Module 4

Associated IoT
Technologies and IoT
Case Studies
Cloud Computing
• Key components of IoT - Sensor nodes .
• Sensor nodes are resource-constrained in terms of storage,
processing, and energy.
• In IoT, the devices are connected and communicate with one another
by sharing the sensed and processed data.
• Handling the enormous data generated by this large number of
heterogeneous devices is a non-trivial task.
• Cloud computing becomes an essential building block of the IoT
architecture.
 Cloud computing
• Cloud computing is more than traditional network computing.
• Cloud computing comprises a pool of multiple resources such as servers,
storage, and network from single/multiple organizations.
• These resources are allocated to the end users as per requirement, on a
payment basis.
• End user can request for customized resources such as storage space, RAM,
operating systems, and other software to a cloud service provider (CSP).
• Example: One user can request for a Linux operating system for running an
application from a CSP; another end user can request for Windows 10 operating
system from the same CSP for executing some application. The cloud services
are accessible from anywhere and at any time by an authorized user through
Internet connectivity.
Contd..
• Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter are examples of cloud computing
applications.
• Currently, many companies such as Amazon Web Service and
Microsoft Azure provide cloud services.
Network Computing
Cloud • Comprises a shared pool of computing
resources, which are accessible
Computing dynamically, ubiquitously, and on-demand
basis by the users.
• Shared pool of resources includes
networks, storage, processor, and servers.
These resources are accessible by multiple
users through a regular command-line
terminal at the same or different time
instants.
• The services of cloud computing are based
on the pay-per-use model.
• The concept is the same as paying utility
bills based on consumption.
• In cloud computing, a user pays for the
cloud services as per the duration of their
resource usage. On the other hand, there
is a CSP, that provides cloud services to
 Virtualization
• Key concept of cloud computing is virtualization.
• The technique of sharing a single resource among multiple end user
organizations or end users is known as virtualization.
• In the virtualization process, a physical resource is logically distributed among
multiple users.
• However, a user perceives that the resource is unlimited and is dedicatedly
provided to him/her.
• Traditional desktop - application (App) is running on top of an OS, and
resources are utilized only for that particular application.
• virtualization - multiple resources can be used by different end users through
virtualization software.
• Virtualization software separates the resources logically so that there is no
conflict among the users during resource utilization.
Traditional desktop versus
virtualization
Advantages of virtualization
• In IoT, a user is least bothered about where the data from different
heterogeneous devices are stored or processed for a particular application.
Users are mainly concerned for their services.
• There are different software such as VMware, which enable the concept of
virtualization.
• There is always a risk of system crash at any instant of time. In such a
scenario, cloud computing plays a vital role by keeping backups through
virtualization.
• Primarily, there are two entities in a cloud computing architecture: end users
and CSP. Both end users and CSP are benefited in several aspects through the
process of virtualization.
 Advantages of virtualization

The major advantages, from the perspective of the end user and CSP
(i) Advantages for End Users
(a) Variety
(b) Availability
(c) Portability
(d) Elasticity
(ii) Advantages for CSP
(a) Resource Utilization
(b) Effective Revenue Generation
(i)Advantages for End Users
(a) Variety
(b) Availability
(c) Portability
(d) Elasticity
 Variety
• Virtualization enables an end user organization to use various types of
applications based on the requirements.
Example
John takes up still photography as a hobby. His resource-limited PC can barely
handle the requirements for a photo editing software, say X-photoeditor.
In order to augment his PC’s regular performance, he uninstalls the X-
photoeditor software and purchases a cloud service, which lets him access a
virtual machine (VM). In his VM, he installs the X-photoeditor software, by
which he can edit photos efficiently and, most importantly, without worrying
about burdening his PC or running out of processing resources.
After six months, John’s interest in his hobby grows and he moves on to video-
editing too. For editing his captured videos, he installs a video editing software,
Y-videoeditor, in his VM and can edit videos efficiently. Additionally, he has the
option of installing and using a variety of software for different purposes.
 Availability
• Virtualization creates a logical separation of the resources of multiple entities
without any intervention of end users.
• Consequently, the concept of virtualization makes available a considerable
amount of resources as per user requirements.
• The end users feel that there are unlimited resources present dedicatedly for
him/her.
Example
Jane uses a particular email service. Her account has been active for over ten
years now; however, it offers limited storage of 2 GB. Due to the ever-
accumulating file attachments in different emails, her 2 GB complimentary space
is exhausted. However, there is a provision that if she pays $100 annually, she can
attach additional space to her mail service. This upgrade allows her to have more
storage at her disposal for a considerable time in the future.
 Portability
• Portability signifies the availability of cloud computing services from anywhere
in the world, at any instant of time.
Example
Person flying from the US to the UK still has access to their documents,
although they cannot physically access the devices on which the data is stored.
This has been made possible by platforms such as Google Drive.
 Elasticity
• End user can scale-up or scale-down resource utilization as per requirements.
• Cloud computing is based on a pay-per-use model.
• The end user needs to pay the amount based on their usage.
Example
Jack rents two VMs in a cloud computing infrastructure from a CSP.
VM1 has the Ubuntu operating system (OS), on which Jack is simulating a network
scenario using Network Simulator-2 (NS2).
VM2 has Windows 10 OS, on which he is running a MATLAB simulation.
However, after a few days, Jack feels that his VM2 has served its purpose and is no
longer required. Consequently, he releases VM2 and, after that, he is only billed
for VM1.
Thus, Jack can scale-up or scale-down his resources in cloud computing, which
employs the concept of virtualization.
(ii) Advantages for CSP

