Title: Design of large-scale agricultural wireless sensor networks: email from the vineyard

Authors: Christine Jardak, Krisakorn Rerkrai, Aleksandar Kovacevic, Janne Riihijarvi, Petri Mahonen

Addresses: Institute for Networked Systems, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstrasse 9, D-52072, Aachen, Germany. ' Institute for Networked Systems, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstrasse 9, D-52072, Aachen, Germany. ' Institute for Networked Systems, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstrasse 9, D-52072, Aachen, Germany. ' Institute for Networked Systems, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstrasse 9, D-52072, Aachen, Germany. ' Institute for Networked Systems, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstrasse 9, D-52072, Aachen, Germany

Abstract: We describe the design and implementation of a large-scale Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for agriculture monitoring. As a part of validation we have deployed a prototype of 64 sensors to monitor a commercial vineyard. The system provides software modules ranging from filtering raw data to a centralised and a distributed data storage applications. The used protocols ensure reliable and robust communication and load-balancing energy consumption. A backend server provides a user-friendly graphical interface offering two main functionalities: logging communication messages of the protocols and providing end-user support for on-demand and periodic data requests. We have made a performance evaluation of a scaled-down WSN. We highlight the efficiency of the system on a large-scale deployment in comparison to the traditional solution based on individual weather station by deploying both systems in parallel and comparing results. We demonstrate that WSNs provide better geographical coverage and an increased spatial resolution compared to traditional solutions.

Keywords: WSN testbed; agriculture monitoring; data storage; data collection; large-scale WSNs; agricultural WSNs; wireless sensor networks; wireless networks; commercial vineyards; vineyeard monitoring; geographical coverage; spatial resolution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2010.034617

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2010 Vol.8 No.2, pp.77 - 88

Published online: 13 Aug 2010 *

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