On the Deployment of Private Broadband Networks in Surface Mines

Future mines are expected to be operated by increasingly autonomous construction equipment, requiring dependable intercommunication between control centers, human operators, and construction machines such as excavators, drill rigs, and scrapers. Achieving stable, reliable and timely communications in such harsh and ever-changing environments is quite challenging. However, the changes in the three-dimensional (3D) topography of the mine are mostly predictable and scheduled through mine planning methods, which consequently can be used for radio communications network planning, namely to dimension, orientate and locate Base Station (BS) antennas in the mine field. In this context, we consider BSs to exist in the form of fixed cells or Cell on Wheel (CoW). The former is deployed in fixed locations throughout a long-term mine operation, while the latter is expected to be moved based on the changes in the topology of the terrain. We present an optimization framework that builds on an evolutionary algorithm to plan private 5G networks based on a given mine plan, featuring both fixed and movable base stations. We assess how the changing terrain affects the wireless coverage on the mine’s surface and demonstrate that, in certain scenarios, CoWs improve the average Signal-to-Interference & Noise Ratio (SINR) by 1 to 10 dB.