IEEE MetroAgriFor 2025

Out-of-Band Over-The-Air-Update for LoRaWAN-based Sensor Networks using BLE

Internet of Things (IoT) enables intelligent data capture and analysis for many applications, including agriculture or forestry. Especially these two settings require robust and failsafe systems, requiring monitoring features as well as update functionality. This, however, is often neglected for one of the most popular communication technologies to build such systems: LoRa. Due to the low data rate and duty cycle restrictions, it is infeasible to upload new firmware onto LoRa-based systems in band using LoRa. As an alternative, we present an out-of band solution, where a second channel is used to upload the firmware, while default operation remains LoRa based. In our case, we chose Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as second channel due to its low power characteristic and comparatively higher data rate. We present the concept of this approach and first field trial results in this paper, and discuss the benefits for forestry applications. The peer-reviewed article is a result of the Waldmonitor project. 

Suitability of Radio Communication Technologies for Smart Orchards Considering Seasonal Effects

Orchards pose a special challenge to wireless communication technologies due to their 3D structure with trees that change the amount of obstacles (e.g. leaves) during the course of a season. Depending on the technology, this can lead to significant range reduction which needs to be considered when deploying nodes or planning sensor / actuator setups. While known in the wireless community, the actual effects within specific networks in orchards are often neglected leading to potentially poor network performance and thus data loss. In addition, the effects vary depending on which technology is applied but not everything fits every purpose. In this paper, we first use a measurement campaign to assess the impact of vegetation on a number of popular technologies and then discuss which ones are best for different application requirements to build robust communication networks for smart orchards. The peer-reviewed article is a result of the EXPRESS project.