MegaFon will build a private LTE network at Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Plant

2021: Private LTE Network Launch Plans

On May 25, 2021, MegaFon announced that it would launch a private wireless network at the Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Plant. Guaranteed coverage, safety, and high speeds and low data delays will automate complex iron ore mining and iron ore production processes.

The Private LTE network will cover the factories and quarries of the Lebedinsky GOK with a length of 4.7 km and a width of 3.7 km, where ore is mined in an open manner. During drilling and blasting operations, the surface terrain of the quarry changes, the depth of which reaches 450 m, and technological solutions for organizing a private network must quickly adapt to these changes.

The project involves a lot of work to organize a private LTE network and ensure its high availability. To organize seamless coverage, it is planned to deploy 13 base stations, as well as modernize five existing ones. A redundant core of the Private LTE network will be installed in the data center, additional antenna-mast structures will be erected, fiber-optic lines will be laid, and radio relay communication channels will be created to provide backup of transport infrastructure.

MegaFon will provide the company with seamless coating using 1800 and 2600 MHz bands. This will increase the capacity of the network in the places of the largest concentration of employees and equipment, as well as provide redundancy and a large coverage of the network.

The Private LTE network will provide an environment for telemetry transmission from quarry equipment, the company's specialists will be able to monitor the production performance of machines and equipment, while in the conditions of a difficult topography of the field, stable communication will be provided.

To ensure a stable signal inside the workshops, the enterprise will organize indoor coverage, which will make it possible to introduce services based on video analytics, the industrial Internet of things, solutions for locating employees, maintenance and repair of equipment.

Private LTE from MegaFon will allow to deploy the digital circuit of the enterprise at Lebedinsky GOK and will create a reserve for the implementation of vertically integrated solutions. By implementing this project, the company will have the opportunity to abandon the use of other networks deployed at the enterprise, which will lead to lower costs, "says Natalya Taldykina, Director of Corporate Business Development at MegaFon.

Our companies have long and fruitfully collaborated in the field of technology, "said Yulia Shutkina, Director of Digital Transformation at Metalloinvest. - Operator services help to create a unified information environment in production and implement Metalloinvest projects.

Our own sustainable network will ensure labor safety, complex and dangerous processes for people can be automated. It will also allow the introduction of MegaFon Tranking digital radio communications with a geolocation function to determine the location of each employee in real time, quickly respond to emergency incidents, and combine employees into teams for operational management.