Dust effects on Leaky Feeder cable in an underground mine environment

Leaky Feeder based network is widely used for underground mine communications to transmit voice, data and video signals. In this paper we present the dust´s effects on leaky feeder signal propagation which is produced from drilling operations and vehicles in the underground mine. Simulations were done to study the signal propagation behavior in a leaky feeder according to scattering parameters: S₁₁ and S₂₁ in presence of dust. Results obtained show the dust´s influence on the communication cable, and a solution to this problem is suggested.