An Optimized Approach to Channel Modeling and Impact of Deteriorating Factors on Wireless Communication in Underground Mines

Abstract

The environment of underground coal mines has challenging properties that makes this zone inadaptable for a stable communication system. Additionally, various deteriorating physical parameters strongly affect the performance of wireless networks, which leads to limited network coverage and poor quality of data communication. This study investigates the communication capability in underground coal mines by optimizing the wireless link to develop a stable network for an underground hazardous environment. A hybrid channel-modeling scheme is proposed to characterize the environment of underground mines for wireless communication by classifying the area of a mine into the main gallery and sub-galleries. The complex segments of mine are evaluated by categorizing the wireless links for the line-of-sight (LOS) zones and hybrid modeling is employed to examine the characteristics of electromagnetic signal propagation. For hybrid channel modeling, the multimode waveguide model and geometrical optic (GO) model are used for developing an optimal framework that improves the accessibility of the network in the critical time-varying environment of mines. Moreover, the influence of various deteriorating factors is analyzed using 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz frequency band to study its relationship with the vital constraints of an underground mine. The critical factors such as path loss, roughness loss, delay spread, and shadow fading are examined under detailed analysis with variation in link structure for the mine.