Chapter-1 Cloud Computing Module-4

Introduction
 Sensor nodes are the key components of Internet of Things (IoT).
 These nodes are resource-constrained in terms of storage, processing, and energy.
 Moreover, in IoT, the devices are connected and communicate with one another by
sharing the sensed and processed data.
 Handling the enormous data generated by this large number of heterogeneous devices
is a non-trivial task.
 Consequently, cloud computing becomes an essential building block of the IoT
architecture.
 This chapter aims at providing an extensive overview of cloud computing.
 Additionally, Check yourself will help the learner to learn different concepts are
related to cloud computing.
 Cloud computing is more than traditional network computing.
 Unlike network computing, cloud computing comprises a pool of multiple resources
such as servers, storage, and network from single/multiple organizations.
 These resources are allocated to the end users as per requirement, on a payment basis.
 In cloud computing architecture, an end user can request for customized resources
such as storage space, RAM, operating systems, and other software to a cloud service
provider (CSP) as shown in Figure.
 For example, a user can request for a Linux operating system for running an
application from a CSP; another end user can request for Windows 10 operating
system from the same CSP for executing some application.
 The cloud services are accessible from anywhere and at any time by an authorized
user through Internet connectivity.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 1

  Cloud computing comprises a shared pool of computing resources, which are
accessible dynamically, ubiquitously, and on-demand basis by the users.
 This shared pool of resources includes networks, storage, processor, and servers.
 These resources are accessible by multiple users through a regular command-line
terminal at the same or different time instants.
 The services of cloud computing are based on the pay-per-use model.
 The concept is the same as paying utility bills based on consumption.
 In cloud computing, a user pays for the cloud services as per the duration of their
resource usage.
 On the other hand, there is a CSP, which provides cloud services to end user
organizations.

Virtualization
 The key concept of cloud computing is virtualization.
 The technique of sharing a single resource among multiple end user organizations or
end users is known as virtualization.
 In the virtualization process, a physical resource is logically distributed among
multiple users.
 However, a user perceives that the resource is unlimited and is dedicatedly provided to
him/her.
 Figure (a) represents a traditional desktop, where an application (App) is running on
top of an OS, and resources are utilized only for that particular application.
 On the other hand, multiple resources can be used by different end users through
virtualization software, as shown in Figure (b).
 Virtualization software separates the resources logically so that there is no conflict
among the users during resource utilization.

Advantages of virtualization
 With the increasing number of interconnected heterogeneous devices in IoT, the
importance of virtualization also increases.
 In IoT, a user is least bothered about where the data from different heterogeneous
devices are stored or processed for a particular application.
 Users are mainly concerned for their services.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 2

  Typically, there are different software such as VMware, which enable the concept of
virtualization.

 With the increasing importance of cloud computing, different organizations and

individuals are using it extensively.
 Moreover, there is always a risk of system crash at any instant of time.
 In such a scenario, cloud computing plays a vital role by keeping backups through
virtualization.
 Primarily, there are two entities in a cloud computing architecture: end users and CSP.
 Both end users and CSP are benefited in several aspects through the process of
virtualization.
 The major advantages, from the perspective of the end user and CSP, are as follows:

(i) Advantages for End Users

 (a) Variety: The process of virtualization in cloud computing enables an end user
organization to use various types of applications based on the requirements.
 As an example, suppose John takes up still photography as a hobby.
 His resource-limited PC can barely handle the requirements for a photo editing
software, say X-photo editor.
 In order to augment his PC’s regular performance, he uninstalls the X-photo editor
software and purchases a cloud service, which lets him access a virtual machine (VM).
 In his VM, he installs the X-photo editor software, by which he can edit photos
efficiently and, most importantly, without worrying about burdening his PC or running
out of processing resources.
 After six months, John’s interest in his hobby grows and he moves on to video-editing
too.
 For editing his captured videos, he installs a video editing software, Y-video editor, in
his VM and can edit videos efficiently.
 Additionally, he has the option of installing and using a variety of software for
different purposes.
 (b) Availability: Virtualization creates a logical separation of the resources of
multiple entities without any intervention of end users.
 Consequently, the concept of virtualization makes available a considerable amount of
resources as per user requirements.
 The end users feel that there are unlimited resources present dedicatedly for him/her.
 Let us suppose that Jane uses a particular email service.
 Her account has been active for over ten years now; however, it offers limited storage
of 2 GB.
 Due to the ever accumulating file attachments in different emails, her 2 GB
complimentary space is exhausted.
 However, there is a provision that if she pays $100 annually, she can attach additional
space to her mail service.
 This upgrade allows her to have more storage at her disposal for a considerable time in
the future.
 (c) Portability: Portability signifies the availability of cloud computing services from
anywhere in the world, at any instant of time.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 3

  For example, a person flying from the US to the UK still has access to their
documents, although they cannot physically access the devices on which the data is
stored.
 This has been made possible by platforms such as Google Drive.
 (d) Elasticity: Through the concept of virtualization, an end user can scale-up or
scale-down resource utilization as per requirements.
 We have already explained that cloud computing is based on a pay-per-use model.
 The end user needs to pay the amount based on their usage.
 For example, Jack rents two VMs in a cloud computing infrastructure from a CSP.
 VM1 has the Ubuntu operating system (OS), on which Jack is simulating a network
scenario using Network Simulator-2 (NS2).
 VM2 has Windows 10 OS, on which he is running a MATLAB simulation.
 However, after a few days, Jack feels that his VM2 has served its purpose and is no
longer required.
 Consequently, he releases VM2 and, after that, he is only billed for VM1.
 Thus, Jack can scale-up or scale-down his resources in cloud computing, which
employs the concept of virtualization.

