Head Exposure

to Cellular Telephones:
A System-Level Study
Hayat Abdulla and Renny E. Badra

Departamento de Electrónica y Circuitos - Universidad Simón Bolívar

Caracas, Venezuela
Why a system-level study?
  It can be stated that the question of potential risks
associated to the use of cell phones close to users’
heads is still open.

  So far, prevention efforts have been focused on

controlling the output levels of cell phones.

  Little attention has been paid to impact of system

parameters, such as technology and quality of coverage,
among others.

  System parameters are mainly affected by cellular

operators.
SAR and transmit power
  Effect of non-ionizing radiation over organic tissue is
heat dissipated from EM emissions.

  SAR (Specific Absortion Rate) is defined as the amount

of power dissipated per unit mass of tissue [W/kg].

  For regulatory purposes, SAR is obtained experimentally.

  Maximum FCC tolerated head SAR level is 1.6 W/kg

(source: ANSI).

  This work asumes a linear relationship between SAR and

average transmit power:
SAR = Pt × K SAR
Experiment Design
  Monte Carlo Simulations (approx.
260.000 trials per cell).
Determine statistics
  Link power budget obtained using
of transmit power
statistical propagation models.
  Power control algorithms applied.

  Parameter KSAR obtained for each cell

Obtain statistics of
phone model under study.
SAR
  Linear relationship between SAR and
average power applied.

  Effect of system parameters on two

Evaluate impact of
indicators (average SAR throughout
system parameters
cell and percentage of trials above
0.16 W/kg) is evaluated.
 Link Budget Analysis

Pmin = Rsen + Lp + ∑ Li − ∑Gi

i i
Minimum Required Radio Channel Power gains along
Transmit Power Propagation Loss signal path

Receiver Sensitivity Other power losses

along signal path

€ Pt = Power _ Control (Pmin )

Actual Transmit Power Application of power control algorithm

€
Link Budget Parameters
PARAMETER GSM CDMA2000 1X UMTS
(Eb/No)req N/A 3.0 dB 5.0 dB
SNRreq 9.0 dB N/A N/A
Receiver Noise Figure 5.0 dB
Receiver Sensitivity -107.0 dBm -126.6 dBm -123.1 dBm
BS Antenna Type Sectorized, 90° beamwidth
BS Antenna Max Gain 15.1 dBi
BS Cable losses 2 dB
Co-channel interference 2.0 dB N/A N/A
Uplink Load Factor N/A 3.0 dB (50% load)
10log(ß) N/A 1.5 dB 1.8 dB
MS ant. gain + cable loss 0 dB
BS ant. diversity gain 3.0 dB Included in (Eb/No)req
Voice Activity Factor 70% 67% 67%
Soft Handoff Gain N/A Random variable between 0 and 5 dB
Radio Channel Model
COMPONENT
Distance-dependent propagation loss
Shadowing loss
Small scale fading
Structure penetration loss
Human body loss
LOS/NLOS discrimination
MODEL
Walfisch-Ikegami model for
LOS and NLOS locations
Zero-mean log-normal random variable with
8 dB standard deviation
Rayleigh (NLOS) or Rician (LOS) amplitude
distributions
Random Variable uniformly distributed
between 0 and 12 dB (NLOS locations only)
Constant value of 3 dB
Random variable with standard probability
distribution as a function of distance
Power Control Parameters

Parameter GSM 1X UMTS

Maximum Power 33 dBm 25 dBm 23 dBm
Minimum Power 5 dBm -50 dBm -50 dBm
Granularity 2 dB 1 dB 1 dB
Cell phone parameters
GSM Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

SAR [w/kg] 0.840 0.776 0.660 1.24 0.476 0.798

<Pt>[dBm] 23.97 23.22 22.92 22.97 20.06 22.42

KSAR [kg-1] 3.368 3.698 3.409 6.259 5.912 4.529

1X Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

SAR [w/kg] 1.160 0.721 1.090 1.130 0.728 0.996

<Pt>[dBm] 23.30 24.87 25.07 25.20 25.64 24.82

KSAR [kg-1] 5.426 2.349 3.392 3.413 1.988 3.314

UMTS Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

SAR [w/kg] 1.06 0.876 1.00 1.08 0.706 0.944

<Pt>[dBm] 23.00 22.05 23.70 23.60 22.94 23.06

KSAR [kg-1] 5.313 5.464 4.266 4.714 3.588 4.669

Results for 90%-confidence urban
cell
GSM Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

Av e r a g e 0.073 0.080 0.074 0.136 0.128 0.098

SAR [w/kg]
F [%] 13 13 13 19 19 15.4

1X Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

Av e r a g e 0.125 0.068 0.098 0.124 0.072 0.098

SAR [w/kg]
F [%] 19 11 16 19 13 15.6

UMTS Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

Av e r a g e 0.098 0.101 0.079 0.087 0.066 0.086

SAR [w/kg]
F [%] 16 16 13 13 11 13.8

Cell size: 1150 m (GSM), 1750 m (1X), 1260 m (UMTS)

Results for 2-km urban cell
GSM Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

Av e r a g e 0.131 0.143 0.132 0.243 0.229 0.176

SAR [w/kg]
F [%] 26 26 26 34 34 29.2

1X Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

Av e r a g e 0.160 0.081 `0.117 0.138 0.080 0.115

SAR [w/kg]
F [%] 25 13 20 21 15 18.8

UMTS Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Average

Av e r a g e 0.162 0.166 0.130 0.144 0.109 0.142

SAR [w/kg]
F [%] 29 29 24 24 20 25.2

Coverage confidence: 70% (GSM), 86% (1X), 75% (UMTS)

Fraction of Monte Carlo trials in
which cell phones transmit at
maximum power

Fixed 90% coverage Fixed cell radius

Urban Suburban Urban (2 km) Suburban (5
km)
GSM 4% 4% 8% 9%

1X 3% 3% 4% 4%

UMTS 3% 3% 6% 7%
Conclusions
  We have quantified the level of head emissions from
cellular phones operating under the three major
technologies, as a function of system parameters.
  Novel methodology based on linearly relating SAR and
transmit power.

  SAR levels depend on coverage confidence levels of the

cell more strongly than on any other system parameter
  Higher confidence reduce SAR levels.
  Improving the reverse link budget design margins translates
not only into higher coverage reliability but also into lower
transmit power levels and lower head emissions.
Conclusions
  Thus, enhancing the uplink coverage tend to have a
possitive impact in the average emission levels on the
head of cellular voice users.
  Techniques such as increased cell density, higher cell towers,
the use of cell tower amplifiers, cell antenna diversity,
microcells and active repeaters are recommended.

  When comparing different cell phone models, all other

factors kept constant, significant differences in average
SAR levels have been found: up to almost a 2:1 ratio
within the same technology.
 Head Exposure
to Cellular Telephones:
A System-Level Study
Hayat Abdulla and Renny E. Badra

Departamento de Electrónica y Circuitos - Universidad Simón Bolívar

Caracas, Venezuela