Private wireless for industrial use provides an infrastructure that allows reliable and secure voice, video, and data communications. It also supports automated applications in underground mines, with low latency, high speed data transfer, and low latency.
Although coverage is limited to a small section or gallery of an antenna, the power of the 5G/LTE or 4.9G/LTE signal allows for support of caving, room and pillar mining methods, as well as emergency voice and video communications.
Private wireless can be used for virtually any underground application that requires wireless connectivity. This includes autonomous vehicles and robotic processes as well as smart sensors. Cabled connections are also possible, such HDTV camera feeds, but private wireless is not required. LTE and 5G offer the required bandwidth, while being able support low-power sensor networks and IoT networks. They can also adapt to legacy network protocols to accommodate legacy applications. The same network technology can also be used underground and on the surface, providing both fleet connectivity and group communication across the whole mine.
Also, private wireless is able to handle all of them. A single network technology can be used to manage and reduce operational costs. This is in addition to the many operational benefits that Industry 4.0 digitalization, automation and above ground makes possible.
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 underground radio 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.
