LoRa Propagation and Coverage Measurements in Underground Potash Salt Room-and-Pillar Mines

The advent of digital mining has become a tangible reality in recent years. This digital evolution requires a predictive understanding of key elements, particularly considering the reliable communication infrastructures needed for autonomous machines. The LoRa technology and its underground propagation behavior can make an important contribution to this digitalization. Since LoRa operates with a high signal budget and long ranges in sub-GHz frequencies, its behavior is very promising for underground sensor networks. The aim of the development and series of measurements was to observe LoRa's applicability and propagation behavior in active salt mines and to detect and identify effects arising from the special environment. The propagation of LoRa was measured via packet loss and signal strength in line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight configurations over entire mining sections. The aim was to analyze the performance of LoRa at the macroscopic level. LoRa operated at 868 MHz in the free band, and units were equipped with omni-directional antennas. The K+S Group's active salt and potash mine Werra, Germany, was kindly opened as a distinctive experimental setting. The LoRa exhibited characteristics that were highly distinctive in this environment. The presence of the massive salt allowed the signal to bounce along drift edges with near-perfect reflection, which enabled travel over kilometers due to a waveguide-like effect. A packet loss of below 15% showed that LoRa communication was possible over distances exceeding 1000 m with no line-of-sight in room-and-pillar structures. Measured differences of Δ50dBm values confirmed consistent path loss across different materials and tunnel geometries. This effect occurs due to the physical structure of the mining drifts, facilitating the containment and direction of signals, minimizing losses during propagation. Further modeling and measurements are of great interest, as they indicate that LoRa can achieve even better outcomes underground than in urban or indoor environments, as this waveguide effect has been consistently observed.