LoRa-Based Wireless Sensor Network Testbed for Precision Agriculture Application

Abstract

Over the past few years, Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has seen many improvements, and there are various applications of WSNs in various domains. Most communication technologies have a trade-off between distance and power consumption, i.e., to reach a longer distance, high power is consumed. LoRa overcomes this problem by consuming less power and transmitting small data packets for a long distance. The objective of this research work is to use LoRa technology in Precision Agriculture applications to help the stakeholders in better decision-making. A small experimental testbed is set up for precision agriculture applications. This testbed had sensors to monitor pH, soil moisture, soil temperature, and NPK parameters. An Automatic Weather Station (AWS) is set up to monitor ambient weather parameters-temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, solar radiation, and leaf wetness. These sensor parameters were collected at the LoRa Gateway and forwarded to a network server hosting the The Things Network (TTN) LoRa stack. Transmission statistics are collected and analyzed for this application for remote monitoring of agricultural farms for quick and efficient decision-making.