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Recent development regarding IEC 61000-2-5, description and classification of electromagnetic environments
Bernd Jaekel#1, Ade Ogunsola*2, Leonardo Sandrolini+3
#

Siemens AG, Sector Industry, EMC-Center Erlangen, Germany

1

bernd.jaekel@siemens.com

Parsons Group International, Rail Transit Division, Systems Sector, London, UK

2

ade.ogunsola@parsons.com

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

3

leonardo.sandrolini@mail.ing.unibo.it

Abstract Knowledge of the electromagnetic environment in which equipment is intended to be operated is an essential precondition for the achievement of electromagnetic compatibility. The necessity of such knowledge stems from the fact that suitable immunity requirements can only be derived from the corresponding data of the electromagnetic environment. The description of a general electromagnetic environment should include a multitude of phenomena having a broad spectrum of parameters. However, such a general description is not helpful in most cases since it implies that immunity against all such phenomena has to be demonstrated. A practical way forward consists of introducing a classification scheme that presents a correlation between locations and the electromagnetic phenomena existing at the said location. This approach forms the basis of the EMC publication IEC 61000-2-5. The electromagnetic environment is continuously changing due to the introduction of new technologies and the implementation of new applications of existing technologies. An example is the introduction of radio and communication devices (and services) operating at frequencies above 1 GHz. There is therefore a need to continually monitor the electromagnetic environment and update the description of the associated electromagnetic phenomena. Such a process is currently being performed by a working group of IEC TC 77. The output of its work should be the object of the next edition of IEC 61000-2-5. The present status as well as expected changes will be discussed in this paper. Key words: electromagnetic environment, disturbance degree, compatibility level, location class.

However, knowledge of the electromagnetic environment of the said location is a crucial factor when determining appropriate immunity levels. Obtaining such knowledge, whereas the resultant data need to have certain evidence, represents a very challenging task, directly deducible from the definition of the electromagnetic environment: totality of electromagnetic phenomena existing at a given location. Therefore the topic of electromagnetic environment has been identified to be very important within the series of immunity standards and hence a series of relevant documents has been published in which the topic and the description of electromagnetic environment is dealt with. The classification of these documents and their relation to the EMC publications of the series IEC 61000-X-Y is given in [1]. II. ELECTROMAGNETIC ENVIRONMENTS There are several documents published under the IEC 61000-2-Y series of standards that deal with the description of an electromagnetic environment. The relevant standards and their associated titles are listed in [1]. Most of these documents deal with a limited type of electromagnetic environments. This refers to both the category of considered electromagnetic phenomena and to a special class of locations (e.g. public medium voltage power supply networks). Uniquely the document IEC 61000-2-5 gives an overview of all known electromagnetic phenomena (with the exception of HEMP) for various types of location classes. Insofar it represents the general starting point when determining immunity levels related to electromagnetic environment. The purpose of IEC 61000-2-5 is to classify electromagnetic environments and to support specifying immunity requirements of any electric and electronic item of equipment. However, it should be mentioned that the immunity requirements for an equipment are not bound to its environment only but also to the requirements of its applications. The individual documents of the IEC 61000-2-Y series have been developed and published at different periods depending on the actual interest of the responsible working

I. INTRODUCTION The achievement of adequate immunity of electrical or electronic equipment against electromagnetic disturbances is a basic provision when ensuring electromagnetic compatibility of equipment, systems or installations. Such immunity is described by specified immunity levels as well as by means of performance criteria, which describe the behaviour of the equipment under test when exposed to electromagnetic disturbance. The selection of immunity levels and performance criteria should reflect the expected electromagnetic disturbance at the intended location of operation as well as the characteristics of the equipment.

