Characterization and Evaluation of a Commercial WLAN System for Human Provocation Studies

This work evaluates the complex exposure characteristics of WLAN technology and describes the design of a WLAN exposure system built using modular, commercially available parts, suitable to be used for the study of possible biological health effects due to WLAN exposure in a controlled environment. The system consists of an access point and a client unit (CU) with cards type R52 and R52n router board cards with 18 dBm and 25 dBm peak power, respectively. Free space RF field measurements were performed with field meter at a distance of 40 cm from the CU in order to evaluate the RF exposure at several signal configurations of the exposure system. Finally, the specific absorption rate (SAR) generated by the client unit was estimated computationally in the head of two human models. The results suggest that exposure to RF of WLAN systems strongly depend on the sets of the router configuration: it was more reliable and stable when both antennas were active and standing, with best signal quality obtained at channel 9, with UDP mode of R52n router board. The maximum levels of peak SAR are far away from the guidelines limits with the maximum found over the skin.