IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud Environment
Research has shown the multitude of applications that Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and forecast technologies present in every sector. In agriculture, one application is the monitoring of factors that influence crop development to assist in making crop management decisions. Research on...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/24/7163 |
| _version_ | 1797544736138985472 |
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| author | Rodrigo Filev Maia Carlos Ballester Lurbe Arbind Agrahari Baniya John Hornbuckle |
| author_facet | Rodrigo Filev Maia Carlos Ballester Lurbe Arbind Agrahari Baniya John Hornbuckle |
| author_sort | Rodrigo Filev Maia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research has shown the multitude of applications that Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and forecast technologies present in every sector. In agriculture, one application is the monitoring of factors that influence crop development to assist in making crop management decisions. Research on the application of such technologies in agriculture has been mainly conducted at small experimental sites or under controlled conditions. This research has provided relevant insights and guidelines for the use of different types of sensors, application of a multitude of algorithms to forecast relevant parameters as well as architectural approaches of IoT platforms. However, research on the implementation of IoT platforms at the commercial scale is needed to identify platform requirements to properly function under such conditions. This article evaluates an IoT platform (IRRISENS) based on fully replicable microservices used to sense soil, crop, and atmosphere parameters, interact with third-party cloud services for scheduling irrigation and, potentially, control irrigation automatically. The proposed IoT platform was evaluated during one growing season at four commercial-scale farms on two broadacre irrigated crops with very different water management requirements (rice and cotton). Five main requirements for IoT platforms to be used in agriculture at commercial scale were identified from implementing IRRISENS as an irrigation support tool for rice and cotton production: scalability, flexibility, heterogeneity, robustness to failure, and security. The platform addressed all these requirements. The results showed that the microservice-based approach used is robust against both intermittent and critical failures in the field that could occur in any of the monitored sites. Further, processing or storage overload caused by datalogger malfunctioning or other reasons at one farm did not affect the platform’s performance. The platform was able to deal with different types of data heterogeneity. Since there are no shared microservices among farms, the IoT platform proposed here also provides data isolation, maintaining data confidentiality for each user, which is relevant in a commercial farm scenario. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:04:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2bdc471a9a3944cfbe08f030070af4a1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:04:40Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-2bdc471a9a3944cfbe08f030070af4a12023-11-21T00:44:35ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202020-12-012024716310.3390/s20247163IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud EnvironmentRodrigo Filev Maia0Carlos Ballester Lurbe1Arbind Agrahari Baniya2John Hornbuckle3Centre of Regional and Rural Future, Deakin University, Hanwood 2680, AustraliaCentre of Regional and Rural Future, Deakin University, Hanwood 2680, AustraliaCentre of Regional and Rural Future, Deakin University, Hanwood 2680, AustraliaCentre of Regional and Rural Future, Deakin University, Hanwood 2680, AustraliaResearch has shown the multitude of applications that Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and forecast technologies present in every sector. In agriculture, one application is the monitoring of factors that influence crop development to assist in making crop management decisions. Research on the application of such technologies in agriculture has been mainly conducted at small experimental sites or under controlled conditions. This research has provided relevant insights and guidelines for the use of different types of sensors, application of a multitude of algorithms to forecast relevant parameters as well as architectural approaches of IoT platforms. However, research on the implementation of IoT platforms at the commercial scale is needed to identify platform requirements to properly function under such conditions. This article evaluates an IoT platform (IRRISENS) based on fully replicable microservices used to sense soil, crop, and atmosphere parameters, interact with third-party cloud services for scheduling irrigation and, potentially, control irrigation automatically. The proposed IoT platform was evaluated during one growing season at four commercial-scale farms on two broadacre irrigated crops with very different water management requirements (rice and cotton). Five main requirements for IoT platforms to be used in agriculture at commercial scale were identified from implementing IRRISENS as an irrigation support tool for rice and cotton production: scalability, flexibility, heterogeneity, robustness to failure, and security. The platform addressed all these requirements. The results showed that the microservice-based approach used is robust against both intermittent and critical failures in the field that could occur in any of the monitored sites. Further, processing or storage overload caused by datalogger malfunctioning or other reasons at one farm did not affect the platform’s performance. The platform was able to deal with different types of data heterogeneity. Since there are no shared microservices among farms, the IoT platform proposed here also provides data isolation, maintaining data confidentiality for each user, which is relevant in a commercial farm scenario.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/24/7163IoT platformmicroservicesmart agricultureirrigated cropsagriculture 4.0 |
| spellingShingle | Rodrigo Filev Maia Carlos Ballester Lurbe Arbind Agrahari Baniya John Hornbuckle IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud Environment Sensors IoT platform microservice smart agriculture irrigated crops agriculture 4.0 |
| title | IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud Environment |
| title_full | IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud Environment |
| title_fullStr | IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud Environment |
| title_full_unstemmed | IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud Environment |
| title_short | IRRISENS: An IoT Platform Based on Microservices Applied in Commercial-Scale Crops Working in a Multi-Cloud Environment |
| title_sort | irrisens an iot platform based on microservices applied in commercial scale crops working in a multi cloud environment |
| topic | IoT platform microservice smart agriculture irrigated crops agriculture 4.0 |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/24/7163 |
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