Highlights

• RipEX2, 150 MHz
• Underground
• Leaky Feeder
• 256QAM
• Point to Multipoint

For over 30 years SIGMA Telecom have been producing underground communication solutions for mines, vehicle tunnels and other confined environments. In that time, they have provided communications solutions in over 1000 underground applications over all 5 continents. Their solutions support vent control, air quality measurement, water and power control etc.

As technology has advanced Sigma’s customer base has made requests for faster communications and demands for greater capacity for data transfer. In response to these requests Sigma has developed the new DOLF (Data Over Leaky Feeder) system

The planning of this new system demanded a future-proofed radio modem with state-of-the-art parameters: maximal data speed and throughput, multiple serial and Ethernet ports, industrial grade robustness and reliability to maintain functionality in harsh underground environments and maximum versatility to meet the unique needs of each application. Exhaustive research of the market came up with only one option – The RACOM RipEX radio modem.

The base station is situated at the leaky feeder Head End, on the surface. All remotes are positioned in the many underground tunnels with wireless connectivity to the base station using Sigma’s DOLF leaky feeder system. The Leaky Feeder has line amplifiers that maintain the level of the network allowing excellent quality in voice and data communications and excellent signal levels, even several kilometres underground. The network uses Point to Multipoint communications with traffic on the radio channel managed by RACOM’s unique collision free Base driven protocol. During development RACOM was on hand to provide technical information and support with connection to the many RTU´s as required.

Sigma and its customers are delighted with this new system and are keen to expand the use of DOLF in other situations as benefits become more and more obvious. Some immediate benefits have already been identified: users will be able to reduce the number of trips below ground to obtain essential information that would normally take 3 to 4 hours; in most cases this means 1 complete miner shift.

RACOM looks forward to supporting Sigma as it rolls out this new solution globally.

Highlights

• MR400, 160 MHz, Integrated GPS
• Train fleet & crossing zones management
• Remote desert installation, +50 °C
• Multiple Ethernet and Serial applicatons
• Mobile roaming protocol on Radio channel
• 180 km single track railway
• 3 repeaters for inclusive coverage

Ferronor operate rail freight services in Northern Chile over 1800 km of private one track railway.Heaviest traffic movements are between an Iron ore mine across the Atacama Desert to a port on the Pacific coast. With increased production, the manual management of the remotely controlled freight trains on this track became unsuitable for the increased number of freight movements. An automated system was needed that could provide high levels of reliability in the severe climatic conditions experienced in this remote wilderness.

A thorough examination of available products on the market revealed the best solution would be achieved using MR160 radio modems integrated with GPS in order to allow centralized coordination for desolate crossing zones on the one-track railway, in a non-fixed itinerary scheme for mining convoys. Support for locomotive conductors informing distances to the nearest trains ahead and behind, the next singularities in the route, text messages to and from the control centre, etc. are all combined within this application.

A unique RACOM mobile protocol with automatic roaming among bases stations (repeaters) is used. Only three repeaters are needed, strategically placed at dominant points in the hilly terrain, in order to minimize their numbers while having good coverage footprint in 160 MHz band over the entire length of the 180 km long railway. One frequency channel is used for communication among locomotives and repeaters and also between repeaters and the main base station. The second frequency is used for communication between the main base station and the centre.

Key features proved to be:

• Transparent route change for messages to/from mobiles transmitted through repeater stations
• A multiple communications path environment through Ethernet and serial ports
• Versatility to perform as a mobile end communications device, repeater, base and main centre communications server
• Multiple communication protocols allowing system integration of specific proprietary applications

After the network had been completed, Ferronor representatives openly stated that RACOM support was a fundamental part of the project’s success, from the initial selection of the optimal modem model, to selecting the best locations to install repeaters, configuration recommendations of MR160 parameters and remote testing of operations and performance.

Since commissioning, the network has allowed seamless, centralized coordination of desolate crossing zones in the one-track railway in the non-fixed itinerary scheme for mining convoys and support for locomotive conductors. Additionally it informs distances to other freight movements and passing places and direct communications with the control centre.

Such has been the success of this project, another was commissioned in the North of Chile. Both networks have helped the customer increase safety for personnel, the rolling stock and provide efficient management of freight movements.

Highlights

• RipEX, 400 MHz
• Water monitoring at wellheads
• Remote desert installations, +50 °C
• Serial interface
• Siemens ‘WinCC’ SCADA and ’S7-300’ PLC
• Bridge mode
• 2 base stations and over 20 remotes

The Jordan Phosphates Mines Co. , incorporated in 1953, extracts and processes phosphate ore as a primary activity. Operating three mines, it is the World’s second largest exporter of Phosphate ore. Accountable to the Kingdom’s environmental codes to ensure sustainability within the country, JPMC have looked to employ the latest technologies in relevant fields to comply with these demands.

As part of this review, JPMC realized the benefits to be gained in using modern digital radio networks; easy to configure and maintain and that provide robust and reliable communications with even the remotest sites. By the end of the tender process, RipEX proved itself to be the optimal solution for a network to monitor water at the wellheads. Since the customer put maximum stress on the communication reliability in remote desert locations and the data speed was not the issue, 4CPFSK modulation with 20 kbps data rate has been chosen. Each radio is configured in Bridge mode using the serial interface [RS232] to connect with SCADA PLC. Data acquisition includes water quality, pressure and temperature at the wellhead, with alarm values set to immediately notify the control centre of changes to measured values.

Despite being the first project for PALCO, RACOM’S new local partner, the installation and commissioning process was made very easy due to the intuitive nature of the set up configurations and technical support mechanisms provided by RACOM. In this case RACOM provided only Radio coverage path study.

At the time, Mr. Radwan Abu Tubbaneh, Deputy General Manager of PALCO said, “The engineers did not know the product but are so delighted with the ease of installation and commissioning, they are looking forward to using more RipEX units when the network is scaled up as well as in other projects.“

Since commissioning, the network has operated seamlessly and at time of writing, orders for additional RipEX units are already being processed to scale up the size of the network.