SMART AGRICULTURE - NB-IoT

Business and technology leaders around the world are considering how they can use 5G’s faster data speeds, ultra-high reliability, very low latency, and other advancements to digitally transform their organizations. For example, though 5G networks are still being rolled out, many companies are already looking at how they can use 5G to develop new factory automation, self-healing energy grids, autonomous vehicles and other new types of IoT applications.

However, those who are focusing only on 5G broadband might be missing out on the fact that two Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networking technologies also offer them opportunities into 5G standards to develop and launch transformative new IoT applications.

These two LPWA technologies – Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and LTE Machine Type Communication (LTE-M, also known as eMTC) – transmit data at rates slower than Long Term Evolution (LTE), and 5G New Radio (5G NR).

Their low cost, high capacity, low power consumption and wide coverage (the Four Cs of LPWA) make them well suited for a wide range of IoT applications – particularly Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications, including, but not limited to:

Environmental Monitoring
Industry monitoring
Health Care
Sensitive assets transportation
Smart City applications
Smart Agriculture / precise harvest

For the purpose of this current case, we will focus only on SMART AGRICULTURE / PRECISE HARVAST, and will discard the other applications.

The adoption of the NB-IoT technology in satellite communications intends to boost Internet of Things services beyond the boundaries imposed by the current terrestrial infrastructures.

To offer a real smart agriculture service operating in Europe, the resulting solution exploits 24 Low Earth Orbit satellites, grouped into 8 different orbits, moving at an altitude of 500 km. The configured protocol stack supports the transmission of tens of bytes generated at the application layer, by also counteracting the issues introduced by the satellite link. Since each satellite has the whole protocol stack on-board, terminals can transmit data without the need for the feeder link. This ensures communication latencies ranging from 16 minutes to 75 minutes, depending on the served number of terminals and the physical transmission settings. Moreover, the usage of the Early Data Transmission scheme reduces communication latencies up to 40%. These results pave the way towards the deployment of an effective proof-of-concept, which drastically reduces the time-to-market imposed by the current state of the art.

With the exponential growth of world population, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), by 2050, the global population is expected to surpass 9 billion people, hence the World would need to produce 70% more food before that.

Because of shrinking agricultural lands and depletion of finite natural resources, the need to enhance farm yield has become critical. Limited availability of natural resources such as fresh water and arable land along with slowing yield trends in several staple crops, have further aggravated the problem.

Another impeding concern over the farming industry is the shifting structure of agricultural workforce. Moreover, agricultural labor in most of the countries has declined. Adoption of internet connectivity solutions in farming practices has been triggered, to reduce the need for manual labor.

IoT solutions are focused on helping farmers close the supply demand gap, by ensuring high yields, profitability, and protection of the environment. The approach of using IoT technology to ensure optimum application of resources to achieve high crop yields and reduce operational costs is called precision agriculture. IoT in agriculture technologies comprise specialized equipment, wireless connectivity, software and IT services.

BI Intelligence survey expects that the adoption of IoT devices in the agriculture industry will reach 75 million in 2020, growing 20% annually. At the same time, the global smart agriculture market size is expected to triple by 2025, reaching $15.3 billion (compared to being slightly over $5 billion back in 2016).

Smart farming based on IoT technologies enables growers and farmers to reduce waste and enhance productivity ranging from the quantity of fertilizer utilized to the number of journeys the farm vehicles have made, and enabling efficient utilization of resources such as water, electricity, etc. IoT smart farming solutions is a system that is built for monitoring the crop field with the help of sensors (light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture, crop health, etc.) and automating the irrigation system. The farmers can monitor the field conditions from anywhere. They can also select between manual and automated options for taking necessary actions based on this data. For example, if the soil moisture level decreases, the farmer can deploy sensors to start the irrigation. Smart farming is highly efficient when compared with the conventional approach.

It is still a young market in Brazil. Hence there is still plenty of room for incoming players willing to join.

REMOTE SENSE IMAGING satellite services are also a very powerful tool on providing precise results for a perfect smart farming planning. Combined to NB-IoT tools, can be very effective for SMART FARMING.

Check for REMOTE SENSING IMAGING at the AMAZONIA-1 business case.

Check for HD REMOTE SENSE IMAGING at the CARPONIS-1 business case.

Below, a sample picture of Remote Sense Imaging over a smart farming region.

