Practical deployment of an in-field wireless sensor network in date palm orchard

Recent advances in agriculture-oriented sensors and wireless communication technologies offer great opportunities for the development and application of precision agriculture. This article describes our experience during the deployment of an experimental in-field sensor network that provided real-time monitoring in a 10-year-old date palm orchard. Taking into account the spatial variability of multiple growth-determining soil variables, the sub-regions of the sensor placement were determined by delineating the orchard into several monitoring zones. Then, the specific number of the required sensors was calculated based on the requirement of data accuracy. The sensors were distributed into the target orchard by combining the tree number with the coefficient variability of growth-determining soil variables in the monitoring zones. Finally, the networking was realized by means of synthesizing the received wireless signal strength distribution, the layout of monitoring zones, and the number of the required sensors. Some data from the deployed wireless sensor network are presented and discussed.