(a) Resource Utilization

(b) Effective Revenue Generation
 Resource Utilization
• CSP in a cloud computing architecture procures resources on their own or get
them from third parties.
• These resources are distributed among different users dynamically as per their
requirements.
• A segment of a particular resource provided to a user at a time instant, can be
provided to another user at a different time instant.
• Thus, in the cloud computing architecture, resources can be re-utilized for
multiple users.
 Effective Revenue Generation

• A CSP generates revenue from the end users based on resource utilization.

Example
Today, a user A is utilizing storage facility from a particular CSP. The user will
release the storage after a few days when his/her requirement is complete. The
CSP earns some revenue from user A for the utilization of the allocated storage
facility.
In the future, the CSP can provide the same storage facility to a different user, B.
Again, the CSP can generate revenue from user B for his/her storage utilization.
Types of virtualization
• Hardware Virtualization
• Storage Virtualization
• Application Virtualization
• Desktop Virtualization
 Hardware Virtualization
• Indicates the sharing of hardware resources among multiple users.
Example
Single processor appears as many different processors in a cloud
computing architecture.

Different operating systems can be installed in these processors and each

of them can work as stand-alone machines
 Storage Virtualization
• The storage space from different entities are accumulated virtually, and
seem like a single storage location.
• Through storage virtualization, a user’s documents or files exist in different
locations in a distributed fashion.
• However, the users are under the impression that they have a single
dedicated storage space provided to them.
 Application Virtualization
• Single application is stored at the cloud end.
• However, as per requirement, a user can use the application in his/her local
computer without ever actually installing the application.
• Similar to storage virtualization, in application virtualization, the users get the
impression that applications are stored and executed in their local computer.
Desktop Virtualization
• Allows a user to access and utilize the services of a desktop that
resides at the cloud.
• The users can use the desktop from their local desktop.
 Cloud Models
As per the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Cloud Computing
Standards Roadmap Working Group, the cloud model can be divided into two parts:

(1) Service model

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
(2) Deployment model
• Private cloud
• Community cloud
• Public cloud
• Hybrid cloud
 (1) Service model

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• Provides access to different software
applications to an end user through Internet
connectivity.
• For accessing the service, a user does not need
to purchase and install the software
applications on his/her local desktop.
• The software is located in a cloud server, from
where the services are provided to multiple
end users.
• SaaS offers scalability, by which users have the
provision to use multiple software applications
as per their requirements.
• Additionally, a user does not need to worry
about the update of the software applications.
• These software are accessible from any
location. One example of SaaS is Microsoft
Office 365.
 Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• PaaS provides a computing platform, by
which a user can develop and run different
applications.
• The cloud user need not go through the
burden of installing and managing the
infrastructure such as operating system,
storage, and networks.
• However, the users can develop and
manage the applications that are running
on top of it.
Example - Google App Engine.
 Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS):
• Provides infrastructure such as
storage, networks, and computing
resources.
• A user uses the infrastructure without
purchasing the software and other
network components.
• In the infrastructure provided by a
CSP, a user can use any composition of
the operating system and software.
Example - Google Compute Engine.
(2) Deployment model

(a) Private Cloud: This type of cloud is owned explicitly by an end user organization. The
internal resources of the organization maintain the private cloud.

(b) Community Cloud: This cloud forms with the collaboration of a set of organizations
for a specific community. For a community cloud, each organization has some shared
interests.

(c) Public Cloud: The public cloud is owned by a third party organization, which provides
services to the common public. The service of this cloud is available for any user, on a
payment basis.

