WP1: Dependable wireless connectivity for farms
WP Leader: UOULU
Objectives
- Assess the communication key performance indicator (KPI) requirements and traffic patterns of agri-food embedded sensors and DMS
- Characterize the state-of-the-art connectivity performance at test areas
- Suggest methods to improve connectivity for DMS and agri-food sector
Description of content:
A lack of reliable connectivity hampers digitalisation of agri-food systems. Establishing reliable internet connection in livestock buildings is, therefore, a crucial, but challenging undertaking. WP1 comprehensively approaches this challenge and deals with analysing the status-quo in the involved farms. It suggests enhancement of the communication infrastructure within the barn, across the farm and from the farm to a data cloud and further. Benefitting from the unique consortium composition, WP1 also collects information about (i) the communication performance of state-of-the-art commercial technologies in agri-food locations, and (ii) the traffic patterns and communication requirements for today's agri-food digital tools. This use-case-specific information is crucial to understand the suitability of the existing communication technologies for the agri-food sector and to plan the evolution and customisation of novel wireless connectivity technologies (e.g., 6G) for agri-food use.
Role of the partners:
UOULU will carry out the analysis of the state-of-the-art and data provided by the partners and collected from open sources (e.g., mobile operators' coverage maps). They will suggest ways to improve communication performance based on identified shortcomings. AU will provide information modelling to design modified information flows and data specificity (type and content). The implementation of the selected modifications will be carried out by the operators of the farms together with the local research partners in the respective countries (i.e., MIGAL, TOGU, EMU, AKI, UPWr, UZ and ATB), and with reasonable support from UOULU. The experiments and tests (e.g., to assess the communication KPIs and their fluctuation in long-term operation) will be carried out jointly by UOULU and test farm operators. UOULU is responsible for D1.1-D.1.3, the achievement of which the involved partners support by providing input on the current connectivity ecosystem and required KPIs as well as by techno-economic assessment of communication improvements. All involved partners will carry the analysis of the agri-food communication requirements and state-of-the-art as well as the related publication jointly.
Task:
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Communication state-of-art analysis
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Communication improvements
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Connectivity for agri-food: lessons learned
Deliverables:
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Communication analysis report (internal document; after anonymisation extracts can be published as scientific publication) – describes the state-of-the-art communication ecosystem and KPIs
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Communication improvement report (internal documents; after anonymisation extracts can be published) - suggest improvements to state-of-the-art communication system for test farms
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Public summary of the lessons learned - anonymised document summarising learned lessons learned published open-access