Private 5G in an open-pit mine. An open-pit mine with a private network: a site on the rim, a cell in the pit, the core at the plant.

Layers

Scenario

An open-pit mine with a private network: a site on the rim, a cell in the pit, the core at the plant.

01/06

n78 3.5 GHz: 3.30–3.80 GHz · λ 84.4 mm · Main 5G capacity layer, massive MIMO · 3GPP TS 38.101-1

Network scenes

Private 5G in an open-pit mine

A private network for haul trucks, drills and slope radar: a mast on the rim, a cell in the pit, the core at the plant, and coverage computed over the benches themselves.

The place: Open-pit mine complex

In this scene

Rim site, three sectors

A lattice tower on high ground by the north rim: two sectors look into the pit, one along the haul road. (3GPP TS 38.104, 3GPP TS 23.501 (non-public network))
Scene input: 70 dBm EIRP per n78 sector

Cell on a skid on the pit floor

A solar skid with a short mast that moves with the mining face: it fills the shadow the rim site cannot see into. (3GPP TS 38.104 (medium range BS))

Private core and edge at the plant

User plane and control plane on site, so truck dispatch, autonomy and slope radar data stay local and keep working if the wide-area link drops. (3GPP TS 23.501 §5.30 (SNPN), 3GPP TS 22.104)

Slope stability radar

Scans the opposite wall for millimetre movement and streams its images over the private network. (3GPP TS 22.104)

Links and interfaces

Fibre to the plant

A buried fibre along the access road from the rim site to the plant. (ITU-T G.652)

Microwave to the rim

The pit cell has no fibre: a short microwave hop to the rim site carries its traffic. (ITU-R F.595)

Computed for this scenario

Outdoor area at SINR ≥ 10 dB

72 %

Median SINR

16.7 dB

Shannon bound at median, 100 MHz

558 Mbit/s

Cell edge (5th percentile)

1.6 dB · 128 Mbit/s

SSB beams per burst (TS 38.213)

8

User beams steered

4

Array gain, 64 elements

18.1 dB

Beamwidth, azimuth

12.8°

Fibre to the plant

1.0 km · 4.9 µs one way

Scenarios

Rim site only

From the rim the near wall and the deep benches are in shadow.

Add the pit cell

A cell on the pit floor fills the shadow below the north wall.

700 MHz

At 700 MHz the losses are lower and the benches shadow less, at a fraction of the bandwidth.

Pit sector fails

The sector that looks into the pit fails; trucks on the ramp fall back to the pit cell.

Tour transcript

1. An open-pit mine with a private network: a site on the rim, a cell in the pit, the core at the plant.
2. The rim site: its sectors look down the benches and along the haul road.
3. From the rim alone, the near wall and the deep benches fall into shadow.
4. A cell on the pit floor fills the shadow; a microwave hop takes its traffic to the rim.
5. Beams follow the haul trucks down the ramp.
6. Fibre to the plant, where the private core keeps dispatch and autonomy local.

How the numbers are computed

Coverage follows 3GPP TR 38.901 UMa path loss, with line of sight tested against the benched terrain itself: a cell below the rim is NLOS. Sector patterns are the TR 38.901 element at the stated downtilts; SINR sums all co-channel sectors and noise.