(d) Hybrid Cloud: This type of cloud comprises two or more clouds (private, public, or
community).
 Service-Level Agreement in Cloud Computing
• The most important actors in cloud computing are the end user/customer and
CSP.
• Cloud computing architecture aims to provide optimal and efficient services to
the end users and generate revenue from them as per their usage.
• Therefore, for a clear understanding between CSP and the customer about the
services, an agreement is required to be made, which is known as service-level
agreement (SLA).
• An SLA provides a detailed description of the services that will be received by
the customer.
• Based on the SLA, a customer can be aware of each and every term and
condition of the services before availing them.
• An SLA may include multiple organizations for making the legal contract with
the customers.
 Importance of SLA
An SLA is essential in cloud computing architecture for both CSP and
customers. It is important because of the following reasons:
• Customer Point of View: Each CSP has its SLA, which contains a detailed
description of the services. If a customer wants to use a cloud service, he/she
can compare the SLAs of different organizations. Therefore, a customer can
choose a preferred CSP based on the SLAs.
• CSP Point of View: In many cases, certain performance issues may occur for a
particular service, because of which a CSP may not be able to provide the
services efficiently. Thus, in such a situation, a CSP can explicitly mention in the
SLA that they are not responsible for inefficient service.
 Metrics for SLA
Depending on the type of services, an SLA is constructed with different metrics.
(i) Availability: This metric signifies the amount of time the service will be
accessible for the customer.
(ii) Response Time: The maximum time that will be taken for responding to a
customer request is measured by response time.
(iii) Portability: This metric indicates the flexibility of transferring the data to
another service.
(iv) Problem Reporting: How to report a problem, whom and how to be
contacted, is explained in this metric.
(v) Penalty: The penalty for not meeting the promises mentioned in the SLA.
 Cloud simulation
• With the rapid deployment of IoT infrastructure for different applications, the
requirement for cloud computing is also increasing.
• It is challenging to estimate the performance of an IoT system with the cloud
before real implementation.
• Real deployment of the cloud is a complex and costly procedure. Thus, there
is a requirement for simulating the system through a cloud simulator before
real implementation.
• There are many cloud simulators that provide pre-deployment test services
for repeatable performance evaluation of a system.
 Advantages of cloud simulator
• Pre-deployment test before real implementation
• System testing at no cost
• Repeatable evaluation of the system
• Pre-detection of issues that may affect the system performance
• Flexibility to control the environment
Types of cloud simulators
(i) CloudSim
(ii) CloudAnalyst
(iii) GreenCloud
 CloudSim
(a) Description:
• Cloud simulator developed at the University of Melbourne.
• Written in a Java-based environment.
• User is allowed to add or remove resources dynamically during the simulation and
evaluate the performance of the scenario.
(b) Features:
• Provides various cloud computing data centers along with different data center network
topologies in a simulation environment.
• Virtualization of server hosts can be done in a simulation.
• User is able to allocate virtual machines (VMs) dynamically.
• Allows users to define their own policies for the allocation of host resources to VMs.
• Provides flexibility to add or remove simulation components dynamically.
• User can stop and resume the simulation at any instant of time.
 CloudAnalyst
Description:
• This simulator provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for simulating a cloud
environment, easily.
• Used for simulating large-scale cloud applications.
Features:
• Easy to use due to the presence of the GUI.
• Allows user to add components and provides a flexible and high level of
configuration.
• User can perform repeated experiments, considering different parameter values.
• Provides graphical output, including a chart and table.
 GreenCloud
Description:
• Developed as an extension of a packet level network simulator, NS2.
• This simulator can monitor the energy consumption of different network components
such as servers and switches.
Features:
• Open-source simulator with user-friendly GUI.
• Provides facility for monitoring the energy consumption of the network and
its various components.
• Supports simulations of cloud network components.
• Enables improved power management schemes.
• Allows user to manage and configure devices, dynamically, in simulation.
 Open-source cloud: OpenStack
• For the real implementation of cloud, there are various open-source cloud
platforms available such as OpenStack, CloudStack, and Eucalyptus.
• OpenStack is free software, which provides a cloud IaaS to users. A user can
easily use this cloud with the help of a GUI-based web interface or through the
command line.
• OpenStack supports a vastly scalable cloud system, in which different pre-
configured software suites are available.
• The service components of OpenStack along with their functions are depicted
in Table 10.1. Features of OpenStack
 Features of OpenStack
(i) Allows user to create and deploy virtual machines.
(ii) Provides the flexibility of setting up a cloud management environment.
(iii) Supports easy horizontal scaling: dynamic addition or removal
of instances for providing services to multiple numbers of users.
(iv) Allows users to access the source code and share their code to the
community.
Service components of OpenStack
 Commercial cloud

