Internet of Things for the Future of Smart Agriculture: A Comprehensive Survey of Emerging Technologies

Funds: This work was supported in part by the Research Start-Up Fund for Talent Researcher of Nanjing Agricultural University (77H0603) and in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62072248)

• Author Bio:Othmane Friha received the master degree in computer science from Badji Mokhtar-Annaba University, Algeria, in 2018. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the University of Badji Mokhtar-Annaba, Algeria. His current research interests include network and computer security, internet of things (IoT), and applied cryptography Mohamed Amine Ferrag received the bachelor degree (June, 2008), master degree (June, 2010), Ph.D. degree (June, 2014), HDR degree (April, 2019) from Badji Mokhtar-Annaba University, Algeria, all in computer science. Since October 2014, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, Guelma University, Algeria. Since July 2019, he is a Visiting Senior Researcher, NAULincoln Joint Research Center of Intelligent Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University. His research interests include wireless network security, network coding security, and applied cryptography. He is featured in Stanford University’s list of the world’s Top 2% Scientists for the year 2019. He has been conducting several research projects with international collaborations on these topics. He has published more than 60 papers in international journals and conferences in the above areas. Some of his research findings are published in top-cited journals, such as the IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, IEEE Access, Journal of Information Security and Applications (Elsevier), Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies (Wiley), Telecommunication Systems (Springer), International Journal of Communication Systems (Wiley), Sustainable Cities and Society (Elsevier), Security and Communication Networks (Wiley), and Journal of Network and Computer Applications (Elsevier). He has participated in many international conferences worldwide, and has been granted short-term research visitor internships to many renowned universities including, De Montfort University, UK, and Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. He is currently serving on various editorial positions such as Editorial Board Member in Journals (Indexed SCI and Scopus) such as, IET Networks and International Journal of Internet TechnologyandSecured Transactions (Inderscience Publishers) Lei Shu (M’07–SM’15) received the B.S. degree in computer science from South Central University for Nationalities in 2002, and the M.S. degree in computer engineering from Kyung Hee University, South Korea, in 2005, and the Ph.D. degree from the Digital Enterprise Research Institute, National University of Ireland, Ireland, in 2010. Until 2012, he was a Specially Assigned Researcher with the Department of Multimedia Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Japan. He is currently a Distinguished Professor with Nanjing Agricultural University and a Lincoln Professor with the University of Lincoln, U.K. He is also the Director of the NAU-Lincoln Joint Research Center of Intelligent Engineering. He has published over 400 papers in related conferences, journals, and books in the areas of sensor networks and internet of things (IoT). His current H-index is 54 and i10-index is 197 in Google Scholar Citation. His current research interests include wireless sensor networks and IoT. He has also served as a TPC Member for more than 150 conferences, such as ICDCS, DCOSS, MASS, ICC, GLOBECOM, ICCCN, WCNC, and ISCC. He was a Recipient of the 2014 Top Level Talents in Sailing Plan of Guangdong Province, China, the 2015 Outstanding Young Professor of Guangdong Province, and the GLOBECOM 2010, ICC 2013, ComManTel 2014, WICON 2016, SigTelCom 2017 Best Paper Awards, the 2017 and 2018 IEEE Systems Journal Best Paper Awards, the 2017 Journal of Network and Computer Applications Best Research Paper Award, and the Outstanding Associate Editor Award of 2017, and the 2018 IEEE ACCESS. He has also served over 50 various Co-Chair for international conferences/workshops, such as IWCMC, ICC, ISCC, ICNC, Chinacom, especially the Symposium Co-Chair for IWCMC 2012, ICC 2012, the General Co-Chair for Chinacom 2014, Qshine 2015, Collaboratecom 2017, DependSys 2018, and SCI 2019, the TPC Chair for InisCom 2015, NCCA 2015, WICON 2016, NCCA 2016, Chinacom 2017, InisCom 2017, WMNC 2017, and NCCA 2018 Leandros Maglaras (SM’15) received the B.Sc. degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1998, M.Sc. in industrial production and management from University of Thessaly in 2004, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical & computer engineering from University of Volos in 2008 and 2014, respectively. He is the Head of the National Cyber Security Authority of Greece and a Visiting Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Informatics at the De Montfort University, U.K. He serves on the Editorial Board of several International peer-reviewed journals such as IEEE Access, Wiley Journal on Security & Communication Networks, EAI Transactions on e-Learning and EAI Transactions on Industrial Networks and Intelligent Systems. He is an author of more than 80 papers in scientific magazines and conferences and is a Senior Member of IEEE. His research interests include wireless sensor networks and vehicular ad hoc networks Xiaochan Wang is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Nanjing Agricultural University. His main research fields include intelligent equipment for horticulture and intelligent measurement and control. He is an ASABE Member, and the Vice Director of CSAM (Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery), and also the Senior Member of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. He was awarded the Second Prize of Science and Technology Invention by the Ministry of Education (2016) and the Advanced Worker for Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering (2012), and he also gotten the “Blue Project” in Jiangsu province young and middle-aged academic leaders (2010)
• Corresponding author: Lei Shu, e-mail: lei.shu@ieee.org
• Received Date: 2020-09-20
  