(ii) Advantages for CSP

 (a) Resource Utilization: Typically, a CSP in a cloud computing architecture
procures resources on their own or get them from third parties.
 These resources are distributed among different users dynamically as per their
requirements.
 A segment of a particular resource provided to a user at a time instant, can be provided
to another user at a different time instant.
 Thus, in the cloud computing architecture, resources can be re-utilized for multiple
users.
 (b) Effective Revenue Generation: A CSP generates revenue from the end users
based on resource utilization.
 As an example, today, a user A is utilizing storage facility from a particular CSP.
 The user will release the storage after a few days when his/her requirement is
complete.
 The CSP earns some revenue from user A for the utilization of the allocated storage
facility.
 In the future, the CSP can provide the same storage facility to a different user, B.
 Again, the CSP can generate revenue from user B for his/her storage utilization.

Types of virtualization
 Based on the requirements of the users, we categorized virtualization as shown in
Figure 10.3.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 4

 (i) Hardware Virtualization:
 This type of virtualization indicates the sharing of hardware resources among multiple
users.
 For example, a single processor appears as many different processors in a cloud
computing architecture.
 Different operating systems can be installed in these processors and each of them can
work as stand-alone machines.
 (ii) Storage Virtualization: In storage virtualization, the storage space from different
entities are accumulated virtually, and seem like a single storage location.
 Through storage virtualization, a user’s documents or files exist in different locations
in a distributed fashion.
 However, the users are under the impression that they have a single dedicated storage
space provided to them.
 (iii) Application Virtualization: A single application is stored at the cloud end.
 However, as per requirement, a user can use the application in his/her local computer
without ever actually installing the application.
 Similar to storage virtualization, in application virtualization, the users get the
impression that applications are stored and executed in their local computer.
 (iv) Desktop Virtualization: This type of virtualization allows a user to access and
utilize the services of a desktop that resides at the cloud.
 The users can use the desktop from their local desktop.

Cloud Models
 As per the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [1] and Cloud
Computing Standards Roadmap Working Group, the cloud model can be divided into
two parts: (1) Service model and (2) Deployment model as shown in Figure.
 Further the service model is categorized as: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-
as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).
 On the other hand, the deployment model is further categorized as: Private cloud,
Community cloud, Public cloud, and Hybrid cloud.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 5

(i) Service Model
 The service model is depicted in Figure 10.5.
 (a) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): This service provides access to different software
applications to an end user through Internet connectivity.
 For accessing the service, a user does not need to purchase and install the software
applications on his/her local desktop.
 The software is located in a cloud server, from where the services are provided to
multiple end users.
 SaaS offers scalability, by which users have the provision to use multiple software
applications as per their requirements.
 Additionally, a user does not need to worry about the update of the software
applications.
 These software are accessible from any location. One example of SaaS is Microsoft
Office 365.

 (b) Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): PaaS provides a computing platform, by which a

user can develop and run different applications.
 The cloud user need not go through the burden of installing and managing the
infrastructure such as operating system, storage, and networks.
 However, the users can develop and manage the applications that are running on top of
it.
 An example of PaaS is Google App Engine.

 (c) Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): IaaS provides infrastructure such as storage,

networks, and computing resources.
 A user uses the infrastructure without purchasing the software and other network
components.
 In the infrastructure provided by a CSP, a user can use any composition of the
operating system and software.
 An example of IaaS is Google Compute Engine.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 6

(ii) Deployment Model
 (a) Private Cloud: This type of cloud is owned explicitly by an end user organization.
 The internal resources of the organization maintain the private cloud.
 (b) Community Cloud: This cloud forms with the collaboration of a set of
organizations for a specific community.
 For a community cloud, each organization has some shared interests.
 (c) Public Cloud: The public cloud is owned by a third party organization, which
provides services to the common public.
 The service of this cloud is available for any user, on a payment basis.
 (d) Hybrid Cloud: This type of cloud comprises two or more clouds (private, public,
or community).

Service-Level Agreement in Cloud Computing

 The most important actors in cloud computing are the end user/customer and CSP.
 Cloud computing architecture aims to provide optimal and efficient services to the end
users and generate revenue from them as per their usage.
 Therefore, for a clear understanding between CSP and the customer about the services,
an agreement is required to be made, which is known as service-level agreement
(SLA).
 An SLA provides a detailed description of the services that will be received by the
customer.
 Based on the SLA, a customer can be aware of each and every term and condition of
the services before availing them.
 An SLA may include multiple organizations for making the legal contract with the
customers.