PRECISE HARVEST

IoT is definetively a driving force for increasing agricultural production in a cost-effective way.

IoT use cases in agriculture:

1. Smart agriculture sensors. Usually combined with weather stations. Located across the field, they collect various data from the environment and send it to the cloud. In this approach, key components are sensors, control systems, robotics, autonomous vehicles, automated hardware, variable rate technology, motion detectors, button camera, and wearable devices. This data can be used to track the state of the business in general as well as staff performance and equipment efficiency. The ability to foresee the output of production allows to plan for better product distribution (i.e. precision farming). In addition to sourcing environmental data, weather stations can automatically adjust the conditions to match the given parameters.

This data enables farmers to estimate optimal amounts of water, fertilizers, and pesticides that their crops need, reduce expenses, and raise better and healthier crops.

For example, CropX build IoT soil sensors that measure soil moisture, temperature, and electric conductivity enabling farmers to approach each crop’s unique needs individually. Combined with geospatial data, this technology helps create precise soil maps for each field. Mothive offers similar services, helping farmers reduce waste, improve yields, and increase farm sustainability.

2. Agricultural Drones. Ground-based and aerial-based drones are being used in order to enhance various agricultural practices: crop health assessment, irrigation, crop monitoring, crop spraying, planting, and soil & field analysis. Perhaps one of the most promising agritech advancements is the use of agricultural drones in smart farming. Also known as UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), they are better equipped than airplanes and satellites to collect agricultural data. Apart from surveillance capabilities, drones can also perform a vast number of tasks that previously required human labor: planting crops, fighting pests and infections, agriculture spraying, crop monitoring, etc. DroneSeed, for example, builds drones for planting trees in deforested areas. The use of such drones is 6 times more effective than human labor. A Sense Fly agriculture drone eBee SQ uses multispectral image analyses to estimate the health of crops and comes at an affordable price.

3. Livestock tracking and geofencing. Farm owners can utilize wireless IoT applications to collect data regarding the location, well-being, and health of their cattle. This information helps to prevent the spread of disease and also lowers labor costs. There are IoT agriculture sensors that can be attached to the animals on a farm to monitor their health and log performance. For example, such sensors can identify sick animals so that farmers can separate them from the herd and avoid contamination. Collar tags deliver temperature, health, activity, and nutrition insights on each individual cow as well as collective information about the herd. Using drones for real-time cattle tracking also helps farmers reduce staffing expenses.

4. Smart greenhouse. IoT intelligently monitors and controls the climate, eliminating the need for manual intervention. The use of IoT sensors enables accurate real-time information on greenhouse conditions such as lighting, temperature, soil condition, and humidity. In addition, smart sprinklers controller allows you to manage your irrigation and lighting systems remotely.

5. Smart predictive analytics for crop. It helps the farmer in crop planing, its storage, marketing techniques and risk management. To predict production rate, an artificial network uses data collected by sensors from the farm. This includes parameters such as soil composition, temperature, pressure, rainfall intensity, humidity, CO2 levels, and pest infections. Farmers get an accurate soil data either by the dashboard or a customized mobile application. Just like weather stations, sensors should be placed in the field to collect data specific to crop farming; from temperature and precipitation to leaf water potential and overall crop health. Thus, you can monitor your crop growth and any anomalies to effectively prevent any diseases or infestations that can harm your yield. Arable and Semios can serve as good representations of how this use case can be applied in real life.

6. Data optimization. While IoT and smart sensor technology are a goldmine for highly relevant real-time data, the use of data analytics helps farmers make sense of it and come up with important predictions: crop harvesting time, the risks of diseases and infestations, yield volume, etc. Data analytics tools help make farming, which is inherently highly dependent on weather conditions, more manageable, and predictable.

For example, the Crop Performance platform helps farmers access the volume and quality of yields in advance, as well as their vulnerability to unfavorable weather conditions, such as floods and drought. It also enables farmers to optimize the supply of water and nutrients for each crop and even select yield traits to improve quality.

Applied in agriculture, solutions like SoilScout enable farmers to save up to 50% irrigation water, reduce the loss of fertilizers caused by overwatering, and deliver actionable insights regardless of season or weather conditions.

