First Mining Drc-Zambia March -April 2020 digital edition First Mining Drc-Zambia March - April 2020 digital | Page 18

FEATURE
Optimize your operations with
the right wireless network.
Photo Credit: AgnicoEagle
R
eal-time
data
access
for
underground
mines
has
traditionally been a challenge. The
lack of broadband network connection
and the nature of the environment has
led to some of these challenges. The
benefits of implementing a reliable and
scalable wireless network in underground
mines are huge not only for personnel
safety but to remain competitive through
optimized production and maintenance
cost reduction.
Communication infrastructure is becoming
an increasingly vital component of efficient
and productive underground mining
operations, but the constantly changing
nature of a mine, the highly mobile fleet,
and the inherent environmental challenges
may present a hurdle.
Providing a solution that can support
the large amounts of throughput
necessary for remote controlled or
even autonomous operations in these
environments, without the necessary
infrastructure, is challenging. While all
wireless technologies have their pros
and cons, they are not all equal when it
comes to last mile connectivity.
Most currently 5G deployments are very
much focused on delivering enhanced
mobile broadband to consumers. But
leveraging connectivity to digitize and
transform industries is drawing significant
interest from the telecom ecosystem
given the trends around stagnant ARPU
and slowing device upgrades.
Combining high speeds, low latency
and massive internet of things presents
the opportunity to open up new markets
on the back of new technologies and
business cases. Private wireless field
automation networks advance open-pit
mining fleet management.
Mining is a capital-intensive business
requiring expensive heavy equipment
operating in some of the world’s most
hostile environments. The challenge
is maximising capital utilisation by
focusing the invested capital on revenue-
generating activities, ie, getting more of
the best quality material from ground to
port in the shortest time possible.
High network availability (99.999%) is
required to support mission-critical fleet
management implementations. To meet
16
this requirement, wireless networks must
have a built-in redundancy mechanism to
minimise the probability of transmission
failures.
A mine is a dynamic mobile environment
with vehicles and people requiring
seamless mobility as they roam between
access points in the network
AMBRA Solutions: Reliable Telecom
Solutions for Mining
Up to now, LMR (VHF/UHF) and Wi-Fi
technologies have been widely used on
mining sites to provide voice and data
services respectively. However, those
two technologies are limited in their
flexibility to adapt the dynamic mining
environments. 802.11 based solutions
require a lot of infrastructure while
LMR only provides voice capabilities.
Since 2013, voice and data have been
delivered to mining users using a single
LTE infrastructure.
LTE is now a disruptive technology that
allow mining companies to increase the
safety of their workers and increase
their productivity by remotely controlling
mining equipment.
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