This paper reports on the definition of technical challenges for the sensing and communication networks of a mining ventilation automation project. Specifically, complex network architectures offering high performance are investigated. The aim is to support distributed estimation, and to propose an enhanced architecture for advanced services in the mining context, namely positioning and audio/video communications. Then, analytical models are developed to ldquoexposerdquo network performance to the control application, and a service platform is suggested to encapsulate all essential services that the network should provide to the distributed control application. Specific results are provided for the positioning service.