• Revised Date: 2020-11-25
• Accepted Date: 2020-12-30 Available Online: 2021-01-26

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive review of emerging technologies for the internet of things (IoT)-based smart agriculture. We begin by summarizing the existing surveys and describing emergent technologies for the agricultural IoT, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, wireless technologies, open-source IoT platforms, software defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV) technologies, cloud/fog computing, and middleware platforms. We also provide a classification of IoT applications for smart agriculture into seven categories: including smart monitoring, smart water management, agrochemicals applications, disease management, smart harvesting, supply chain management, and smart agricultural practices. Moreover, we provide a taxonomy and a side-by-side comparison of the state-of-the-art methods toward supply chain management based on the blockchain technology for agricultural IoTs. Furthermore, we present real projects that use most of the aforementioned technologies, which demonstrate their great performance in the field of smart agriculture. Finally, we highlight open research challenges and discuss possible future research directions for agricultural IoTs.

Keywords:
• Agricultural internet of things (IoT),
• internet of things (IoT),
• smart agriculture,
• smart farming,
• sustainable agriculture

References

“World population prospects 2019: Highlights,” [Online]. Available: https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf. Accessed on: Mar. 24, 2020.

“More people, more food, worse water?” [Online]. Available: http://www.fao.org/3/ca0146en/CA0146EN.pdf. Accessed on: Mar. 24, 2020.

“The future of food and agriculture: Alternative pathways to 2050,” [Online]. Available: http://www.fao.org/3/CA1553EN/ca1553en.pdf. Accessed on: Mar. 24, 2020.

J. M. Talavera, L. E. Tobón, J. A. Gómez, M. A. Culman, J. M. Aranda, D. T. Parra, L. A. Quiroz, A. Hoyos, and L. E. Garreta, “Review of IoT applications in agro-industrial and environmental fields,” Comput. Electron. Agr., vol. 142, pp. 283–297, Nov. 2017. doi: 10.1016/j.compag.2017.09.015

P. P. Ray, “Internet of things for smart agriculture: Technologies, practices and future direction,” J. Ambient Intell. Smart Environ., vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 395–420, Jun. 2017. doi: 10.3233/AIS-170440

A. Tzounis, N. Katsoulas, T. Bartzanas, and C. Kittas, “Internet of things in agriculture, recent advances and future challenges,” Biosyst. Eng., vol. 164, pp. 31–48, Dec. 2017. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2017.09.007

O. Elijah, T. A. Rahman, I. Orikumhi, C. Y. Leow, and M. N. Hindia, “An overview of internet of things (IoT) and data analytics in agriculture: Benefits and challenges,” IEEE Int. Things J., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 3758–3773, Oct. 2018. doi: 10.1109/JIOT.2018.2844296

