Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh® wireless networks, and ESG Solutions say they have completed another round of successful underground mine testing at Sudbury, Canada’s NORCAT health and safety centre.

With Precision Time Protocol (PTP) put in place by ESG, Rajant can enhance client’s technologies and programs – from communications and productivity to privacy and security – by carrying mission-critical data wirelessly from the mine to the surface, it says. PTP does not perform well and is unreliable on other wireless network options, according to Rajant, yet, with Rajant Kinetic Mesh, PTP performs appropriately to provide the mining industry with microsecond precision, which is required for scaling to more advanced, next-generation automation systems.

According to ESG’s Director of Engineering, Chris Hawryluck, said: “Offering to our mining clients wireless PTP time synchronisation of our micro-seismic data, as well as the wireless transfer of the data, will give customers the flexibility to rapidly and cost-effectively expand a micro-seismic monitoring system to new excavations in a mine and lower network maintenance costs.”

Rajant Sales Director for Canada, Darrell Gillis, adds: “Both PTP and wireless communications are critical for large-scale automation. Rajant’s extremely low latency and high reliability are essential for enabling wireless PTP over multi-hop, mobile wireless networks. The practical application for this is to eliminate fibre runs from sensors at remote areas of the underground levels. The data packets can now be transmitted wirelessly from the sensor to the closest fibre switch at the substation or the shaft station.”