Numerical evaluation of human exposure to 3.5-GHz electromagnetic field by considering the 3GPP-like channel features

Human exposure to 3.4–3.6-GHz radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF), which is the frequency band utilized by trial test of the fifth-generation mobile communication systems (5G), has been numerically analyzed in the study. The study evaluated the EMF exposure of this frequency band by taking into account of the channel features. Two exposure scenarios were reconstructed according to the technical specification on channel modeling from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project. The channel features of the reconstructed EMF were numerically validated. The equivalent source principle and the finite-difference time-domain method were applied to calculate the RF energy specific absorption (SA) using three human models. The results revealed that the exposure scenarios with various channel features affected whole-body SA (WBSA) by about 50–70%. The variation was mainly introduced by the configuration of the incident waves defined by the channel models. Dosimetric difference between the two exposure scenarios for some tissues has been presented and discussed. The results demonstrated that the anatomy of the model was also a factor influencing SA.