Base Camp Digital Presenters: Opportunities and challenges with rolling out 5G networks in underground mines
By Marc Jadoul, strategic marketing director at Nokia, and Andreas Simoncic, business line manager of automation and digitalization for Northern Europe at Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology
The case for innovation in the mining industry has never been more compelling. Driven by the need to reinvent operations, increase safety and sustainability, and optimize productivity and efficiency, investment in Industry 4.0 solutions has steeply risen over the past years.
The reward of digital transformation can be substantial. Advances in technologies like the IIoT, artificial intelligence and virtual reality are enabling mining companies to optimize decision making, automate manual processes and replace manual operations with fully autonomous systems, all while enabling teams to fully track people and assets, which is essential for worker safety.
But to get the best out these technologies, having high-performing wireless connectivity in mining areas is essential to the various digital applications they enable. Unfortunately, many mines still rely on legacy networks that weren’t created to meet the demands of ultra-broadband and mission-critical use cases.
Incidentally, most of us carry much better wireless technology in our pockets today. Used for a decade by mobile operators worldwide, what do computer engineers do cellular technology has all the features and characteristics required by the vast majority of business-critical and mission-critical mining applications. The next generation of cellular, 5G, is also beginning to roll out, and it will support even the most extreme applications.
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