With the advancement of mobile communications, technologies based on high-element-count antenna systems—such as massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (massive MIMO)—are playing an increasingly important role in enhancing network capacity. However, they introduce new challenges in the measurement and evaluation of electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. This study presents a detailed, laboratory-based methodology for assessing EMF exposure in cellular systems using Single Input Single Output (SISO) and MIMO technologies. To address the limitations of traditional exposure assessment techniques—particularly under the conditions introduced by 5G and active antenna systems—a shielded test environment with directional antennas was developed and applied across lowband and midband frequency ranges (700–2100 MHz). Downlink electromagnetic power density was measured under standardized modulation, coding, and bandwidth settings for both SISO and MIMO configurations. The results show that MIMO technology does not lead to a significant increase in EMF exposure compared to SISO, with average differences remaining below 1 dB. Moreover, in lower-frequency bands, massive MIMO systems can ensure the required user capacity at significantly lower transmission power, resulting in more than 15 dB reductions in EMF exposure. These findings confirm the potential of massive MIMO to enhance network performance while reducing the level of electromagnetic exposure.

Low-frequency mobile bands remain essential for wide-area and penetration-limited wireless coverage, but their limited channel bandwidth constrains the achievable capacity. This paper presents a measurement-supported extrapolation framework for assessing how lowband MIMO and future AAS-assisted operation can enhance coverage and single-user throughput-oriented capacity in wireless networks. The motivation is to evaluate whether such deployments can strengthen the lower-frequency layer as a robust coverage-and-capacity support layer for general traffic and reduce the load on midband and higher-frequency resources. Controlled radiated SISO and (Formula presented.) MIMO measurements were performed with a base-station simulator and commercial user equipment in representative lowband and midband frequency bands. Measured RSRP, CQI, BLER, MAC-layer throughput, and IP-layer throughput thresholds for a 25 Mbit/s downlink target were used for coverage estimation and conditional extrapolation. Under the Extended Hata model, the measured (Formula presented.) MIMO thresholds yielded a 43% larger estimated radius at 800 MHz than at 1800 MHz, while the same model indicated a 93% radius increase for a representative 10 dB AAS-related beamforming gain scenario. Conditional (Formula presented.) MIMO extrapolations indicated data rates above 100 Mbit/s in 10 MHz and above 200 Mbit/s with 10 MHz two-component-carrier aggregation under ideal high-CQI conditions. The results support the potential of future lowband AAS deployments. The AAS and higher-order MIMO results are scenario-based estimates rather than direct field validation.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used to accelerate radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) studies and performance assessments of mobile networks, particularly in locations that are difficult or hazardous to access. However, a conductive carbon-fiber airframe located in the reactive near-field of a receive antenna may detune the antenna and distort local field conditions, potentially compromising far-field assumptions. This study quantitatively investigates UAV-induced measurement errors in cellular frequency bands and their dependence on antenna-frame separation. A controlled laboratory procedure compares reference measurements with UAV-mounted configurations while varying the receive antenna distance from the airframe over the 700-3500 MHz range. Results indicate that, for the examined UAV platform and antenna placements, the measured differences relative to the reference are mostly below 3 dB across the investigated frequency range. Increasing the antenna-frame separation reduces these differences by approximately 1-1.5 dB for positions beyond 4 dot left parenthesis lamda slash 8 right parenthesis 4·(λ/8) compared with closer positions. These findings suggest that, under controlled conditions, UAV-mounted configurations can provide sufficiently accurate results for RF-EMF and performance assessment applications. However, the results are specific to the investigated UAV platform, antenna configuration, and laboratory conditions, and cannot be directly generalized without further validation.