Efficient Use of Wireless Sensors for Data Collection in Precision Agriculture

This paper looks at how to optimize data collection from the wireless sensor nodes and analysis of this data for an efficient irrigation scheduling in order to optimize water usage. In this research we design a model system which integrates optimum node placement and data aggregation to see the combined effect on the efficiency of the wireless sensor network (WSN) that is in terms of latency, power consumption and utilization, network life span (i.e. node mortality). Issues looked into included the optimum placement of the sensor nodes, traffic aggregation and protocols for cooperative data forwarding. Models of different topologies were designed and evaluated through simulations to come up with the best model that achieves optimum placement to minimize the number of nodes without compromising on the readings as well as incorporating data forwarding and aggregation. The model was cost effective as it displayed significant improvement in efficiency, power utilization, consumption, network lifetime and can be adopted for ordinary farmers in developing countries like Zimbabwe.