On the Special Challenges in Characterizing the 5G Base Station RF Environment

The global rollout of the fifth generation of cellular networks (5G) brings new challenges to the characterization and measurement of their emissions of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs). The new generation of telecommunications is focused more than ever on efficiency, flexibility, and adaptability as well as features (among other things) a wide range of carrier frequencies (from 410 MHz up to 52.6 GHz), lean ‘always-on’ (though periodically transmitted) broadcast signaling, and base stations containing advanced antenna systems (AAS) with phased antenna arrays that consist of tens to hundreds of antenna elements.