Importance of SLA
 An SLA is essential in cloud computing architecture for both CSP and customers.
 It is important because of the following reasons:
 Customer Point of View: Each CSP has its SLA, which contains a detailed
description of the services.
 If a customer wants to use a cloud service, he/she can compare the SLAs of different
organizations.
 Therefore, a customer can choose a preferred CSP based on the SLAs.
 CSP Point of View: In many cases, certain performance issues may occur for a
particular service, because of which a CSP may not be able to provide the services
efficiently.
 Thus, in such a situation, a CSP can explicitly mention in the SLA that they are not
responsible for inefficient service.

Metrics for SLA

 Depending on the type of services, an SLA is constructed with different metrics.
 However, a few common metrics that are required to be included for constructing an
SLA are as follows:
 (i) Availability: This metric signifies the amount of time the service will be accessible
for the customer.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 7

  (ii) Response Time: The maximum time that will be taken for responding to a
customer request is measured by response time.
 (iii) Portability: This metric indicates the flexibility of transferring the data to another
service.
 (iv) Problem Reporting: How to report a problem, whom and how to be contacted, is
explained in this metric.
 (v) Penalty: The penalty for not meeting the promises mentioned in the SLA.

Cloud Implementation
(i) Cloud simulation
 With the rapid deployment of IoT infrastructure for different applications, the
requirement for cloud computing is also increasing.
 It is challenging to estimate the performance of an IoT system with the cloud before
real implementation.
 On the other hand, real deployment of the cloud is a complex and costly procedure.
 Thus, there is a requirement for simulating the system through a cloud simulator
before real implementation.
 There are many cloud simulators that provide pre-deployment test services for
repeatable performance evaluation of a system.
 Typically, a cloud simulator provides the following advantages to a customer:
Pre-deployment test before real implementation
System testing at no cost
Repeatable evaluation of the system
Pre-detection of issues that may affect the system performance
Flexibility to control the environment
 Currently, different types of cloud simulators are available. A few cloud simulators are
listed here:
(i) CloudSim
 (A) Description: CloudSim is a popular cloud simulator that was developed at the
University of Melbourne.
 This simulator is written in a Java-based environment.
 In CloudSim, a user is allowed to add or remove resources dynamically during the
simulation and evaluate the performance of the scenario.
 (B) Features: CloudSim has different features, which are listed as follows:
(1) The CloudSim simulator provides various cloud computing data centers along with
different data center network topologies in a simulation environment.
(2) Using CloudSim, virtualization of server hosts can be done in a simulation.
(3) A user is able to allocate virtual machines (VMs) dynamically.
(4) It allows users to define their own policies for the allocation of host resources to
VMs.
(5) It provides flexibility to add or remove simulation components dynamically.
(6) A user can stop and resume the simulation at any instant of time.

(ii) CloudAnalyst
 (a) Description: CloudAnalyst [4] is based on CloudSim.
 This simulator provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for simulating a cloud
environment, easily.
 The CloudAnalyst is used for simulating large-scale cloud applications.
Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 8
  (b) Features:
(1) The Cloud Analyst simulator is easy to use due to the presence of the GUI.
(2) It allows a user to add components and provides a flexible and high level of
configuration.
(3) A user can perform repeated experiments, considering different parameter values.
(4) It can provide a graphical output, including a chart and table.

(iii) Green Cloud

 (a) Description: Green Cloud is developed as an extension of a packet level network
simulator, NS2.
 This simulator can monitor the energy consumption of different network components
such as servers and switches.
 (b) Features:
(1) Green Cloud is an open-source simulator with user-friendly GUI.
(2) It provides the facility for monitoring the energy consumption of the
network and its various components.
(3) It supports the simulations of cloud network components.
(4) It enables improved power management schemes.
(5) It allows a user to manage and configure devices, dynamically, in
simulation.

An open-source cloud: OpenStack

 For the real implementation of cloud, there are various open-source cloud platforms
available such as OpenStack, CloudStack, and Eucalyptus.
 Here, we will discuss the OpenStack platform briefly.
 The OpenStack [12] is free software, which provides a cloud IaaS to users.
 A user can easily use this cloud with the help of a GUI-based web interface or through
the command line.
 OpenStack supports a vastly scalable cloud system, in which different pre-configured
software suites are available.
 The service components of OpenStack along with their functions are depicted in
Table.
Component Function
Nova Compute
Neutron Networking
Cinder Block storage
Keystone Identity
Glance Image
Swift Object storage
Horizon Dashboard
Trove Database
Sahara Elasticmap reduce
Manila Shared file system
Designate DNS
Searchlight Search
Barbican Key manager

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 9

Features of OpenStack
(i) OpenStack allows a user to create and deploy virtual machines.
(ii) It provides the flexibility of setting up a cloud management environment.
(iii) OpenStack supports an easy horizontal scaling: dynamic addition or removal of
instances for providing services to multiple numbers of users.
(iv) This cloud platform allows the users to access the source code and share their code to the
community.