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group, reflecting the existence of relevant data and technology best practice at the time of publication. Hence slight differences with respect to electromagnetic disturbance level and the compatibility level (or immunity limit) specified in the relevant documents do exist between these documents. A plausible reason for these differences is the fact that the electromagnetic environment is not static but one that is continuously varying with technology advancements and uptake as well as the increasing spread and distribution of equipment which may act as interference sources and the convergence of technology. The primary objective of updating IEC 61000-2-5 is therefore to ensure that the electromagnetic environment description accurately reflects the environment of today, and as afar as can be predicted for tomorrow. Following on, there is a requirement to continually track the characteristics of an electromagnetic environment and to adapt its description according to the actual status of, for example, new technologies being operated. Such an adaptation is currently being discussed and assessed and the relevant work is being done by a working group of the technical committee TC 77 of IEC (TC 77 WG 13). Beside the adaptation with respect to changes in types and amplitudes of electromagnetic phenomena is to be taken into account, there is an ongoing debate with respect to how to classify relevant types of electromagnetic environments. The results will be published in the second edition of IEC 61000-2-5. III. STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF IEC 61000-2-5 IEC 61000-2-5 contains an almost complete description of the electromagnetic environment with respect to all the relevant electromagnetic phenomena. It introduces the basic term compatibility level for assessing a specific maximum level of an electromagnetic disturbance. This term is not an absolute one but may be exceeded by a small probability (under special circumstances there is always a scenario imaginable in which such a maximum value is exceeded). Further to the aim of providing a broad data basis for the deduction of immunity levels by applying the document IEC 61000-2-5, the need arises to consider all relevant electromagnetic phenomena and to state the relevant compatibility levels. The structure of the document reflects that need and it is intended to: Provide information about electromagnetic phenomena to be expected at various types of locations, Introduce the approach to describe electromagnetic phenomena by their disturbance degrees, Classify various types of locations and to describe them by means of attributes, and Compile tables of compatibility levels for electromagnetic phenomena that are considered to be relevant for those types of locations. It has to be mentioned that the actual environment disturbance degrees as well as the equipment immunity levels are only probabilities, i.e. no clear thresholds can be defined. Moreover, some of the attributes for a given location are expressed as the exclusion of a specific level of disturbance.

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IV. CHANGES IN ELECTROMAGNETIC ENVIRONMENTS When observing the general developments in the technical area it is very obvious that electromagnetic environments with their variety of electromagnetic phenomena are not static. This fact does not refer to short-term or temporary conditions such as the statistical occurrence of electromagnetic phenomena. Such a varying situation also exists on a long-term basis because of various reasons: existing technologies are permanently changed and adapted, the number of applications of equipment, which act as prominent interference source and which was used rather seldom in the past, increases and new technologies are constantly being introduced. Hence the fact results that electromagnetic environments change in many cases in a fundamental way, often even by showing up new electromagnetic phenomena. A change in the electromagnetic environment is very obvious and fundamental; for example, in case of the increased usage of variable speed drive systems or in case of the recently introduced wireless communication services (W-LAN, Bluetooth, etc.) with the increasing generation of electromagnetic fields in the frequency range above 1 GHz. For the first edition of IEC 61000-2-5, a generic description was provided for environment above the frequency range of 1 GHz, this is due to the fact that at the time of its publication there were no wide spread radiation sources or application above 1 GHz. Meanwhile the importance of that frequency range has increased because many technology applications now operate above 1 GHz. Therefore it is imperative that the next edition (and indeed future editions) of IEC 61000-2-5 adequately cover this frequency range. Recently performed work resulted in huge compilation of relevant data of the radiated situation in the higher frequency range as Table I shows. V. CLASSIFICATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENVIRONMENTS The description of a general electromagnetic environment, i.e. generally applicable to all types of locations, has to consider a broad variety of electromagnetic phenomena consisting of a number of independent variables such as frequency, amplitudes, rise time, etc. The electromagnetic phenomena must represent all those which might occur at this general location of interest. Such a general description, however, is not very helpful in practice, since it would imply that immunity has to be achieved against all such electromagnetic phenomena, irrespective of the electromagnetic characteristic of the intended environment, assuming that the environment can be characterised electromagnetically. Another approach would be to consider an environment in terms of processes (or lack of) that are put in place to control the electromagnetic characteristics of a particular environment. While controlled electromagnetic environments do exist such environments are in the minority and mainly represent environments where safety critical systems are being used [2].