7. End-to-end farm management systems. A more complex approach to IoT products in agriculture can be represented by the so-called farm productivity management systems. They usually include a number of agriculture IoT devices and sensors, installed on the premises as well as a powerful dashboard with analytical capabilities and in-built accounting/reporting features.

This offers remote farm monitoring capabilities and allows you to streamline most of the business operations. Similar solutions are represented by FarmLogs and Cropio.

In addition to the listed IoT agriculture use cases, some prominent opportunities include vehicle tracking (or even automation), storage management, logistics, etc.

As we can see, the use cases for IoT in agriculture are endless.

SMART DEVICES

There are many ways smart devices can help increase farm’s performance and revenue. Important factors to consider are:

1. The infrastructure

To ensure that your smart farming application performs well (and to make sure it can handle the data load), you need a solid internal infrastructure.

Furthermore, your internal systems have to be secure. Failing to properly secure your system only increases the likeliness of someone breaking into it, stealing your data or even taking control of your autonomous tractors.

2. Connectivity

The need to transmit data between many agricultural facilities still poses a challenge for the adoption of smart farming. Needless to say, the connection between these facilities should be reliable enough to withstand bad weather conditions and to ensure non-disruptive operations. Today, IoT devices still use varying connection protocols, although the efforts to develop unified standards in this area are currently underway. The advent of 5G and technologies like space-based Internet will, hopefully, help find a solution to this problem.

3. Data collection frequency

Because of the high variety of data types in the agricultural industry, ensuring the optimal data collection frequency can be problematic. The data from field-based, aerial and environmental sensors, apps, machinery, and equipment, as well as processed analytical data, can be a subject of restriction and regulations. Today, the safe and timely delivery, and sharing of this data is one of the current smart farming challenges.

4. Data security in the agriculture industry

Precision agriculture and IoT technology imply working with large sets of data, which increases the number of potential security loopholes that perpetrators can use for data theft and hacking attacks. Unfortunately, data security in agriculture is still, to a large extent, an unfamiliar concept. Many farms, for example, use drones that transmit data to farm machinery. This machinery connects to the Internet but has little to zero security protection, such as user passwords or remote access authentications.

Some of the basic IoT security recommendations include monitoring data traffic, using encryption methods to protect sensitive data, leveraging AI-based security tools to detect traces of suspicious activity in real-time, and storing data in the blockchain to ensure its integrity. To fully benefit from IoT, farmers will have to get familiar with the data security concept, set up internal security policies, and adhere to them.

As the resources for agricultural operations are limited (most of the lands suitable for farming are already in use), the only way to increase volume is to improve production efficiency. There is no doubt as to the extent with which smart farming can help tackle this challenge; in fact, it seems that it is not possible without it.

NB-IoT is leveraging the challenge solution

What is the NB-IoT standard?

NB-IoT is a wireless telecommunications technology standard developed by 3GPP, the international standards body responsible for all major mobile telecommunications standards, including 4G standards like LTE and 5G standards like 5G NR.

NB-IoT uses the same sub-6 GHz wireless spectrum as the 4G LTE technology, but unlike 4G LTE and other previous wireless telecommunications standards, NB-IoT (along with LTE-M) was developed with the IoT in mind.

Both NB-IoT and LTE-M are designed to support IoT use cases that do not need very high data speeds but do require devices that are:

Inexpensive.
• Can run for a decade or more using only battery power.
• Can connect to cellular networks even if there are hundreds of devices like it nearby.
• Can be reached in remote rural locations, inside buildings, or underground.

How does NB-IoT address IoT use case requirements?

NB-IoT addresses the needs of many IoT use cases because it:

Costs less: NB-IoT (like LTE-M and the in-development RedCap device standard) uses half-duplex communications, which means either the module is transmitting data or the cellular base station is transmitting data – not both. This use of half-duplex communications — combined with NB-IoT’s lower data speeds and its use of lower Radio Frequency (RF) bandwidth and a single antenna — reduce the complexity and thus cost of NB-IoT devices. These simplifications lower the cost of NB-IoT modules by as much as 50 percent compared to regular LTE Cat-1 cellular modules.

Consumes less power: NB-IoT reduces the power consumed by battery-powered edge modules when they transmit data by up to 75 percent compared to regular LTE Cat-1 modules, thanks to features like Power Savings Mode (PSM) and eDRX (Extended Discontinuous Reception), as well as NB-IoT’s ability to optimize the amount of energy used for small data transmissions. This allows IoT application developers to build devices that can operate for a decade or more using battery power.

