Economically and functionally sound cellular mobile communications system design consideration for minimizing health concerns

ABSTRACT: Some research results published in the literature claim that human‟s exposure to Electro-Magnetic-Fields (EMF) increases the risk of brain cancer while other research results deny this. Studying all the data available to date, the expert group working for World Health Organization (WHO), in Lyon, France came to a conclusion which classifies Radio-Frequency Electro-Magnetic-Fields (RF-EMF) as possibly carcinogenic to humans and they put RF-EMF in Group 2B. In conjunction with this, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) reconsidered RF exposure limits, which should not be exceeded for human health. Whereas previous research have often focused on the result of EMF exposure and measures of EMF exposure limits, the work presented here targets methods for decreasing Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Base Station (BS) and Mobile Station (MS) related health concerns with reference to the numbers, transmission powers and location of the BSs in the initial design stage. The goal of this thesis is therefore, to develop methods of reducing BS and MS related health concern while maintaining functionality and keeping additional investment expenditure as low as possible for the service providers. The proposed work also provides a review of relationship between EMF exposure due to GSM phones and BSs with cancer risks. The results suggest that, the number of BSs should be increased and the transmit powers and hand-off cut-off levels adjusted such that both BS and MS transmit at minimum possible levels for maintaining a reliable communication link in order to minimize health concerns and improve service quality without compromising the functionality and operational economy. Hence, considering the population, terrain and coverage area and employing the Hata Signal Attenuation Model, a reasonable solution for the Famagusta city is estimated to use 16 Watt BSs and enable full coverage of the targeted geographic area. Keywords: Electro-Magnetic-Fields, Radio Frequency, Base Station, Mobile Telephone. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………