A. Khanna and S. Kaur, “Evolution of internet of things (IoT) and its significant impact in the field of precision agriculture,” Comput. Electron. Agr., vol. 157, pp. 218–231, Feb. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.compag.2018.12.039

X. J. Shi, X. S. An, Q. X. Zhao, H. M. Liu, L. M. Xia, X. Sun, and Y. M. Guo, “State-of-the-art internet of things in protected agriculture,” Sensors, vol. 19, no. 8, Article No. 1833, Apr. 2019. doi: 10.3390/s19081833

J. H. Ruan, H. Jiang, C. S. Zhu, X. P. Hu, Y. Shi, T. J. Liu, W. Z. Rao, and F. T. S. Chan, “Agriculture IoT: Emerging trends, cooperation networks, and outlook,” IEEE Wirel. Commun., vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 56–63, Dec. 2019. doi: 10.1109/MWC.001.1900096

X. Feng, F. Yan, and X. Y. Liu, “Study of wireless communication technologies on internet of things for precision agriculture,” Wirel. Pers. Commun., vol. 108, no. 3, pp. 1785–1802, Oct. 2019. doi: 10.1007/s11277-019-06496-7

U. Shafi, R. Mumtaz, J. García-Nieto, S. A. Hassan, S. A. R. Zaidi, and N. Iqbal, “Precision agriculture techniques and practices: From considerations to applications,” Sensors, vol. 19, no. 17, Article No. 3976, Sept. 2019.

M. Ayaz, M. Ammad-Uddin, Z. Sharif, A. Mansour, and E. H. M. Aggoune, “Internet-of-things (IoT)-based smart agriculture: Toward making the fields talk,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 129551–129583, Aug. 2019. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2932609

M. S. Farooq, S. Riaz, A. Abid, K. Abid, and M. A. Naeem, “A survey on the role of IoT in agriculture for the implementation of smart farming,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 156237–156271, Oct. 2019. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2949703

P. Radoglou-Grammatikis, P. Sarigiannidis, T. Lagkas, and I. Moscholios, “A compilation of UAV applications for precision agriculture,” Comp. Netw., vol. 172, Article No. 107148, May 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107148

M. A. Ferrag, L. Shu, X. Yang, A. Derhab, and L. Maglaras, “Security and privacy for green IoT-based agriculture: Review, blockchain solutions, and challenges,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 32031–32053, Feb. 2020. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2973178

Y. Liu, X. Y. Ma, L. Shu, G. P. Hancke, and A. M. Abu-Mahfouz, “From industry 4.0 to agriculture 4.0: Current status, enabling technologies, and research challenges,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Inform., 2020. DOI: 10.1109/TII.2020.3003910

K. Huang, L. Shu, K. L. Li, F. Yang, G. J. Han, X. C. Wang, and S. Pearson, “Photovoltaic agricultural internet of things towards realizing the next generation of smart farming,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 76300–76312, Apr. 2020. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2988663

G. Fortino, W. Russo, C. Savaglio, W. M. Shen, and M. C. Zhou, “Agent-oriented cooperative smart objects: From IoT system design to implementation,” IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybernet.:Syst., vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 1939–1956, Nov. 2018. doi: 10.1109/TSMC.2017.2780618

M. H. Ghahramani, M. C. Zhou, and C. T. Hon, “Toward cloud computing QoS architecture: Analysis of cloud systems and cloud services,” IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 6–18, Jan. 2017. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2017.7510313

J. M. Garibaldi, “The need for fuzzy AI,” IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 610–622, May 2019. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911465

M. Ghahramani, Y. Qiao, M. C. Zhou, A. O’Hagan, and J. Sweeney, “AI-based modeling and data-driven evaluation for smart manufacturing processes,” IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 1026–1037, Jul. 2020. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003114

X. Yang, L. Shu, J. N. Chen, M. A. Ferrag, J. Wu, E. Nurellari, and K. Huang, “A survey on smart agriculture: Development modes, technologies, and security and privacy challenges,” IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 273–302, Feb. 2021. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003536