Commercial cloud infrastructures

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Microsoft Azure
• Google App Engine.
 Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• User can launch and manage server instances in AWS. Typically, a web
interface is used to handle the instances.
• Provides different APIs (application programming interfaces), tools, and
utilities for users.
• Follows the pay-per-use model.
• Provides a virtual computing environment, where different
configurations, such as CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity
are available.
 Features of AWS
i) Provides flexibility to scale and manage the server capacity.
(ii) Provides control to OS and deployment software.
(iii) Follows the pay-per-use model.
(iv) Cloud allows a user to establish connectivity between the physical network
and private virtual network
(v) The developer tools in this cloud infrastructure help a user for fast development
and deployment of the software.
(vi) Provides excellent management tools, which help a user to monitor and
automate different components of the cloud.
(vii) The cloud provides machine learning facilities, which are very useful for data
scientists and developers.
(viii) For extracting meaning from data, analytics play an important role. AWS also
provides a data analytics platform.
 Sensor-Cloud: Sensors-as-a-Service
• Virtualization of resources is the backbone of cloud computing.
• Similarly, in a sensor-cloud, virtualization of sensors plays an essential role in
providing services to multiple users.
• Typically, in a sensor-cloud architecture, multiple users receive services from
different asensor nodes, simultaneously.
• However, the users remain oblivious to the fact that a set of sensor nodes is not
dedicated solely to them for their application requirements.
• In reality, a particular sensor may be used for serving multiple user applications,
simultaneously.
• The main aim of sensor-cloud infrastructure is to provide an opportunity for the
common mass to use Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) on a payment basis.
• Sensor-cloud architecture follows the pay-per-use model.
 Importance of sensor-cloud
• The sensor-cloud infrastructure is based on the concept of cloud computing, in
which a user application is served by a set of homogeneous or heterogeneous
sensor nodes.
• These sensor nodes are selected from a common pool of sensor nodes, as per
the requirement of user applications.
• Using the sensor-cloud infrastructure, a user receives data for an application
from multiple sensor nodes without owning them.
• Unlike sensor-cloud, if a user wants to use traditional WSN for a certain
application, he/she has to go through different pre-deployment and post-
deployment hurdles.
 Case Study
John is a farmer, and he has a significantly vast farmable area with him. As
manual supervision of the entire field is very difficult, he has planned to deploy a
WSN in his farming field. Before purchasing the WSN, he has to decide which
sensors should be used in his fields for sensing the different agricultural
parameters.
Additionally, he has to decide the type and number of other components such as
an electronics circuit board and communication module required along with the
sensors. As there are numerous vendors, it is challenging for him to choose the
correct (in terms of quality and cost) vendor, as well as the sensor owner from
whom the WSN will be procured.
He finally decides the type of sensors along with the other components that are
required for monitoring his agricultural field. Now, John faces the difficulty of
optimally planning the sensor node deployment in his fields. After going through
these hurdles, he decides on the number of sensor nodes that are required for
monitoring his field.
Finally, John procures the WSNs from a vendor. After procurement, he deploys the
sensor nodes and connects different components. As WSN consists of different
electronic components, he has to maintain the WSN after its deployment. After
three months, as his requirement of agricultural field monitoring is completed, he
removes the WSN from the agricultural field.

Six months later, John plans to use the WSN that was deployed in the agricultural
field for home surveillance. As the agriculture application is different from the
home surveillance application, the sensor required for the system also changes.

Thus, John has to go through all the steps again, including maintenance,
deployment, and hardware management, for the surveillance system.
Thus, we observe that the users face different responsibilities for using a WSN
for an application. In such a situation, if sensor-cloud architecture is present,
John can easily use WSNs for his application on a rental basis. Moreover,
through the use of sensor-cloud, John can easily switch the application without
any manual intervention. On the other end, service providers of the sensor-
cloud infrastructure may serve multiple users with the same sensors and earn
profit.
Traditional WSN
Sensor cloud
 Architecture of a sensor-cloud
platform
• In a traditional cloud computing architecture, two actors, cloud service
provider (CSP) and end users (customer) play the key role.
• Unlike cloud computing, in sensor-cloud architecture, the sensor owners
play an important role along with the service provider and end users.
• However, a service provider in sensor-cloud architecture is known as a
sensor-cloud service provider (SCSP). The detailed architecture of a
sensor-cloud is depicted in Figure 10.7.
Architecture of a sensor-cloud
platform
Actors in sensor-cloud architecture
Typically, in a sensor-cloud architecture, three actors are present

(i) End User

(ii) Sensor Owner

(iii) Sensor-Cloud Service Provider (SCSP)