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A more practical approach would be to introduce a classification scheme for electromagnetic environments, in such a manner that typical location classes are described by electromagnetic phenomena more or less specific and relevant for those areas, rather than on geographical or structural aspects. The current edition of IEC 61000-2-5 lists eight types of location classes.
TABLE I DESCRIPTION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENVIRONMENT RADIATED HIGHFREQUENCY PHENOMENA Current edition of IEC 61000-2-5
Sources of high frequency electromagnetic fields AM Broadcasting 150 kHz-30 MHz P = 500 kW Walkie-talkie 27-1 000 MHz P=5W CB 27 MHz P = 12 W TV VHF 48-223 MHz P = 200 kW

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Current status of work for the next edition of IEC 61000-2-5

Sources of high frequenc y electromagneti c fields Mobile Phones (mobile equipme nt part 1) Mobile Phones (mobile equipme nt part 2) AM Broadcasting 150 kHz-30 MHz P = 500 kW Walkie-talkie 27-1 000 MHz P=5W CB 27 MHz P = 12 W TV VHF 48-223 MHz P = 200 kW

GSM 890-915 MHz P=20 W

DCS 1800 1,71-1,784 GHz P=4W

DECT 1.88-1.96 GHz P = 0.25 W

CT-2 864-868 MHz P = 0.01W

The respective compatibility levels together with a short list of attributes connected to the location class are given in the referenced annexes (A.1 to A.8) of IEC 61000-2-5. The problem with this approach is that as the number of independent environments increases so does the description and this becomes unmanageable. The working group is currently discussing a new approach of electromagnetic environment classification. The concept is based on the realisation that more and more different types of location classes do not generally have different electromagnetic phenomena with different compatibility levels and thus it becomes difficult to strictly allocate phenomena and compatibility levels to a certain location class. Furthermore, location classes have become less and less specific; they often show a kind of overlap of characteristics of different location classes. For example, it is possible to define a location class for a railway environment as a combination of three generic location classes, e.g. commercial location (e.g., inside a station building), heavy industrial location (e.g., in a sub-station) and light industrial location (e.g., in signal rooms). A similar classification can be given for a hospital environment. Hence a consideration is given to the description of three generic location classes, as shown in Fig. 1 and to describe them by means of some attributes or characteristics. These attributes may include a list of typical potential interference sources, a consideration of the location boundaries and the relevant system ports for such location class.

PDC 940-955MHz 1,429-1,453 GHz P=2 W

PHS 1,895-1,918 GHz P = 0.01 W

NADC 825-845 MHz P=6W

IMT-2000 1,90-1,92 GHz 1,9201,980 GHz P = 0.25 W CT-2 864-868 MHz P = 0.25 W IMT-2000 1,9001,920 GHz 2,1102,170 GHz P = 20 W

Mobile Phones (Base stations, part 1) Mobile Phones (Base stations, part 2

GSM 935-960 MHz P=320 W PDC 810-826MHz 1,477-1,501 GHz P=96 W

DCS 1800 1,805-1,880 GHz P = 200 W PHS 1,895-1,918 GHz P = 0.5 W

DECT 1.88-1.96 GHz P = 0.25 W NADC 870-890 MHz P = 500 W

Further HF equipme nt (part 1)

RFID 2,446-2,454 GHz P= W

RTTT 5,795- 5,815 GHz P=8W

Wideband data transmission systems and HIPERLANs 2,400-2,4835 GHz P = 0.1 W Non specific short range devices 2,400 2,4835 GHz 5,725-5,875 GHz P = 0.025 W

Fig.1. Archetypes of electromagnetic environments Then a further step would be to introduce some more specific sub-classes to a location class and to describe their electromagnetic environment with respect to the general one applicable to the superior location class. This would enable the application of a general description when, for example, concluding on immunity levels and to take into account some particularities for a special sub-class of locations. The following three generic types of location classes can be defined: Industrial, Residential and Office/Public.

