenarios with static radiation patterns and beamforming where high-gain beams are directed towards specific workstations. Results indicate significant exposure increases at the targeted workstation and decreases for nearby locations, while other positions show smaller but notable changes. The results demonstrate the unpredictability of exposure assessment with beamforming, especially when the transmitting antenna has multiple beams with subtle differences in gain. Further research is under way to explore additional scenarios and validate the findings with measurements.