A commercial cloud: Amazon web services (AWS)

 Besides the open-source cloud, there are various commercial cloud infrastructures
available in the market.
 Few of the popular commercial cloud infrastructures are Amazon Web Services
(AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google App Engine.
 In this section, we will discuss the different features of AWS [13].
 A user can launch and manage server instances in AWS.
 Typically, a web interface is used to handle the instances.
 Additionally, AWS provides different APIs (application programming interfaces),
tools, and utilities for users.
 Like other commercial clouds, Amazon AWS follows the pay-per-use model.
 This cloud infrastructure provides a virtual computing environment, where different
configurations, such as CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity are available.

Features of AWS
1) It provides flexibility to scale and manage the server capacity.
2) AWS provides control to OS and deployment software.
3) It follows the pay-per-use model.
4) The cloud allows a user to establish connectivity between the physical network and
private virtual network
5) The developer tools in this cloud infrastructure help a user for fast development and
deployment of the software.
6) AWS provides excellent management tools, which help a user to monitor and
automate different components of the cloud.
7) The cloud provides machine learning facilities, which are very useful for data
scientists and developers.
8) For extracting meaning from data, analytics play an important role. AWS also
provides a data analytics platform.

Sensor-Cloud: Sensors-as-a-Service
 In this chapter, we have already discussed different services of cloud computing,
which include SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
 Now, we will explore a new concept known as Sensors-as-a-Service (Se-aaS) in
sensor-cloud architecture.
 Virtualization of resources is the backbone of cloud computing. Similarly, in a sensor-
cloud, virtualization of sensors plays an essential role in providing services to multiple
users.
 Typically, in a sensor-cloud architecture, multiple users receive services from different
a sensor nodes, simultaneously.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 10

  However, the users remain oblivious to the fact that a set of sensor nodes is not
dedicated solely to them for their application requirements.
 In reality, a particular sensor may be used for serving multiple user applications,
simultaneously.
 The main aim of sensor-cloud infrastructure is to provide an opportunity for the
common mass to use Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) on a payment basis.
 Similar to cloud computing, sensor-cloud architecture also follows the pay-per-use
model.

Importance of sensor-cloud
 The sensor-cloud infrastructure is based on the concept of cloud computing, in which
a user application is served by a set of homogeneous or heterogeneous sensor nodes.
 These sensor nodes are selected from a common pool of sensor nodes, as per the
requirement of user applications.
 Using the sensor-cloud infrastructure, a user receives data for an application from
multiple sensor nodes without owning them.
 Unlike sensor-cloud, if a user wants to use traditional WSN for a certain application,
he/she has to go through different pre-deployment and post-deployment hurdles.
 Figures depicts the usage of sensor nodes using traditional WSN and sensor cloud
infrastructure.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 11

  With the help of a case study, we will discuss the advantages of sensor-cloud over
traditional WSN.

Case Study:
 John is a farmer, and he has a significantly vast farmable area with him.
 As manual supervision of the entire field is very difficult, he has planned to deploy a
WSN in his farming field. Before purchasing the WSN, he has to decide which sensors
should be used in his fields for sensing the different agricultural parameters.
 Additionally, he has to decide the type and number of other components such as an
electronics circuit board and communication module required along with the sensors.
 As there are numerous vendors, it is challenging for him to choose the correct (in
terms of quality and cost) vendor, as well as the sensor owner from whom the WSN
will be procured.
 He finally decides the type of sensors along with the other components that are
required for monitoring his agricultural field.
 Now, John faces the difficulty of optimally planning the sensor node deployment in
his fields.
 After going through these hurdles, he decides on the number of sensor nodes that are
required for monitoring his field.
 Finally, John procures the WSNs from a vendor.
 After procurement, he deploys the sensor nodes and connects different components.
 As WSN consists of different electronic components, he has to maintain the WSN
after its deployment.
 After three months, as his requirement of agricultural field monitoring is completed,
he removes the WSN from the agricultural field.
 Six months later, John plans to use the WSN that was deployed in the agricultural field
for home surveillance.
 As the agriculture application is different from the home surveillance application, the
sensor required for the system also changes.
 Thus, John has to go through all the steps again, including maintenance, deployment,
and hardware management, for the surveillance system.
 Thus, we observe that the users face different responsibilities for using a WSN for an
application.
 In such a situation, if sensor-cloud architecture is present, John can easily use WSNs
for his application on a rental basis.
 Moreover, through the use of sensor-cloud, John can easily switch the application
without any manual intervention.
 On the other end, service providers of the sensor-cloud infrastructure may serve
multiple users with the same sensors and earn profit.