S. Wolfert, L. Ge, C. Verdouw, and M. J. Bogaardt, “Big data in smart farming–a review,” Agr. Syst., vol. 153, pp. 69–80, May 2017. doi: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.01.023

L. Atzori, A. Iera, and G. Morabito, “The internet of things: A survey,” Comp. Netw., vol. 54, no. 15, pp. 2787–2805, Oct. 2010. doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2010.05.010

J. Gubbi, R. Buyya, S. Marusic, and M. Palaniswami, “Internet of things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and future directions,” Future Generat. Comp. Syst., vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 1645–1660, Sept. 2013. doi: 10.1016/j.future.2013.01.010

A. Al-Fuqaha, M. Guizani, M. Mohammadi, M. Aledhari, and M. Ayyash, “Internet of things: A survey on enabling technologies, protocols, and applications,” IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 2347–2376, Jun. 2015. doi: 10.1109/COMST.2015.2444095

J. Lin, W. Yu, N. Zhang, X. Y. Yang, H. L. Zhang, and W. Zhao, “A survey on internet of things: Architecture, enabling technologies, security and privacy, and applications,” IEEE Int. Things J., vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 1125–1142, Oct. 2017. doi: 10.1109/JIOT.2017.2683200

I. F. Akyildiz, W. Su, Y. Sankarasubramaniam, and E. Cayirci, “Wireless sensor networks: A survey,” Comp. Netw., vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 393–422, Mar. 2002. doi: 10.1016/S1389-1286(01)00302-4

R. Want, “An introduction to RFID technology,” IEEE Pervas. Comput., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 25–33, Feb. 2006. doi: 10.1109/MPRV.2006.2

L. R. Williams, D. R. Fox, G. J. Bishop-Hurley, and D. L. Swain, “Use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to record grazing beef cattle water point use,” Comp. Electron. Agric., vol. 156, pp. 193–202, Jan. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.compag.2018.11.025

F. Tian, “An agri-food supply chain traceability system for china based on RFID & blockchain technology,” in Proc. 13th Int. Conf. Service Systems and Service Management, Kunming, China, 2016, pp. 1–6.

Aqeel-ur-Rehman, A. Z. Abbasi, N. Islam, and Z. A. Shaikh, “A review of wireless sensors and networks’ applications in agriculture,” Comp. Stand. Inter., vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 263–270, Feb. 2014. doi: 10.1016/j.csi.2011.03.004

C. Goumopoulos, B. O'Flynn, and A. Kameas, “Automated zone-specific irrigation with wireless sensor/actuator network and adaptable decision support,” Comp. Electron. Agric., vol. 105, pp. 20–33, Jul. 2014. doi: 10.1016/j.compag.2014.03.012

J. Muangprathub, N. Boonnam, S. Kajornkasirat, N. Lekbangpong, A. Wanichsombat, and P. Nillaor, “IoT and agriculture data analysis for smart farm,” Comp. Electron. Agric., vol. 156, pp. 467–474, Jan. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.compag.2018.12.011

I. F. Akyildiz and E. P. Stuntebeck, “Wireless underground sensor networks: Research challenges,” Ad Hoc Netw., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 669–686, Nov. 2006. doi: 10.1016/j.adhoc.2006.04.003

M. Jouhari, K. Ibrahimi, H. Tembine, and J. Ben-Othman, “Underwater wireless sensor networks: A survey on enabling technologies, localization protocols, and internet of underwater things,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 96879–96899, Jul. 2019. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2928876

S. AlZu'bi, B. Hawashin, M. Mujahed, Y. Jararweh, and B. B. Gupta, “An efficient employment of internet of multimedia things in smart and future agriculture,” Multimed. Tools Appl., vol. 78, no. 20, pp. 29581–29605, 2019. doi: 10.1007/s11042-019-7367-0

Y. H. Sun, W. M. Ding, L. Shu, K. Huang, K. L. Li, Y. Zhang, and Z. Q. Huo, “When mobile crowd sensing meets smart agriculture: Poster,” in Proc. ACM Turing Celebration Conf.-China, Chengdu, China, 2019, pp. 1–2.