Mining environment multi-media services characterization using propagation measurements

Wireless communications in mine environments are severaly affected by the roughness of random side walls, mobile equipements, canonical, non canonical or bending segments. The consequences of these factors are multiple reflections, fast and slow fading, multipath and diffraction phenomenons, attenuation and various types of electromagnetic interferences. This paper presents experimental results obtained in a real mine environment at 2.45 GHz and 18 GHz using a measurement systems adapted to underground mine environments. The measured power levels of the received field are also compared with simulated propagation results obtained at 18 GHz: with the cascade impedances method (CIM) in the case of canonical tunnel mining segment. The propagation loss measurements and characteristics obtained can be used to developed systems for radio-localization, mobile and personal communications to be operated in real mine environments.