The 5G networks revolutionize industrial connectivity, offering reliable, low-latency, and high-bandwidth communication for diverse critical environments, including mining. However, the current uplink capacity of 5G poses limitations for transmitting large data volumes, necessitating the exploration of concurrent wireless solutions. To address this, our paper proposes leveraging a Wi-Fi mesh network in conjunction with 5G and a Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) scheduler. To do so, we deploy a test network in a tunnel able to serve 5G as well as mesh Wi-Fi. We then evaluate how a moving vehicle equipped with a connectivity unit can take advantage of both networks even in challenging conditions by turning off part of the 5G base stations. Ultimately, we demonstrate that employing Wi-Fi and MPTCP can augment 5G in scenarios with limited uplink capacity or unreliable coverage.

5G network slicing is a promising solution to prioritize time-critical protection communication in wireless networks. However, recent trends indicate that a 5G slice could encompass all smart grid applications lacking the necessary granularity. At the same time, while substation communication standards recommend prioritization of protection communication traffic to improve reliability, these recommendations are only for wired connections. Therefore, this paper investigates traffic shaping and uplink (UL) bitrate adaptation of video stream based on existing commercial solutions as methodologies for prioritizing the protection communication in a 5G slice. These methodologies are validated in an experimental setup combining controller-hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) simulation with a quality of service (QoS) measurement system. The system under test consists of commercial 5G networks, commercial intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), and merging units to validate the methodologies on three smart grid applications: fault location, line differential, and intertrip protection. The results show improvement in protection communication when traffic shaping and UL bitrate adaptation are applied. Traffic shaping even improves prioritization with a wired connection.