Architecture of a sensor-cloud platform

 In a traditional cloud computing architecture, two actors, cloud service provider (CSP)
and end users (customer) play the key role.
 Unlike cloud computing, in sensor-cloud architecture, the sensor owners play an
important role along with the service provider and end users.
 However, a service provider in sensor-cloud architecture is known as a sensor-cloud
service provider (SCSP).
 The detailed architecture of a sensor-cloud is depicted in Figure.
Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 12
Actors in sensor-cloud architecture
 Typically, in a sensor-cloud architecture, three actors are present.
 We briefly describe the role of each actor.
 (i) End User: This actor is also known as a customer of the sensor-cloud services.
 Typically, an end user registers him/herself with the infrastructure through a
 Web portal.
 Thereafter, he/she chooses the template of the services that are available in the sensor-
cloud architecture to which he/she is registered.
 Finally, through the Web portal, the end user receives the services, as shown in Figure.
 Based on the type and usage duration of service, the end user pays the charges to the
SCSP.
 (ii) Sensor Owner: We have already discussed that the sensor-cloud architecture is
based on the concept of Se-aaS.
 Therefore, the deployment of the sensors is essential in order to provide services to the
end users.
 These sensors in a sensor cloud architecture are owned and deployed by the sensor
owners, as depicted in.
 A particular sensor owner can own multiple homogeneous or heterogeneous sensor
nodes.
 Based on the requirements of the users, these sensor nodes are virtualized and
assigned to serving multiple applications at the same time.
 On the other hand, a sensor owner receives rent depending upon the duration and
usage of his/her sensor node(s).
 (iii) Sensor-Cloud Service Provider (SCSP): An SCSP is responsible for managing the
entire sensor-cloud infrastructure (including management of sensor owners and end
users handling, resource handling, database management, cloud handling etc.),
centrally.
 The SCSP receives rent from end users with the help of a pre-defined pricing model.
 The pricing scheme may include the infrastructure cost, sensor owners’ rent, and the
revenue of the SCSP.
 Typically, different algorithms are used for managing the entire infrastructure.
 The SCSP receives the rent from the end users and shares a partial amount with the
sensor owners.
Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 13
  The remaining amount is used for maintaining the infrastructure. In the process, the
SCSP earns a certain amount of revenue from the payment of the end users.

Sensor-Cloud Architecture from Different Viewpoints

 We explore the sensor-cloud architecture from two view points: (i) User
organizational view and (ii) real architectural view.
 Different views of sensor-cloud architecture are shown in Figure.

 (i) User Organizational View: This view of sensor-cloud architecture is simple.

 In a sensor-cloud, end users interact with a Web interface for selecting templates of
the services.
 Thereafter, the services are received by the end users through the Web interface. In
this architecture, an end user is unaware of the complex processes that are running at
the back end.
 (ii) Real Architectural View: The complex processing of sensor-cloud architecture is
visualized through this view.
 The processes include sensor allocation, data extraction from the sensors,
virtualization of sensor nodes, maintenance of the infrastructure, data center
management, data caching, and others.
 For each process, there is a specific algorithm or scheme.

Assignment Questions
1. What are the advantages of cloud computing?
2. With an example, explain how software-as-a-service is different from platform-as- a-
service?
3. What is an SLA? Why it is important in cloud computing?
4. Differentiate between scalability and elasticity.
5. What is an Amazon Machine Image?
6. What are the differences between modular and containerized data centers?
7. What is the relationship between IoT and cloud computing?
8. What is a sensor-cloud? Why do we use sensor-cloud?
9. Differentiate among different cloud deployment models.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 14

Chapter-2 Agricultural IoT Module-4

Introduction
 Currently, IoT-enabled technologies are widely used for increasing crop productivity,
generating significant revenue, and efficient farming.
 The development of the IoT paradigm helps in precision farming. Agricultural loT
systems perform crop health monitoring, water management, crop security, farming
vehicle tracking, automatic seeding, and automatic pesticide spraying over the
agricultural fields.
 In an IoT based agricultural system, different sensors necessarily have to be deployed
over agricultural fields, and the sensed data from these sensors need to be transmitted
to a centralized entity such as a server, cloud, or fog devices.
 Further, these data have to be processed and analyzed to provide various agricultural
services.
 Finally, a user should be able to access these services from handheld devices or
computers.
 Figure depicts a basic architecture of an agricultural IoT.

Components of an agricultural IoT

 The development of an agricultural IoT has helped farmers enhance crop productivity
and reduce the overhead of manual operations of the agricultural equipment in the
fields.
 Different components such as analytics, drone, cloud computing, sensors, hand-held
devices, and wireless connectivity enable agricultural IoT as depicted in below Figure.
 The different components of an agricultural IoT are discussed as follows:
 Cloud computing: Sensors such as the camera, devices to measure soil moisture, soil
humidity, and soil pH-level are used for serving different agricultural applications.
 These sensors produce a huge amount of agricultural data that need to be analyzed.
 Sometimes, based on the data analysis, action needs to be taken, such as switching on
the water pump for irrigation.
 Further, the data from the deployed sensors are required to be stored on a long-term
basis since it may be useful for serving future applications.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 15

  Thus, for agricultural data analysis and storage, the cloud plays a crucial role.

