A determination of the risk of intentional and unintentional electromagnetic radiation emitters degrading installed components in closed electromagnetic environments

Abstract

This report proposes a method of risk determination that incorporates a loss function and a probability function in order to better enable decision makers in determining the risk of implementing wireless technologies in reverberant enclosed spaces that contain sensitive installed components. There is a constant desire to include new technology into the systems being designed to operate onboard U.S. Naval vessels. One of these technologies is wireless communications. This technology relies on the use of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to transfer information from one point to another. This type of information transfer can be advantageous in various applications. Exposing sensitive electronic components to a time-varying electromagnetic field increases the risk of an electronic upset in those components that will degrade the functionality of installed systems. This risk determination should provide a way to weigh the risk of introducing wireless technologies in enclosed spaces. This risk determination relies on the assumption that at some point there will be enough data collected to properly determine the overall risk to at-risk equipment. Until that occurs, incorporating new methods of shielding and low power technologies is recommended.