Assessment of RF Human Exposure to LTE Small and Macro-Cells: UL Case

Small cells, novel low-powered base stations with local range, are nowadays investigated in order to improve the radio coverage and capacity in macro cell layer. The radio frequency exposure induced in such cells is unknown. Hence, we assess in this paper, through experimental measurements, the impact of an LTE small cell cluster on the radio frequency exposure induced by a mobile handset. With respect to macro cells, we show that the deployment of small cells provides better radio coverage in terms of throughput while minimizing the radio frequency exposure induced by the mobile handset.