Within the next few months, we’ll be celebrating the one-year anniversary of our acquisition of Infinity Wireless in Minneapolis-St. Paul, a move that has allowed us to expand our product offerings to better serve our customers.
One of the most exciting new offerings is Rajant Kinetic Mesh, a network that connects geographically dispersed operations efficiently and cost-effectively. Developed in the wake of 9/11 as a communications network for military and first responders, Rajant Kinetic Mesh was first used in a commercial application—open-pit mining—about a decade later.
To understand how it works, picture an open-pit mine: Miles wide and miles deep with geography that’s constantly changing as workers in various pieces of heavy-duty equipment drill dynamite holes, conduct blasts, dig valleys and create mountains. Within this environment, drivers and dispatchers must be in constant voice contact. Plus, because every piece of equipment has an onboard computer that monitors machine health, load, and GPS location, data must also be passed every second.
“In dispersed environments like this, the challenge has always been how to establish a network that will ensure uninterrupted voice and data connectivity,” said Dan Severud, BAYCOM Communications Consultant. “As drivers move across miles-wide spaces and where line-of-sight is often impeded, inherently static infrastructures like Wi-Fi and LTE can fall short. Now, we can help customers overcome those issues with Rajant Kinetic Mesh.”
Rajant Kinetic Mesh is a metropolitan area network (MAN) designed specifically to facilitate connected mobility. Within the network, assets (such as trucks or drills within a mine) actually become the network. Nodes can be applied on anything that traverses the site, so vehicles and equipment take connectivity with them wherever they go, and link to each other on the move. As assets move, communications are routed dynamically based on the fastest path across all nodes. No lost signals. No line-of-sight requirements.
It’s an exciting technology; one we’re eager to share with our customers. We’ve installed the system in mines, in a Lake Michigan port and are currently developing a proof-of-concept for an electric utility.
To learn more about how you might benefit from Rajant Kinetic Mesh, watch a 4-minute video on our BAYCOM website.