 End User
• Also known as a customer of the sensor-cloud services.
• End user registers him/herself with the infrastructure through a Web
portal.
• Thereafter, he/she chooses the template of the services that are
available in the sensor-cloud architecture to which he/she is registered.
• Finally, through the Web portal, the end user receives the services
• Based on the type and usage duration of service, the end user pays the
charges to the SCSP.
 Sensor Owner
• Sensor-cloud architecture is based on the concept of Se-aaS (Sensors-as-a-
Service).
• Deployment of the sensors is essential in order to provide services to the end
users.
• These sensors in a sensor cloud architecture are owned and deployed by the
sensor owners.
• A particular sensor owner can own multiple homogeneous or heterogeneous
sensor nodes.
• Based on the requirements of the users, these sensor nodes are virtualized
and assigned to serving multiple applications at the same time.
• On the other hand, a sensor owner receives rent depending upon the
duration and usage of his/her sensor node(s).
 Sensor-Cloud Service Provider (SCSP)
• Responsible for managing the entire sensor-cloud infrastructure (including
management of sensor owners and end users handling, resource handling,
database management, cloud handling etc.), centrally.
• SCSP receives rent from end users with the help of a pre-defined pricing model.
• The pricing scheme may include the infrastructure cost, sensor owners’ rent,
and the revenue of the SCSP.
• Typically, different algorithms are used for managing the entire infrastructure.
• The SCSP receives the rent from the end users and shares a partial amount
with the sensor owners.
• The remaining amount is used for maintaining the infrastructure.
• In the process, the SCSP earns a certain amount of revenue from the payment
of the end users.
Sensor-Cloud Architecture from
Different Viewpoints
Sensor-cloud architecture is explored from two view points:

(i) User organizational view and

(ii) Real architectural view

Sensor-cloud architecture
 User Organizational View
• This view of sensor-cloud architecture is simple.
• In a sensor-cloud, end users interact with a Web interface for selecting
templates of the services.
• Thereafter, the services are received by the end users through the Web
interface.
• In this architecture, an end user is unaware of the complex processes that are
running at the back end.
 Real Architectural View
• The complex processing of sensor-cloud architecture is visualized through
this view.
• The processes include sensor allocation, data extraction from the sensors,
virtualization of sensor nodes, maintenance of the infrastructure, data
center management, data caching, and others.

• For each process, there is a specific algorithm or scheme

 Agricultural IoT
• The development of the IoT paradigm helps in precision farming.
• Agricultural loT systems perform crop health monitoring, water management,
crop security, farming vehicle tracking, automatic seeding, and automatic
pesticide spraying over the agricultural fields.
• In an IoT based agricultural system, different sensors necessarily have to be
deployed over agricultural fields, and the sensed data from these sensors
need to be transmitted to a centralized entity such as a server, cloud, or fog
devices.
• Further, these data have to be processed and analyzed to provide various
agricultural services.
• Finally, a user should be able to access these services from handheld devices
or computers.
Architecture of agricultural IoT
 Components of an agricultural IoT
• The development of an agricultural IoT has helped farmers enhance crop
productivity and reduce the overhead of manual operations of the
agricultural equipment in the fields.
• Different components such as analytics, drone, cloud computing, sensors,
hand-held devices, and wireless connectivity enable agricultural IoT.
Components of agricultural IoT
The different components of an agricultural IoT are

• Cloud computing
• Sensors
• Cameras
• Satellites
• Analytics
• Wireless connectivity
• Handheld devices
• Drones
 Cloud computing
• Sensors such as the camera, devices to measure soil moisture, soil humidity,
and soil pH-level are used for serving different agricultural applications.
• These sensors produce a huge amount of agricultural data that need to be
analyzed.
• Sometimes, based on the data analysis, action needs to be taken, such as
switching on the water pump for irrigation.
• Further, the data from the deployed sensors are required to be stored on a
long-term basis since it may be useful for serving future applications.
• Thus, for agricultural data analysis and storage, the cloud plays a crucial role.
Sensors
• Sensors are the major backbone of any IoT application.
• For agricultural IoT applications, the sensors are an indispensable
component.
• Common sensors used in agriculture are sensors for soil moisture,
humidity, water level, and temperature.
Cameras
• Imaging is one of the main components of agriculture.
• Multispectral, thermal, and RGB cameras are commonly used for
scientific agricultural IoT.
• These cameras are used for estimating the nitrogen status, thermal
stress, water stress, and crop damage due to inundation, as well as
infestation.
• Video cameras are used for crop security
Satellites
• In modern precision agriculture, satellites are extensively used to
extract information from field imagery.
• The satellite images are used in agricultural applications to monitor
different aspects of the crops such as crop health monitoring and dry
zone assessing over a large area.
 Analytics

• Analytics contribute to modern agriculture massively.

