Practical Precision Agriculture with LoRa based Wireless Sensor Networks

Precision agriculture is enabled by using real-time data to manage environmental variations, measure performance to improve upon previous seasons, and perform predictive analysis to make better growing decisions, resulting in higher production yields with lower production costs. Although beneficial, collecting and analyzing the environmental data is an expensive and complicated endeavor. Numerous existing wireless sensor network (WSN) solutions rely on protocols such as 802.15.4 b (LR-WPANs) and 802.11x (WLAN) but provide limited transmission range, complex communication stacks and data management, and high power consumption. Additionally, many existing services introduce challenges with data ownership and residency. These factors present a high barrier to entry for growers. The resources required to implement and maintain sensor networks are too high to justify the investment. This work presents an approach that uses inexpensive and effective hardware that is easily setup and maintained. Costs to implement the network are reduced through the use of open-source hardware. Transmission ranges and power consumption are improved by using long range (LoRa) radio transceivers. By addressing these limitations, growers will be better enabled to adopt new technologies, ultimately improving sustainability, viability, quality and profit margins in agriculture.