Real-Time Distributed Monitoring of Electromagnetic Pollution in Urban Environments

In the last two decades, the wide diffusion of mobile phones and wireless technologies have brought many advantages in professional activities as well as in everyday life [1]‐[3]. In general, mobile telecommunication networks are constituted by a limited number of base stations (BSs) to which mobile terminals connect for data exchange. In order to provide a suitable quality of service (QoS), BSs have to be properly located such that the network coverage is uniform in the area of interest. Towards this end, the position of BSs is usually determined by taking into account the complexity of the scenario at hand through theoretical or empirical models. Unfortunately, because of the costs and the complexity of urban areas, the location of the BSs cannot be chosen in an optimal fashion. As a consequence, the spatial distribution of the radiated field turns out to be non‐uniform with variations both in time and space that can exceed the normative limits of electromagnetic emissions. In order to assess the compliance of the BS coverage to the normative limits, communications authorities usually release a test certificate after the installation. Unfortunately, because of the need of highly‐trained staff and due to the cost of the hardware measurement instrumentation, the coverage variation as well as the radiation levels are not generally monitored.