BYON: Bring Your Own Networks for Digital Agriculture Applications

2025-02-03

AI Summary

Insufficient rural broadband coverage severely hinders the deployment of high-bandwidth digital agriculture applications—such as drone-based field inspection and robotic irrigation. To address this, we propose a spatiotemporal on-demand connectivity model tailored to dynamic agricultural requirements across seasons and regions. Our approach introduces an elastic connectivity paradigm aligned with agricultural rhythms: it integrates Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum sharing with low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite networks to form mobile “connectivity bubbles”; designs edge-mounted, crop-growth-aware mobile gateways; and develops a spatiotemporal-aware coverage optimization algorithm for adaptive network reconfiguration. Field deployment on a real farm demonstrates that our solution significantly improves connection availability and energy efficiency for high-bandwidth applications. It establishes a scalable, low-latency, and on-demand paradigm for agricultural private networks.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Application Domains: Internet of Things, Sensor Networks & Smart Cities
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Vertical and domain-specific search

Abstract

Digital agriculture technologies rely on sensors, drones, robots, and autonomous farm equipment to improve farm yields and incorporate sustainability practices. However, the adoption of such technologies is severely limited by the lack of broadband connectivity in rural areas. We argue that farming applications do not require permanent always-on connectivity. Instead, farming activity and digital agriculture applications follow seasonal rhythms of agriculture. Therefore, the need for connectivity is highly localized in time and space. We introduce BYON, a new connectivity model for high bandwidth agricultural applications that relies on emerging connectivity solutions like citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) and satellite networks. BYON creates an agile connectivity solution that can be moved along a farm to create spatio-temporal connectivity bubbles. BYON incorporates a new gateway design that reacts to the presence of crops and optimizes coverage in agricultural settings. We evaluate BYON in a production farm and demonstrate its benefits.

Problem

• Rural Broadband Deficiency
• Digital Agriculture Technology
• High Bandwidth Requirement

Innovation

• Digital Agriculture
• High-bandwidth Connectivity
• Flexible Mobile Network