Reliable Measurements of Wi-Fi Electromagnetic Pollution by Means of Traditional Spectrum Analyzers

The wide and rapid diffusion of wireless technologies makes the electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic pollution important topics for today society. Above all, Wi-Fi trade, based on the IEEE 802.11 trade family standards, is the most employed technology to offer wireless local networking for in-home and enterprise connectivity. In addition, long range applications can be today realized too. Even though the relatively low emitted power, the short distances among the Wi-Fi trade sources and the intentional and non-intentional users, press for monitoring the electromagnetic field strength and for verifying its compliance with the applicable emission limits. The monitoring operations are generally made by suitable measurement chains which include a traditional spectrum analyzer, due to their relatively low-costs and large diffusion. The use of this kind of instrument for power measurement on noise-like signals characterized by pulsed behavior, such as Wi-Fitrade, requires to carefully set many instrument parameters to obtain reliable measurement results. In this paper, a detailed measurement campaign is carried out for investigating the most proper measurement method and instrument settings able to guarantee reliable measurements of electromagnetic emissions due to Wi-Fi trade. Practical hints and guidelines for configuring the spectrum analyzer main parameters are given.