Overview of wireless underground sensor networks for agriculture

Abstract

In recent years, many applications have been proposed for wireless sensor networks (WSN). One of these is agriculture, where WSN can play an important role in the handling and management of water resources for agricultural irrigation and so on. The WSN suffer from intensive human involvement and delay of information. This paper shows that the wireless underground sensor networks (WUSN), which communicates in the soil is different from the terrestrial WSN. WUSN devices are deployed completely below ground and do not require any wired connections. Each device contains all necessary sensors, memory, a processor, a radio, an antenna and a power source. Here, the WUSN architecture for agriculture information system is introduced. The framework to deploy and operate the WUSN is developed. Based on the framework, WUSN in different frequency, buried depth and volumetric water content of soil are tested and results are discussed.

Key words: Wireless sensor networks (WSN), information collection, agriculture, wireless underground sensor networks (WUSN), buried depth, sensor node.