supported by external data sources, such as the National Weather Service,
which further help determine the best course of action to maximize crop
yields.
Practical and Cost-Effective Data Capture
While the potential results of acting on the basis of this data-driven analysis
are readily apparent in this use case, the biggest technical question remains:
How can you capture the data in a practical, cost-effective manner?
Other key questions to consider: What density of sensor data is statistically
significant enough to make the data analysis compelling? Does the currently
available technology make the analysis both practical and cost-effective? How
quickly can the information be responded to? Will the workers in the field be
able to respond to and act on such a granular/
micro-level to plan and execute their daily activ-
ities quickly enough to make the endeavor
worthwhile? These are good questions for a team
of farmers, engineers and data scientists to
decide.
How can you
capture the data
in a practical,
cost-effective
manner?
A big part of the answer will also depend on the
technical solution required to capture the data.
This brings us back to that first big question:
How should you capture the data?
New IoT Standards
Traditional, low-cost communications technologies, such as WiFi and BLE,
work very well indoors, where bandwidth is relatively unlimited, power is gen-
erally available and continuous data streaming is both possible and
cost-effective.
WiFi and BLE are ill-suited, however, for working in outdoor, remote and open
spaces, where their power requirements and range profiles make them imprac-
tical. Clearly there is a need for a different architectural design approach that
can communicate outdoors and cover much more ground.
Enter the new IoT protocols and communication standards, such as LoRA, Sig-
fox, LTE-M and NB-IoT. All are designed to operate outdoors and cover rela-
tively long distances. All place a priority on power management over speed,
and they are all designed to securely move small quantities of data at a leisurely
pace. They are well-suited to communicating daily or hourly sensor readings
from outdoor, remote devices, but they are not designed to handle more band-
46 | THE DOPPLER | FALL 2018