• With the help of analytics, farmers can take different agricultural decisions,
such as estimating the required amount of fertilizer and water in an
agricultural field and estimating the type of crops that need to be cultivated
during the upcoming season.
• Moreover, analytics is not only responsible for making decisions locally; it is
used to analyze data for the entire agricultural supply chain.
• Data analytics can also be used for estimating the crop demand in the market.
 Wireless connectivity
• One of the main components of agricultural IoT is wireless connectivity.
• Wireless connectivity enables the transmission of the agricultural sensor
data from the field to the cloud/server.
• It also enables farmers to access various application services over
handheld devices, which rely on wireless connectivity for communicating
with the cloud/server.
Handheld devices
• Over the last few years, e-agriculture has become very popular.
• One of the fundamental components of e-agriculture is a handheld
device such as a smartphone.
• Farmers can access different agricultural information, such as soil and
crop conditions of their fields and market tendency, over their
smartphones.
• Additionally, farmers can also control different field equipment, such
as pumps, from their phones.
 Drones
• Currently, the use of drones has become very attractive in different
applications such as surveillance, healthcare, product delivery, photography,
and agriculture.
• Drone imaging is an alternative to satellite imaging in agriculture.
• In continuation to providing better resolution land mapping visuals, drones
are used in agriculture for crop monitoring, pesticide spraying, and
irrigation.
 Agricultural food chain (agri-chain)
• An agricultural food chain (agri-chain) represents the different stages that
are involved in agricultural activity right from the agricultural fields to the
consumers.

In the agri-chain
• Farming (First stage)
• Transport
• Storage
• Processing
• Logistics
• Market
Use of IoT components in the agricultural chain
 Farming
• In the agri-chain, we consider farming as the first stage.
• In farming, various operations, such as seeding,
irrigation, fertilizer spreading, and pesticide spraying,
are involved.
• For performing these operations, different IoT
components are used.
• For monitoring the soil health, soil moisture and
temperature sensors are used; drones are used for
spraying pesticides; and through wireless connectivity,
a report on on-field soil conditions is sent directly to a
users’ handheld device or cloud.
 Transport
• After farming, the next stage in the agri-chain is transport.
• Transport indicates the transfer of crops from the field to the
local storage, and after that, to long-term storage locations.
• In transport, smart vehicles can automatically load and unload
crops.
• The global positioning system (GPS) plays an important role by
tracking these smart devices, and radio frequency identification
(RFID) is used to collect information regarding the presence of
a particular container of a crop at a warehouse.
Storage
• Storage is responsible for storing crops on a long term
basis.
• Typically, cold storage is used for preserving the crops for
a long time and providing them with the necessary
climatic and storage conditions and protection.
• In the storage, cameras are used to keep a check and
protect the harvested crops.
• The camera feeds are transferred through wireless
connectivity to a remote server or a cloud infrastructure.
• Moreover, the amount and type of crops stored in a
storage location are tracked and recorded with the help
of sensors and cloud computing.
• For pushing the crops into the market, processing plays
a crucial role in an agri-chain
Processing
• Processing includes proper drying and
packaging of crops.
• For drying and packaging, different
sensors are used.
• Packaging is the immediate operation
prior to pushing the crop into the
market.
• Thus, it is essential to track every
package and store all the details related
to the crops in the cloud.
 Logistics
• Logistics enables the transfer of the packed crops to the
market with the help of smart vehicles.
• These smart vehicles are equipped with different sensors
that help in loading and unloading the packed crop
autonomously.
• Additionally, GPS is used in these smart vehicles for
locating the position of the packed crops at any instant and
tracking their whereabouts.
• All the logistical information gets logged in the cloud with
the help of wireless connectivity.
• Finally, the packed items reach the market using logistical
channels.
Market

• From the market, these items are

accessible to consumers.
• The details of the sale and purchase of
the items are stored in the form of
records in the cloud.
Advantages of IoT in agriculture
(i) Automatic seeding
(ii) Efficient fertilizer and pesticide distribution
(iii) Water management
(iv) Real-time and remote monitoring
(v) Easy yield estimation
(vi) Production overview
Automatic seeding
• IoT-based agricultural systems are capable of autonomous seeding
and planting over the agricultural fields.
• These systems significantly reduce manual effort, error probability,
and delays in seeding and planting.
Efficient fertilizer and pesticide
distribution
• Agricultural IoT has been used to develop solutions that are capable
of applying and controlling the amount of fertilizers and pesticides
efficiently.
• These solutions are based on the analysis of crop health.
 Water management
• The excess distribution of water in the agricultural fields may affect the growth
of crops.
• On the other hand, the availability of global water resources is finite.
• The constraint of limited and often scarce usable water resources is an
influential driving factor for the judicious and efficient distribution of
agricultural water resources.
• Using the various solutions available for agricultural IoT, water can be
distributed efficiently, all the while, increasing field productivity and yields.
• The IoT-enabled agricultural systems are capable of monitoring the water level
and moisture in the soil, and accordingly, distribute the water to the
agricultural fields.
Real-time and remote monitoring
• Unlike traditional agriculture, in IoT-based farming, a stakeholder can
remotely monitor different agricultural parameters, such as crop and
soil conditions, plant health, and weather conditions.
• Moreover, using a smart handheld device (e.g., cellphone), a farmer
can actuate on-field farming machinery such as a water pump, valves,
and other pieces of machinery.
Easy yield estimation
• Agricultural IoT solutions can be used to record and aggregate data,
which may be spatially or temporally diverse, over long periods.
• These records can be used to come up with various estimates related
to farming and farm management.
• The most prominent among these estimates is crop yield, which is
done based on established crop models and historical trends.
 Production overview
• The detailed analysis of crop production, market rates, and market
demand are essential factors for a farmer to estimate optimized crop
yields and decide upon the essential steps for future cropping practices.
• Unlike traditional practices, IoT-based agriculture acts as a force
multiplier for farmers by enabling them to have a stronger hold on their
farming as well as crop management practices, and that too mostly
autonomously.
• Agricultural IoT provides a detailed product overview on the farmers’
handheld devices.
Case Studies
Case studies provides an overview of real implementation of IoT
infrastructure for agriculture.

