In-Situ Measurement Comparison of Cell-Wide and Directional EMF Power Control Features Using Air Interface Load Generator for 5G Massive MIMO

Different software features to monitor and control the time-averaged transmitted power or the equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of radio base stations (RBSs) have been developed, enabling mobile network operators to establish the electromagnetic field (EMF) compliance boundary of the RBSs based on the actual maximum EMF exposure condition. In this paper, the performance of the Ericsson cell-wide EMF power control feature, which controls the time-averaged power of the cell, and the corresponding directional EMF power control feature, which controls the time-averaged EIRP by mapping the actual EIRP in eight azimuthal segments of the cell, are compared through in-situ measurements using the software feature called Air Interface Load Generator for a 5G massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) RBS. In the controlled testing environment, the directional feature results in less or no power back-off for full-buffer downlink transmission compared to the cell-wide feature.