Safety Support Functions for Underground Network Communications

摘要

Today underground infrastructures, like tunnels and especially wide spread underground mines, arernoften equipped with ethernet based communication systems. These networks are used for the unifi edrncommunication of data, voice and video. As these networks stretch along the major tunnels and inrnincreasing scale also into the production areas, a high degree of coverage can be reached. For wirelessrncoverage, standard IEEE 802.11 WLAN access points are being used. In order to provide a maximumrnavailability and reliability, the active components are equipped with battery backup power suppliesrnand the network infrastructure is set up in a redundant way using ring or meshed topologies. Thisrnprovides a much higher availability compared to traditional phone systems or dedicated data linksrnusing a conventional star topology.rnDistributed computing intelligence that is installed on active network nodes throughout the wholernnetwork, additionally supported by a central server system, creates the basis for new mine safetyrnfunctions introduced in this paper for both coal and non-coal mining. These new safety functionsrncover the detection of potential emergencies, using the status of the network as a ‘sensor’, as well asrndynamically guiding people to safe exits or rescue shelters in case of an emergency. Furthermore,rnthese functions are of important benefi t for improving the effi ciency of search and rescue operationsrnfollowing a major incident or accident underground.