 Sensors: We have seen that the sensors are the major backbone of any IoT
application.
 Similarly, for agricultural IoT applications, the sensors are an indispensable
component.
 A few of the common sensors used in agriculture are sensors for soil moisture,
humidity, water level, and temperature.
 Cameras: Imaging is one of the main components of agriculture. Therefore,
multispectral, thermal, and RGB cameras are commonly used for scientific
agricultural IoT.
 These cameras are used for estimating the nitrogen status, thermal stress, water stress,
and crop damage due to inundation, as well as infestation.
 Video cameras are used for crop security.
 Satellites: In modern precision agriculture, satellites are extensively used to extract
information from field imagery.
 The satellite images are used in agricultural applications to monitor different aspects
of the crops such as crop health monitoring and dry zone assessing over a large area.
 Analytics: Analytics contribute to modern agriculture massively.
 Currently, with the help of analytics, farmers can take different agricultural decisions,
such as estimating the required amount of fertilizer and water in an agricultural field
and estimating the type of crops that need to be cultivated during the upcoming
season.
 Moreover, analytics is not only responsible for making decisions locally; it is used to
analyze data for the entire agricultural supply chain.
 Data analytics can also be used for estimating the crop demand in the market.
 Wireless connectivity: One of the main components of agricultural IoT is wireless
connectivity.
 Wireless connectivity enables the transmission of the agricultural sensor data from the
field to the cloud/server.
 It also enables farmers to access various application services over handheld devices,
which rely on wireless connectivity for communicating with the cloud/server.
 Handheld devices: Over the last few years, e-agriculture has become very popular.
Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 16
  One of the fundamental components of e-agriculture is a handheld device such as a
smartphone.
 Farmers can access different agricultural information, such as soil and crop conditions
of their fields and market tendency, over their smartphones.
 Additionally, farmers can also control different field equipment, such as pumps, from
their phones.
 Drones: Currently, the use of drones has become very attractive in different
applications such as surveillance, healthcare, product delivery, photography, and
agriculture.
 Drone imaging is an alternative to satellite imaging in agriculture.
 In continuation to providing better resolution land mapping visuals, drones are used in
agriculture for crop monitoring, pesticide spraying, and irrigation.
 An agricultural food chain (agri-chain) represents the different stages that are involved
in agricultural activity right from the agricultural fields to the consumers.
 Figure below depicts a typical agricultural food chain with the different operations that
are involved in it.

 Additionally, the figure depicts the applications of different IoT components required
for performing these agricultural operations.
 In the agrichain, we consider farming as the first stage. In farming, various operations,
such as seeding, irrigation, fertilizer spreading, and pesticide spraying, are involved.
 For performing these operations, different IoT components are used.
 As an example, for monitoring the soil health, soil moisture and temperature sensors
are used; drones are used for spraying pesticides; and through wireless connectivity, a
report on on-field soil conditions is sent directly to a users’ handheld device or cloud.
 After farming, the next stage in the agri-chain is transport.
 Transport indicates the transfer of crops from the field to the local storage, and after
that, to long-term storage locations.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 17

  In transport, smart vehicles can automatically load and unload crops.
 The global positioning system (GPS) plays an important role by tracking these smart
devices, and radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to collect information
regarding the presence of a particular container of a crop at a warehouse.
 Storage is one of the important operations in the agri-chain.
 It is responsible for storing crops on a long term basis.
 Typically, cold storage is used for preserving the crops for a long time and providing
them with the necessary climatic and storage conditions and protection.
 In the storage, cameras are used to keep a check and protect the harvested crops.
 The camera feeds are transferred through wireless connectivity to a remote server or a
cloud infrastructure.
 Moreover, the amount and type of crops stored in a storage location are tracked and
recorded with the help of sensors and cloud computing.
 For pushing the crops into the market, processing plays a crucial role in an agrichain.
 Processing includes proper drying and packaging of crops.
 For drying and packaging, different sensors are used.
 Packaging is the immediate operation prior to pushing the crop into the market.
 Thus, it is essential to track every package and store all the details related to the crops
in the cloud.
 Logistics enables the transfer of the packed crops to the market with the help of smart
vehicles.
 These smart vehicles are equipped with different sensors that help in loading and
unloading the packed crop autonomously.
 Additionally, GPS is used in these smart vehicles for locating the position of the
packed crops at any instant and tracking their whereabouts.
 All the logistical information gets logged in the cloud with the help of wireless
connectivity.
 Finally, the packed items reach the market using logistical channels.
 From the market, these items are accessible to consumers.
 The details of the sale and purchase of the items are stored in the form of records in
the cloud.

Advantages of IoT in agriculture

 Modern technological advancements and the rapid developments in IoT components
have gradually increased agricultural productivity.
 Agricultural IoT enables the autonomous execution of different agricultural
operations.
 The specific advantages of the agricultural IoT are as follows:
 (i) Automatic seeding: IoT-based agricultural systems are capable of autonomous
seeding and planting over the agricultural fields.
 These systems significantly reduce manual effort, error probability, and delays in
seeding and planting.
 (ii) Efficient fertilizer and pesticide distribution: Agricultural IoT has been used to
develop solutions that are capable of applying and controlling the amount of fertilizers
and pesticides efficiently.
 These solutions are based on the analysis of crop health.
 (iii) Water management: The excess distribution of water in the agricultural fields
may affect the growth of crops.
Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 18
  On the other hand, the availability of global water resources is finite.
 The constraint of limited and often scarce usable water resources is an influential
driving factor for the judicious and efficient distribution of agricultural water
resources.
 Using the various solutions available for agricultural IoT, water can be distributed
efficiently, all the while, increasing field productivity and yields.
 The IoT-enabled agricultural systems are capable of monitoring the water level and
moisture in the soil, and accordingly, distribute the water to the agricultural fields.
 (iv) Real-time and remote monitoring: Unlike traditional agriculture, in IoT-based
farming, a stakeholder can remotely monitor different agricultural parameters, such as
crop and soil conditions, plant health, and weather conditions.
 Moreover, using a smart handheld device (e.g., cellphone), a farmer can actuate on-
field farming machinery such as a water pump, valves, and other pieces of machinery.
 (v) Easy yield estimation: Agricultural IoT solutions can be used to record and
aggregate data, which may be spatially or temporally diverse, over long periods.
 These records can be used to come up with various estimates related to farming and
farm management.
 The most prominent among these estimates is crop yield, which is done based on
established crop models and historical trends.
 (vi) Production overview: The detailed analysis of crop production, market rates, and
market demand are essential factors for a farmer to estimate optimized crop yields and
decide upon the essential steps for future cropping practices.
 Unlike traditional practices, IoT-based agriculture acts as a force multiplier for
farmers by enabling them to have a stronger hold on their farming as well as crop
management practices, and that too mostly autonomously.
 Agricultural IoT provides a detailed product overview on the farmers’ handheld
devices.

