Background
Mining companies face several challenges, including ensuring safety for workers, increasing efficiency, sustainability, and reducing costs. Wireless connectivity has the potential to increase safety and efficiency in mining operations by collecting and analyzing tracking data on the performance of vehicles, equipment, and workforce, in addition to remote monitoring of equipment, which can detect issues before they cause major problems.
Mining operators need high-performance and reliable wireless connectivity, which can be tough to achieve in open pits and underground environments. 5G private networks are a solution by providing pervasive, ultra-reliable broadband connectivity to improve safety, higher productivity, and new efficiencies. A private cellular network offers the most potential to transform mining operations by automating more processes, plus the ability to monitor and automate heavy fixed assets.
Requirements
Industrial-grade private 5G networks meet the need for reliable and secure voice, data, and video communications and automated applications in underground mines with low latency and high-speed data transfer. A leading solution provider collaborated with Lanner to design a jointly-developed uCPE and Open RAN/MEC appliance, which required the following features.
- Wide Operating Temperature
Given the extreme temperature in an underground environment, the appliance must be able to operate at a wide temperature range, ranging -40°C ~ 70°C, to sustain harsh environments without sacrificing operation safety and productivity.
- Multi-layer Hardware Security
An onboard TPM for secure crypto-processing and tamper resistance at the hardware level.
- Rich I/O Connectivity Configurations
Extensive LAN port configurations, including GbE LAN, SFP+ fiber, and IPMI connectivity to communicate with systems and sensors for remote monitoring.
- Powerful Computing and Connectivity
As computing power is pushed from the cloud to the edge, new opportunities arise for edge workloads that benefit from low latency, near real-time analysis, and connectivity.
- 5G/LTE/Wi-Fi Connectivity
The system must support 5G/LTE connectivity with CE/FCC/PTCRB certification to enable reliable wireless communication for mission-critical applications.
- Scalability
Expansion features are needed for better performance even as demands increase, including swappable drive bays, PCIe slots for time sync cards, GPU graphics cards, or accelerator cards.
Solutions
Lanner provides a wide range of network devices designed to enable 5G private networks in the mining industry. The combination of Lanner’s 5G-ready uCPE and Open RAN appliances helps service providers to quickly deploy 5G private networks that increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve safety, while also enhancing the reliability and security of their communication networks.
The ECA-4027 works as an Open RAN appliance as a DU/CU server. The short-depth chassis edge computing appliance features a powerful 12 or 16-core Intel® Xeon® D-2100 processor, with 8x 10G SFP+ and 2x 40G QSFP+ ports for Edge Cloud, 5G Open RAN, and AI edge-focused applications.
With wide operating temperature, ECA-4027 was designed to leverage multi-access edge computing by supporting a PCI-E slot for FPGA, GPU, or optional IEEE 1588v2 SynE expansion, in addition to Intel® QuickAssist Technology for improved network performance.
Additionally, Lanner also provides a range of CPE devices to enable WAN connectivity for smart mining operations. Equipped with an AI accelerator from NVIDIA or Hailo, Lanner Edge AI uCPE LEC-2290H and IIoT-I530 can process real-time video analytics for perimeter security and autonomous mining vehicle. Lanner also offers indoor uCPE NCA-1516 and rugged uCPE ISD-O370 that enable 5G/WiFi WAN optimization and reliable edge-to-cloud connectivity for asset/environment monitoring