Recently, the State Key Laboratory of Synthetical Automation for Process Industries at NEU, in collaboration with the China Telecom Research Institute, successfully built China's first iron ore beneficiation whole-process industrial PON (Passive Optical Network) all-optical field network demonstration project at Hanking Mining in Fushun, Liaoning. This achievement marks the large-scale deployment of industrial PON technology in industrial control applications, filling a technical gap in the beneficiation field regarding the direct connection of all-optical networks to shop-floor production equipment.
Leveraging its accumulated expertise in next-generation optical networking and the industrial PON resources and self-service control capabilities of the "China Telecom Cloud-Network Convergence Technology Pilot Verification Platform," the team tackled key technical challenges to build an industrial PON "communication, computing, intelligence, and control" pilot verification environment. They completed a full-process field validation in the beneficiation scenario at Hanking Mining. Through an optical distribution network (ODN), optical fiber links were extended directly to each production workshop, with industrial-grade ONU (Optical Network Unit) devices directly connecting field PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) and distributed I/O modules. This architecture significantly reduces intermediate communication equipment, effectively lowering network complexity and potential failure points. With a transmission distance extended to over 20 kilometers, it covers core production processes throughout the plant, including crushing, belt conveying, grinding and separation, comprehensive water supply, concentrate storage, and tailings storage. It supports the real-time access, transmission, and intelligent processing of over 1,800 data points, providing a unified bearer network for plant-wide services such as heterogeneous data collection, production decision and control, and intelligent plant monitoring.
The team also made breakthroughs in long-distance closed-loop control based on industrial PON and multi-source heterogeneous synchronous transmission, achieving a transmission latency below 200 μs, jitter control within 1 μs, and zero packet loss throughout the process. With its core performance comprehensively meeting the rigorous standards of industrial control, this technology provides a highly reliable network foundation for the integrated "perception-decision-control" closed loop of industrial intelligence.