• In-situ assessment of leaf area index using IoT-based agricultural system

• Smart irrigation management system
 In-situ assessment of leaf area index
using IoT-based agricultural system
• IoT-based agricultural system : developed by Bauer et al.
• The authors focus on the in-situ assessment of the leaf area index (LAI), which
is considered as an essential parameter for the growth of most crops. LAI is a
dimensionless quantity which indicates the total leaf area per unit ground
area.
• For determining the canopy (the portion of the plant, which is above the
ground) light, LAI plays an essential role.
 Architecture
• The authors integrated the hardware and software components of their
implementation in order to develop the IoT-based agricultural system for LAI
assessment.
• Important components in this system is the wireless sensor network (WSN),
which is used as the LAI assessment unit.
• Two types of sensors: (i) ground-level sensor (G) and (ii) reference sensor (R).
• These sensors are used to measure photosynthetically active radiation (PAR).
• The distance between the two types of sensors must be optimal so that these
are not located very far from one another.
• In this system, the above-ground sensor (R) acts as a cluster head while the
other sensor nodes (Gs) are located below the canopy.
• These Gs and R connect and form a star topology
• A solar panel is used to charge the cluster head.
• The system is based on IoT architecture. Therefore, a cluster head is
attached to a central base station, which acts as a gateway.
• This gateway connects to an IoT infrastructure.
Contd..

