LoRa Wireless Link Performance in Multipath Underground Mines

It has become a challenge to effectively maintain higher levels of safety and productivity in mining operations due to the present-day smart IoT technology advancements in mining equipment and gadgets. Regardless of the complexity of IoT schemes, all the systems rely on one common factor - an effective and reliable transportation mechanism for data and control information from/to the smart devices. Therefore, the communication infrastructure in confined spaces is the most critical element in the smart system operation. This is especially true due to the limitations and complications of physical phenomena affecting the wireless system and networks in the mines and tunnels. Strong multipath nature of the wireless channel affects the smart wireless communication significantly in underground mine. In this paper, we use LoRa technology to provide better connectivity in harsh environment such as in mines. With its long range, deep penetration, and ultralow power consumption and single hop wireless communication technology; LoRa provides reliable connectivity to previously infeasible underground mining environment. This paper presents simulation study that provide LoRa performance in mining area with strong multipath conditions for different spread factors (SF).