Mission-critical mobile broadband communications in open-pit mines

The need for continuous safety improvements and increased operational efficiency is driving the mining industry through a transition toward automated operations. From a communications perspective, this transition introduces a new set of high-bandwidth business-critical and mission- critical applications that need to be met by the wireless network. This article introduces fundamental concepts behind open-pit mining and discusses why this ever-changing environment and strict industrial reliability requirements pose unique challenges to traditional broadband network planning and optimization techniques. On the other hand, unlike unpredictable disaster scenarios, mining is a carefully planned activity. Taking advantage of this predictability element, we propose a framework that integrates mine and radio network planning so that continuous and automated adaptation of the radio network becomes possible. The potential benefits of this framework are evaluated by means of an illustrative example.