EMF Mitigation via 5G and 6G MAC Scheduling

High antenna directivity allows for high throughput transmission but also increases the exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) of the end-users. Health regulations impose limitations on the incident power density, that generate a negative impact on network performance. In this work we focus at the slot-by-slot operations of a cellular Medium Access Control (MAC) scheduler to constrain the short-term EMF exposure upon real-time resource allocation, minimizing the impacts on network performance. We assume that the long-term EMF exposure is controlled by a proper outer-loop technique, that is not the object of this paper. Due to the minimal computational complexity allowed in MAC scheduling, existing solutions allowing practical implementation are few and focused at sub-optimal approaches curbing radio resource allocation. Our contribution is the derivation of a computationally efficient water-filling solution to allocate power and - then - resources, with a feasible integration of the necessary algorithms in the operations of a 5G MAC scheduler. We finally evaluate our proposal versus the prior art approaches with system level simulations with realistic modeling of physical and MAC level cellular procedures. We conclude that our proposal can control EMF with considerable less impact on network performance, making it a standout candidate for 5G and future 6G MAC scheduler implementations.