ITICT202A Wireless Networks

Agriculture is important as it provides food for all of us to survive. However currently there is very little focus on agriculture from a software and IoT development perspective. Today, the Internet of Things IoT technology will allow machines and devices to be connected to our networks. Then, these connected devices will generate Data, which will be sent to the cloud for analytical operations. The outcome will allow us to use our existing infrastructure efficiently. The IoT applications have recently emerged in the field of Agriculture. For example, collection of data on temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, pest infestation, fruit ripening, soil & water, dairy farms, food processing, grain storage, animal reproduction etc. This data is used to automate farming techniques, take informed decisions to improve quality and quantity, minimize risk and waste, and reduce efforts required to manage crops. For example, farmers can now monitor soil temperature and moisture from a far, and even apply IoT-acquired data to precision fertilizer/fertilisation programs

In August 2018, Toyota Tsusho began a partnership with Microsoft to create fish farming tools using the Microsoft Azure application suite for IoT technologies related to water management. Developed in part by researchers from Kindai University, the water pump mechanisms use artificial intelligence to count the number of fish on a conveyor belt, analyse the number of fish, and deduce the effectiveness of water flow from the data the fish provide. The specific computer programs used in the process fall under the Azure Machine Learning and the Azure IoT Hub platforms. On Sept 12, 2019 Christopher Hunt from Titan Technologies, NSW has demonstrated

“Bringing Silicon Valley thinking to Australian Agriculture” at Wireless Conference held at Meadowbank HE. He said Farmers, investors and developers came together recently at “AgTech Together” an event that was held at Cisco Systems, North Sydney to unite and ignite all those interested in the Agricultural Technology space. He has invited our TAFE NSW students and staff to join and develop partnerships and build a focused Agriculture Technology (AgTech) ecosystem by engaging with AgTech vendors, third-party application providers, device manufacturers, government representatives, advocates and investors.

You are required to write an individual report on IoT in Agriculture. Your report will address the following points. Our suggestion to get maximum marks for this assignment is that you should consider one or two points below and provide a deeper insight and research analysis on those points only rather than addressing all points at shallow level.

? Discuss the benefit of deploying the IoT technology in Agriculture

? Discuss availability and scalability in such deployments.

? Security concerns and vulnerability issues.

? What kind of platform would handle the Data from Agriculture Farms? What are the challenges?

? Which wireless technology can be used in Australian Farms of size varying from 2500 acres to 7000 acres? Why?

? To identify IoT tools/sensors to provide a high degree of efficiency allowing us to detect problems sooner than later e.g. fruit over ripening, water wastage in

irrigation etc.