Case Studies
 In this section, we discuss a few case studies that will provide an overview of real
implementation of IoT infrastructure for agriculture.
 In-situ assessment of leaf area index using IoT-based agricultural system
 In this case study, we focus on an IoT-based agricultural system developed by Bauer
et al.
 The authors focus on the in-situ assessment of the leaf area index (LAI), which is
considered as an essential parameter for the growth of most crops. LAI is a
dimensionless quantity which indicates the total leaf area per unit ground area.
 For determining the canopy (the portion of the plant, which is above the ground) light,
LAI plays an essential role.

Architecture
 The authors integrated the hardware and software components of their implementation
in order to develop the IoT-based agricultural system for LAI assessment.
 One of the important components in this system is the wireless sensor network
(WSN), which is used as the LAI assessment unit.
 The authors used two types of sensors: (i) ground-level sensor (G) and (ii) reference
sensor (R).

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 19

  These sensors are used to measure photo synthetically active radiation (PAR).
 The distance between the two types of sensors must be optimal so that these are not
located very far from one another.
 In this system, the above-ground sensor (R) acts as a cluster head while the other
sensor nodes (Gs) are located below the canopy.
 These Gs and R connect and form a star topology.
 A solar panel is used to charge the cluster head. The system is based on IoT
architecture.
 Therefore, a cluster head is attached to a central base station, which acts as a gateway.
 Further, this gateway connects to an IoT infrastructure. The architecture of the system
is depicted in Figure.

Hardware
 For sensing and transmitting the data from the deployment fields to a centralized unit,
such as a server and a cloud, different hardware components are used in the system.
 The commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) TelosB platform is used in the system.
 The TelosB motes are equipped with three types of sensors: temperature, humidity,
and light sensors.
 With the help of an optical filter and diffuser accessory on the light sensors, the PAR
is calculated to estimate the LAI.
 The system is based on the cluster concept.
 A Raspberry-Pi is used as a cluster head, which connects with four ground sensor
motes.
 The Raspberry-Pi is a tiny single board, which works as a computer and is used to
perform different operations in IoT.
 Humidity and wet plants intermittently cause attenuation to the system, which is
minimized with the help of forward error coding (FEC) technique.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 20

  The real deployment of the LAI assessment system involves various environmental
and wild-life challenges.
 Therefore, for reliable data delivery, the authors take the redundant approach of using
both wired and wireless connectivity.
 In the first deployment generation, USB power supply is used to power-up the sensors
motes.
 Additionally, the USB is used for configuring the sensor board and accessing the
failure as per requirement.
 In this setup, a mechanical timer is used to switch off the sensor nodes during the
night.
 In the second deployment generation, the cluster is formed with wireless connectivity.
 The ground sensor motes consist of external antennas, which help to communicate
with the cluster head.
 A Raspberry-Pi with long-term evolution (LTE) is used as a gateway in this system.

Communication
 The LAI system consists of multiple components, such as WSN, IoT gateway, and IoT
based network.
 All of these components are connected through wired or wireless links.
 The public land mobile network (PLMN) is used to establish connectivity between
external IoT networks and the gateway.
 The data are analyzed and visualized with the help of a farm management information
system (FMIS), which resides in the IoT-based infrastructure.
 Further, a prevalent data transport protocol: MQTT, is used in the system.
 MQTT is a very light-weight, publish/subscribe messaging protocol, which is widely
used for different IoT applications.
 The wireless LAN is used for connecting the cluster head with a gateway.
 The TelosB motes are based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol.

Software
 Software is an essential part of the system by which different operations of the system
are executed.
 In order to operate the TelosB motes, TinyOS, an open-source, low-power operating
system, is used.
 This OS is widely used for different WSN applications.
 Typically, in this system, the data acquired from the sensor node is stored with a
timestamp and sequence number (SN).
 For wired deployments (the first generation deployment), the sampling rate used is 30
samples/hour.
 However, in the wireless deployment (the second generation), the sampling rate is
significantly reduced to 6 samples/hour.
 The TinyOS is capable of activating low-power listening modes of a mote, which is
used for switching a mote into low-power mode during its idle state.
 In the ground sensor, TelosB motes broadcast the data frame, and the cluster head
(Raspberry-Pi) receives it.
 This received data is transmitted to the gateway.
 Besides acquiring ground sensor data, the Raspberry-Pi works as a cluster head.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 21

  In this system, the cluster head can re-boot any affected ground sensor node
automatically.