System architecture
 Hardware
• For sensing and transmitting the data from the deployment fields to a centralized
unit, such as a server and a cloud, different hardware components are used in the
system.
• The commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) TelosB platform is used in the system.
• The TelosB motes are equipped with three types of sensors: temperature, humidity,
and light sensors.
• With the help of an optical filter and diffuser accessory on the light sensors, the PAR
is calculated to estimate the LAI.
• The system is based on the cluster concept.
• A Raspberry-Pi is used as a cluster head, which connects with four ground sensor
motes.
• The Raspberry-Pi is a tiny single board, which works as a computer and is used to
perform different operations in IoT.
• Humidity and wet plants intermittently cause attenuation to the system, which is
minimized with the help of forward error coding (FEC) technique.
• The real deployment of the LAI assessment system involves various
environmental and wild-life challenges.
• Therefore, for reliable data delivery, the authors take the redundant
approach of using both wired and wireless connectivity.
• In the first deployment generation, USB power supply is used to power-
up the sensors motes. Additionally, the USB is used for configuring the
sensor board and accessing the failure as per requirement. In this setup,
a mechanical timer is used to switch off the sensor nodes during the
night.
• In the second deployment generation, the cluster is formed with wireless
connectivity. The ground sensor motes consist of external antennas,
which help to communicate with the cluster head. A Raspberry-Pi with
long-term evolution (LTE) is used as a gateway in this system.
 Communication
• LAI system consists of multiple components, such as WSN, IoT gateway, and IoT
based network.
• All of these components are connected through wired or wireless links.
• The public land mobile network (PLMN) is used to establish connectivity
between external IoT networks and the gateway.
• The data are analyzed and visualized with the help of a farm management
information system (FMIS), which resides in the IoT-based infrastructure.
• Further, a prevalent data transport protocol: MQTT, is used in the system.
MQTT is a very light-weight, publish/subscribe messaging protocol, which is
widely used for different IoT applications. The wireless LAN is used for
connecting the cluster head with a gateway.
• The TelosB motes are based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol
 Software
• Software is an essential part of the system by which different operations of the system are
executed.
• In order to operate the TelosB motes, TinyOS, an open-source, low-power operating system,
is used. This OS is widely used for different WSN applications. Typically, in this system, the
data acquired from the sensor node is stored with a timestamp and sequence number (SN).
• For wired deployments (the first generation deployment), the sampling rate used is 30
samples/hour.
• However, in the wireless deployment (the second generation), the sampling rate is
significantly reduced to 6 samples/hour.
• The TinyOS is capable of activating low-power listening modes of a mote, which is used for
switching a mote into low-power mode during its idle state.
• In the ground sensor, TelosB motes broadcast the data frame, and the cluster head
(Raspberry-Pi) receives it. This received data is transmitted to the gateway.
• Besides acquiring ground sensor data, the Raspberry-Pi works as a cluster head.
• In this system, the cluster head can re-boot any affected ground sensor node automatically.
 IoT Architecture
• The MQTT broker runs in the Internet server of the system.
• This broker is responsible for receiving the data from the WSN.
• In the system, the graphical user interface (GUI) is built using an Apache
server.
• The visualization of the data is performed at the server itself.
• Further, when a sensor fails, the server informs the users.
• The server can provide different system-related information to the
smartphone of the registered user.
 Smart irrigation management
system
• In precision agriculture, the regular monitoring of different agricultural
parameters, such as water level, soil moisture, fertilizers, and soil
temperature are essential.
• Moreover, for monitoring these agricultural parameters, a farmer needs to go
to his/her field and collect the data.
• Excess water supply in the agricultural field can damage the crops. On the
other hand, insufficient water supply in the agricultural field also affects the
healthy growth of crops.
• Thus, efficient and optimized water supply in the agricultural field is essential.
• This case study highlights a prototype of an irrigation management system
developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, funded by the
Government of India.
• The primary objective of this system is to provide a Web-based platform to
the farmer for managing the water supply of an irrigated agricultural field.
• The system is capable of providing a farmer-friendly interface by which the
field condition can be monitored.
• With the help of this system, a farmer can take the necessary decision for the
agricultural field based on the analysis of the data.
• However, the farmer need not worry about the complex background
architecture of the system.
• It is an affordable solution for the farmers to access the agricultural field data
easily and remotely.
 Architecture
• The architecture of this system consists of three layers: Sensing and
actuating layer, remote processing and service layer, and application layer.
• These layers perform dedicated tasks depending on the requirements of
the system.
• The detailed functionalities of different layers of this system are as
follows:
• Sensing and Actuating layer
• Processing and Service layer
• Application layer
 Sensing and Actuating layer
• This layer deals with different physical devices, such as sensor nodes, actuators, and
communication modules.
• In the system, a specially designated sensor node works as a cluster head to collect data from
other sensor nodes, which are deployed on the field for sensing the value of soil moisture and
water level.
• A cluster head is equipped with two communication module: ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) and General
Packet Radio Service (GPRS).
• The communication between the deployed sensor nodes and the cluster head takes place with the
help of ZigBee.
• Further, the cluster heads use GPRS to transmit data to the remote server.
• An electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), integrated with the cluster
head, stores a predefined threshold value of water levels and soil moisture.
• When the sensed value of the deployed sensor node drops below this predefined threshold value,
a solenoid (pump) activates to start the irrigation process.
• In the system, the standard EC-05 soil moisture sensor is used along with the water level sensor,
which is specifically designed and developed for this project. A water level sensor is shown in
Figure 12.6(a).
 Processing and Service layer
• This layer acts as an intermediate layer between the sensing and
actuating layer and the application layer.
• The sensed and process data is stored in the server for future use.
• Moreover, these data are accessible at any time from any remote
location by authorized users.
• Depending on the sensed values from the deployed sensor nodes, the
pump actuates to irrigate the field. A processing board as depicted in
Figure 12.6(b) is developed for the project.
 Application layer
• The farmer can access the status of the pump, whether it is in switch on/off,
and the value of different soil parameters from his/her cell phone.
• This information is accessible with the help of the integrated GSM facility of
the farmers’ cell phone.
• Additionally, an LED array indicator and LCD system is installed in the farmers’
house.
• Using the LCD and LED, a farmer can easily track the condition of his
respective fields.
• Apart from this mechanism, a farmer can manually access field information
with the help of a Web-based application.
• Moreover, the farmer can control the pump using his/her cell phone from a
remote location.
 Deployment

• The system has been deployed and experimented in two agricultural fields: (i)
an agricultural field at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT
Kharagpur), India, and (ii) Benapur, a village near IIT Kharagpur, India.
• Both the agricultural fields were divided into 10 equal sub-fields of 3 3m2.
• In order to examine the performance, the system was deployed at over 4 sub-
fields.
• Each of these sub-fields consists of a solenoid valve, a water level sensor, and a
soil moisture sensor, along with a processing board.
• On the other hand, the remaining six sub-fields were irrigated through a
manual conventional irrigation process.
• The comparison analysis between these six and four fields summarily reports
that the designed system’s performance is superior to the conventional manual
process of irrigation.