Underground mining environments are characterized by dense rock walls, narrow spaces, and an ever-increasing network of tunnels, and galleries, which all make it difficult to plan, design, and deploy networks. These conditions also make connectivity essential: because of the limited visibility of people and systems, it is crucial to have reliable data transfer.
It is essential that connectivity is ubiquitous because of other factors, including geotechnical, operational and geological factors. Multiple teams could be operating in different areas of the mine at once, or moving between them from week to week. Automated processes are becoming more common and workers need to be able to access them even when they’re not there. Connectivity must be everywhere.
This is a difficult task for any network. It requires the ability to deliver reliable and flexible wireless data and voice communications across constantly changing geographic areas in harsh production environments.
To ensure coverage everywhere and every time, a combination of radio technologies might be necessary: small cells (RRH), micro remote radio heads(RRH), distributed antenna arrayss (DAS), radiating cables (also called leaky feeders), and radiating cable (also known to be integrated with existing UHF/VHF system). Radio planning and network architecture design are crucial for successful implementation.
This post was written by Justin Tidd, Director at Becker Mining Communications! For over 15 years, Becker Communications has been the industry’s leader in radio communication in tunnels and electrical mining communication systems. As they expanded into surface mining, railroads, and tunneling they added wireless communication systems, handheld radios, tagging and tracking systems, as well as gas monitoring.