Further HF equipme nt (part 2)

Wideband data transmission systems and HIPERLANs 5,150-5,350 GHz P = 0.2 W

Wideband data transmission systems and HIPERLANs 5,470-5,725 GHz P=1W

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VI. ELECTROMAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND BASIC IMMUNITY STANDARDS The electromagnetic environment at a location of interest is a fact on its own and can in most cases not be related one-toone to the descriptions of electromagnetic phenomena as they are given, for example, in EMC basic standards of the IEC 61000-4 series. The detailed manifestation of electromagnetic phenomena depends on many parameters and conditions, such as the electromagnetic characteristics of equipment operating at a location of interest or the installation practice applied, and in most cases those phenomena do not show the same characteristics as described in an EMC basic standard.
TABLE II CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ELECTROMAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND BASIC STANDARDS

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Electromagnetic phenomenon Conducted low-frequency phenomena harmonics, interharmonics signalling voltages voltage fluctuations voltage dips and interruptions voltage unbalance power-frequency variations induced low-frequency voltages DC in AC networks Radiated low-frequency phenomena magnetic fields electric fields Conducted high-frequency phenomena induced CW voltages or currents unidirectional transients oscillatory transients Radiated high-frequency phenomena magnetic fields electric fields electromagnetic fields Electrostatic discharge phenomena (ESD)

Basic standard IEC 61000-4-13 IEC 61000-4-14 IEC 61000-4-11 IEC 61000-4-27 IEC 61000-4-28 IEC 61000-4-16

interest to a certain extent. This means that such standardized tests can be used, either directly or partly modified, to conclude on corresponding immunity and in many cases it is possible to implement an approach where the stress due to an electromagnetic environment is reflected by the application of appropriate standardized immunity standards. However, the assessment to which extent a standardized immunity test reflects an electromagnetic phenomenon in a real environment represents a crucial task and needs careful evaluation. Table II shows an attempt to relate electromagnetic phenomena to the basic standards reflecting their stresses. As the various types of location classes are characterized by different electromagnetic phenomena, different with respect to their occurrence as well as different with respect to their disturbance degrees, different immunity requirements result for equipment intended to be used at those various types of locations and hence different sets of EMC basic standards may apply, partly also different in the applied immunity test levels. However, special attention should be paid to situations when equipment is intended to be used at locations which are assigned to different location classes. VII. CONCLUSION The current discussions within the bounds of the revision of IEC 61000-2-5 show the difficulties that appear when trying to describe an electromagnetic environment: they start already with evaluating and assessing the very extensive data basis which exists with respect to nearly every electromagnetic phenomenon. On the other hand, the results regarding the individual phenomena should be demonstrated and described in a relatively simple way; furthermore, compatibility levels have to be concluded in an evident way and these levels have to be assigned to various location classes. And finally there is a challenge to structure the document in such a way that it can be used easily and comfortably by all interested parties, for example those who deal with the determination of immunity levels for products or product families intended to be used in certain location classes. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A complex topic as the description of an electromagnetic environment represents a permanent process of work and discussion. This is currently being worked on by a working group under IEC TC 77 (WG 13). Hence the authors would like to thank all the very active members of this working group, i.e. D. Carpenter, S. Ishigami, F. Jetzschmann, D. Moehr, M. Ohshima and W. Radasky, who all provide very valuable input and enable very fruitful discussions. REFERENCES
[1] B. W. Jaekel, Description and classification of electromagnetic environments revision of IEC 61000-2-5, IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, 2008. EMC 2008., vol., no., pp.1-4, 18-22 Aug. 2008. A. Ogunsola and B. W. Jaekel, EMC and Functional Safety Requirements for Integrated Electronics Systems 3rd IET International Conference on System Safety, System Safety 2008, pp 1- 7, 20 -22 Oct. 2008.

IEC 61000-4-8

IEC 61000-4-6 IEC 61000-4-4, IEC 61000-4-5 IEC 61000-4-12, IEC 61000-4-18 IEC 61000-4-9, IEC 61000-4-10 IEC 61000-4-3 IEC 61000-4-2

However, when immunity requirements, which reflect the stress due to an electromagnetic environment, should be specified, it is in most cases not a very practical approach to develop immunity tests which actually consider the particular manifestation of electromagnetic phenomena at a location of interest. Such specific immunity tests would consider a single situation at a single point in time only. Indeed, electromagnetic environments are very complex and more information than is available about the environment is usually needed to correctly assess the necessary immunity levels of any equipment. The environmental database shows that there is a wide variety of conducted and radiated disturbances that can be expected to occur in the use of equipment. On the other hand, there are already a lot of standardized immunity tests available, such as those of the IEC 61000-4 series. In many cases those EMC basic standards can be taken advantage of when they reflect the phenomena at a location of

[2]

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