Bending the Signal, Breaking the Limits: How LATYS FOCUS Transformed Underground Connectivity

Deep beneath Nunavik Nickel’s mining site in northern Quebec, the sound of an autonomous drill echoed through the narrow shaft, chipping away at solid rock meter by meter. The drill’s progress was steady—until it reached a sharp 90-degree bend in the tunnel. In an instant, the Wi-Fi connection to the control room was gone. No telemetry data. No remote commands. Just silence—a complete communications blackout between the drill and the operations team. This was more than a technical inconvenience; in modern mining, every second of connectivity can mean the difference between safety and risk, efficiency and downtime. In the harsh underground environment, sharp bends, dense rock, and constantly shifting work zones make reliable wireless coverage an ongoing challenge. Traditional solutions attempt to overcome this by installing multiple access points (APs) deep into the tunnel. But this approach is expensive, labor-intensive, and often impractical in active mining zones where equipment is constantly on the move and installation space is limited.

The Challenge

Maintaining stable wireless communication in an operational underground mining setting is inherently challenging. Every meter of progress introduces new obstacles — from unforgiving rock walls to sudden changes in tunnel geometry. Signals that travel freely in open air are quickly absorbed, scattered, or blocked underground, creating blind spots that can compromise safety and productivity.

Key challenges include:

• Severe signal attenuation: Solid rock walls absorbing 30–60 dB of signal power.

• Physical obstructions: Sharp 90° bends blocking direct line-of-sight (LoS).

• Dynamic work zones: Tunnel geometry changing daily as drilling advances.

• Infrastructure burden: High cost and complexity of AP-dense networks in confined, hazardous spaces.
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The LATYS FOCUS Approach  

In traditional mining network designs, the default response to coverage gaps is to install more APs along the tunnel. While this can help in open environments, underground mines face unique propagation challenges that make this approach costly, complex, and often ineffective. More APs mean more cabling, more power requirements, and more potential points of failure — all while still struggling to overcome sharp bends and dense rock attenuation.

LATYS FOCUS changes this equation. Instead of flooding the mine with APs, our solution uses intelligent, reconfigurable surfaces to boost and bend Wi-Fi signals, directing them exactly where they’re needed and maintaining performance with far fewer APs.

To address the coverage loss at the sharp 90° bend in the Nunavik Nickel mine, we evaluated the following:

• Baseline (no FOCUS panels): The heatmap shows that the side tunnels beyond the bend receive virtually no coverage from the AP.

• Three panels with LATYS FOCUS booster near the AP: In addition to two panels at the bend, we added a third LATYS FOCUS panel close to the primary AP at the tunnel entrance. This acted as a signal booster and directional guide, ensuring that a stronger, more focused beam reached the bend panels and extended coverage beyond the turn.

Our engineers designed a layout with two LATYS FOCUS panels positioned at the 90° bend itself, strategically angled to capture and redirect the signal deeper into the tunnel. A third panel was mounted near the primary access point at the tunnel’s entrance, providing a strong and consistent source signal.

Here’s where the real advantage came in: unlike fixed hardware, LATYS FOCUS panels use beam steering, dynamically redirecting a 30° transmission cone in 15° increments. This capability allowed the system to track the tunnel’s geometry, “bending” the Wi-Fi signal around solid rock walls and into areas where direct line-of-sight was impossible.

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Results & Benefits

The moment LATYS FOCUS panels were deployed in the Nunavik Nickel underground mine, the dead zone beyond the 90° bend vanished. What had been a silent, disconnected stretch of tunnel became a fully connected operational zone. Operators in the control room regained continuous telemetry from the autonomous drill, enabling real-time monitoring of position, performance, and safety status.

Command signals reached the drill instantly, allowing precise adjustments to drilling speed, direction, and pressure. Environmental sensors transmitted uninterrupted data, helping to anticipate and prevent hazards before they escalated. The coverage was strong, stable, and reliable — even beyond direct line-of-sight — delivering a signal gain of +10 dB (roughly a tenfold increase in received signal power) across nearly 80% of the evaluated area.

This transformation brought immediate and measurable advantages:

• Coverage Extension: stable connectivity in areas where conventional Wi-Fi fails.

• Operational Reliability: uninterrupted links for autonomous drills, sensors, and mission-critical communications.

• Faster Decision-Making: accurate, live data to guide operations in real time.

• Improved Safety: continuous oversight and faster emergency response.

• Cost Efficiency: high-performance connectivity without extensive new AP deployments.

• Adaptability: quick repositioning of panels to match shifting priorities and changing tunnel layouts

Just as importantly, mining operations are dynamic; priorities shift, tunnels evolve, and coverage needs change. LATYS FOCUS panels are designed for adaptability. Their lightweight, modular construction and quick installation make it easy to reposition them as work zones move, ensuring that high-quality connectivity is always available exactly where it’s needed.

In one of the harshest, most signal-hostile environments on Earth, LATYS FOCUS didn’t just improve Wi-Fi; it redefined what’s possible for underground mining communications.

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Key Takeaway

With LATYS FOCUS, more coverage doesn’t mean more equipment. It means smarter equipment. By delivering targeted, adaptive, and reliable connectivity exactly where it’s needed, LATYS FOCUS enables mining operations to push further, work faster, and operate more safely — all while reducing infrastructure costs.

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