IoT Architecture
 The MQTT broker runs in the Internet server of the system.
 This broker is responsible for receiving the data from the WSN.
 In the system, the graphical user interface (GUI) is built using an Apache server.
 The visualization of the data is performed at the server itself.
 Further, when a sensor fails, the server informs the users.
 The server can provide different system-related information to the smartphone of the
registered user.

Smart irrigation management system

 In precision agriculture, the regular monitoring of different agricultural parameters,
such as water level, soil moisture, fertilizers, and soil temperature are essential.
 Moreover, for monitoring these agricultural parameters, a farmer needs to go to his/her
field and collect the data.
 Excess water supply in the agricultural field can damage the crops.
 On the other hand, insufficient water supply in the agricultural field also affects the
healthy growth of crops.
 Thus, efficient and optimized water supply in the agricultural field is essential.
 This case study highlights a prototype of an irrigation management system, developed
at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, funded by the Government of India.
 The primary objective of this system is to provide a Web-based platform to the farmer
for managing the water supply of an irrigated agricultural field.
 The system is capable of providing a farmer-friendly interface by which the field
condition can be monitored.
 With the help of this system, a farmer can take the necessary decision for the
agricultural field based on the analysis of the data.
 However, the farmer need not worry about the complex background architecture of the
system.
 It is an affordable solution for the farmers to access the agricultural field data easily
and remotely.

Architecture

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 22

  The architecture of this system consists of three layers: Sensing and actuating layer,
remote processing and service layer, and application layer.
 These layers perform dedicated tasks depending on the requirements of the system.
 Figure depicts the architecture of the system. The detailed functionalities of different
layers of this system are as follows:
 (i) Sensing and Actuating layer: This layer deals with different physical devices,
such as sensor nodes, actuators, and communication modules.
 In the system, a specially designated sensor node works as a cluster head to collect
data from other sensor nodes, which are deployed on the field for sensing the value of
soil moisture and water level.
 A cluster head is equipped with two communication module: ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4)
and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).
 The communication between the deployed sensor nodes and the cluster head takes
place with the help of ZigBee.
 Further, the cluster heads use GPRS to transmit data to the remote server. An
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), integrated with the
cluster head, stores a predefined threshold value of water levels and soil moisture.
 When the sensed value of the deployed sensor node drops below this predefined
threshold value, a solenoid (pump) activates to start the irrigation process.
 In the system, the standard EC-05 soil moisture sensor is used along with the water
level sensor, which is specifically designed and developed for this project.
 A water level sensor is shown in Figure (a).
 (ii) Processing and Service layer: This layer acts as an intermediate layer between
the sensing and actuating layer and the application layer.
 The sensed and process data is stored in the server for future use.
 Moreover, these data are accessible at any time from any remote location by
authorized users.
 Depending on the sensed values from the deployed sensor nodes, the pump actuates to
irrigate the field.
 A processing board as depicted in Figure (b) is developed for the project.

 (iii) Application layer: The farmer can access the status of the pump, whether it is in
switch on/off, and the value of different soil parameters from his/her cell phone.
 This information is accessible with the help of the integrated GSM facility of the
farmers’ cell phone.

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 23

  Additionally, an LED array indicator and LCD system is installed in the farmers’
house.
 Using the LCD and LED, a farmer can easily track the condition of his respective
fields.
 Apart from this mechanism, a farmer can manually access field information with the
help of a Web-based application.
 Moreover, the farmer can control the pump using his/her cell phone from a remote
location.

Deployment
 The system has been deployed and experimented in two agricultural fields: (i) an
agricultural field at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur),
India, and (ii) Benapur, a village near IIT Kharagpur, India.
 Both the agricultural fields were divided into 10 equal sub-fields of 3x3m 2. In order to
examine the performance, the system was deployed at over 4 sub-fields.
 Each of these sub-fields consists of a solenoid valve, a water level sensor, and a soil
moisture sensor, along with a processing board.
 On the other hand, the remaining six sub-fields were irrigated through a manual
conventional irrigation process.
 The comparison analysis between these six and four fields summarily reports that the
designed system’s performance is superior to the conventional manual process of
irrigation.

Assignment Questions
1. List the type of sensors which can be used for agricultural IoT.
2. Explain two use cases where drones can be used for agricultural IoT.
3. Design a scenario where we can use fog computing in agriculture.
4. How can agricultural IoT help in the efficient distribution of water in agricultural
fields?
5. What are the roles of the various IoT components in an agri-chain?
6. What are the advantages of agricultural IoT?
7. List a few communication modules used for agricultural IoT?
8. Design a case study to develop an IoT-based agricultural planter. In the case study,
you should include the requirement analysis of different components and justify their
usability in the planter.
9. What is the importance of satellites in agricultural IoT?

Sandeep K.H Dept of CSE, PESITM-Shivamogga Page 24