On 26 August, the underground signal attenuation testing application independently developed by the intelligent operation and maintenance team of China Shenhua’s Shendong Shigetai Coal Mine was officially launched. With mining-certified explosion-proof terminals, the app enables a single operator to independently conduct professional testing of underground ring network signal attenuation. It overcomes long-standing practical issues such as poor adaptability of conventional testing software to underground conditions and low operational efficiency, while offering reliable data support for mine communication network optimization.
The underground environment is characterized by the absence of GPS signals, complex tunnel layouts, and inadequate lighting. For years, mine signal testing has mostly relied on general-purpose surface software. Owing to on-site constraints, conventional software suffers from significant positioning errors, high power consumption, and limited underground adaptability. In addition, the operating procedures are cumbersome and labor-intensive, making it difficult to meet the demands of refined network operation and maintenance in smart mines.
Targeting this specific operational challenge, the intelligent operation and maintenance team at Shendong Shigetai Coal Mine conducted R&D based on actual production conditions and developed a signal attenuation testing application tailored to underground scenarios to improve the efficiency and quality of network inspection. The app supports user-defined data collection intervals, enables continuous background acquisition, and remains functional even when the device is locked or during a phone call, thereby reducing terminal power consumption. It automatically logs signal data, accurately correlates it with tunnel mileage, generates attenuation curves using industry-specific models, and outputs path loss indices. Using the analytical results, operators can quickly pinpoint the root causes of signal attenuation and identify faults such as weak coverage, insufficient base station power, and improper antenna orientation, thus providing quantifiable and traceable data for underground network optimization.
