## 5 Automation and Teleoperation
### Classification of Technologies by Parameter  
1. Market Maturity/TRL  
Both Wi-Fi with the 6E standard and 5G have a market maturity of products. However, it is difficult to evaluate both in the context of underground mining. Both technologies are explored for their application in active mines [64], whereas LTE and Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz have already been adapted and used in various use cases.
2. Approval  
It turns out that Wi-Fi, but even more so 5G, have specific requirements and regulatory constraints due to their respective bandwidths. While both technologies are generally well recognised and regulated in terms of their use of the bands, most laws are designed for public or private use. This also includes the need to ensure that non-public communication protocols operate on the chosen frequencies and have reservations on the use of the bands for safety reasons.  
In addition, there are state-based regulations, such as the radiated power, which must be observed when dealing with electrical detonators for blasts in mines (e.g., [22; 23]). Extensive tests and applications are required before regulations can be exceeded due to the shielding of the walls of a mine. Furthermore, 5G and its operation is only possible through the license carriers, whereas Wi-Fi is available even at 6E from every consumer in its hardware configuration.
3. Required Infrastructure and Intrusiveness  
The effective maintenance of a network is only possible with a permanent connection to a power supply; battery-powered systems are not feasible. Further, a cable-based communication infrastructure is needed (except for mesh applications). Compared to older  
Figure 7: Generalized and simplified visualisation of the Wi-Fi, 5G and other cellular technologies.  
LTE standards, 5G has increased consumption [46; 54]. All WCT have an intense need of infrastructure and are intrusive.  
4. Coverage and Robustness  
For 5G, there is a lack of long-term data on the spread of signaling in mines in active operation and of different types. Therefore, a quantitative assessment is not possible at this time. Measurements in urban environments can give an order of magnitude, but only under the condition that the reflective effects of the mine walls are negligible, which is not possible without data. With Wi-Fi, the situation is different. There, a Near LOS setup could be achieved at the applied scale [16].  
5. Scalability and Number of Users  
The coverage of the networks is only possible without data rate loss by expanding the number of gateways. However, the functionality of the multi-channel is lost if the density of users on Wi-Fi is too high, especially with 2.4 GHz. The 5G standard has such a high number of possible supported users at the same time and over the same area that even high-traffic and active sections of a mine do not provide a problem.  
6. Data Rate/Network performance  
The technologies are applicable for teleoperation and meet the best score on the scale with high \(\sim\)10 Mbit/s rates and milliseconds in latency [35]. However, 5G and 6 GHz Wi-Fi do have an additional potential to support higher rates (indicated by a +).  
The table below summarizes the technologies and their classification in each evaluation criterion introduced in Section 4. The scales for each criterion consist of three ordered labels, starting with the 'worst' and ending with the 'best' label. For better recognition, the labels are marked with colours in the Table 1, ranging from red (worst) to green (best) for each category.