The Debswana Diamond Mine in Botswana has selected the newly released OTN Systems’ N50 and N70 nodes as its backbone network.
The Debswana Diamond Company is a unique partnership between the Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers Centenary.
Debswana is one of the world’s leading diamond producers and produced 22.2 million carats in 2010.
The project consists of four conventional open pit mining sites: Orapa, Letlhakane, Jwaneng (the most valuable diamond mine in the world) and Damtshaa.
In all mines, the open transport network (OTN) will provide a reliable backbone for different IP applications. Moreover, during 2012 and 2013, the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) in London will be relocated to Gabarone Botswana. All diamond trading in the world will be done fromBotswana making it the ‘Diamond hub’ of the world.
A dedicated N70 ring (10Gb/s) will host the CCTV applications as a large number of security cameras are to be transported (645 to 760 cameras per mine). An SLAN will be configured for each area to bring the video back to the CCC (main control centre). An additional N50 ring (2.5Gb/s) will be utilised for the other applications such as access control, VOIP and fire. ETS switches will connect the access control system to the N50 ring. In total 11 x N70 nodes, 10 x N50 nodes and 88 x ETS switches will be installed in the mines.
This new installation for the Debswana mines is a great example of how N50 and N70 provide a reliable, flexible and easy management solution for the increased use of IP-based applications in modern mining environments.