Provides more capacity: NB-IoT’s use of narrowband transmission, signaling optimization, adaptive modulation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) enables as many as one million NB-IoT devices per square kilometer to connect to the network.

Delivers better coverage: NB-IoT employs large signal repetition. While this lowers NB-IoT’s data rate, and increases its power consumption, large signal repetition improves NB-IoT’s coverage by 5-10X over other cellular technologies. Thanks to this better coverage, NB-IoT devices can connect to cellular networks even if they are located deep inside a building, in a remote rural location, or even underground.

Are there different versions of NB-IoT?

Yes. Cat-NB1, the first version of the NB-IoT standard, was introduced in 3GPP Release 13. This version of NB-IoT delivers downlink peak data rates as fast as 26 kilobits per second (kbps) and uplink peak data rates up to 62 kbps, with a latency ranging from 1.6 to 10 seconds.

Cat-NB2, the newest version of NB-IoT, was introduced in 3GPP Release 14. Cat-NB2 increases NB-IoT’s peak downlink data transfer speed to 127 kbps, and its uplink peak data rate to 150 kbps. 3GPP Release 14 also introduces advanced positioning technologies for NB-IoT such as OTDOA (Observed Time Difference of Arrival) and E-CID (Enhanced Cell ID), both of which improve location accuracy.

In addition, 3GPP Release 14 brings the Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection re-establishment feature to NB-IoT devices. This feature allows NB-IoT devices to transfer their cellular connection from one cell to another cell as the device moves between cells, without having to start this transfer process over again if the device experiences a radio link failure (i.e. a drop). RRC makes it possible to use Release 14 NB-IoT devices for pedestrian, bicycling, and similar types of mobile applications.

What is the difference between NB-IoT and LTE-M?

Though similar in many ways, there are some important differences between NB-IoT and LTE-M.

LTE-M provides faster data rates than NB-IoT, as well as lower latency (the amount of time it takes for a device to connect to a network and send or receive a message). These capabilities allow LTE-M to support voice communications in addition to data communications, as well as IoT applications (like precision tracking or power grid control) that need more real-time communications. In addition, LTE-M provides much better performance for mobile IoT applications than NB-IoT, despite the mobility upgrades found in Cat-NB2.

LTE-M’s faster speeds also make it better for more data-intensive IoT applications. Additionally, LTE-M, as a natural extension of 4G LTE, benefits from out-of-the box roaming, i.e. the ability to use a SIM card from a network operator on another operator’s network abroad.

However, NB-IoT does have some advantages over LTE-M. Though both LTE-M and NB-IoT provide better coverage than other technologies, most network operators have deployed NB-IoT networks with technologies that deliver the best possible coverage improvements, and LTE-M networks with technologies that provide only partial coverage improvements. In the real-world today, this leads to NB-IoT networks providing better coverage than LTE-M in warehouses, office buildings, and underground locations where signal loss and multiple layers of obstruction can lead to connectivity problems.

These advantages make NB-IoT a great choice for simple, static, very low-data IoT applications.

What are some NB-IoT use cases?

NB-IoT is well suited for IoT use cases where high data rates, low latency, and high mobility are not required, but low cost, strong coverage, very extensive capacity, and low energy consumption are.

Examples of such simple, static, low-data, low-energy use cases include:

Crop, livestock, and other agricultural monitoring applications
• Fuel, water, and other pipeline and tank management applications
• Parking, waste management, street lighting, and other smart city applications
• Home and building automation applications

Is NB-IoT 5G?

NB-IoT and LTE-M were initially developed for the 4G LTE standard. However, 3GPP, the standards group responsible for 5G as well as the NB-IoT and LTE-M standards, has made NB-IoT and LTE-M part of the 5G standard. In fact, they are the only standards that 3GPP plans to support for LPWA use cases, which require low cost, low power, high capacity, and low energy consumption. In addition, just as NB-IoT and LTE-M can operate in band with LTE technologies, so can they also operate in band with new 5G technologies, like 5G New Radio (NR).

Additionally, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), a new capability delivered by 5G NR, enables operators to use the sub-6 GHz wireless spectrum currently used by 4G LTE, NB-IoT, and LTE-M for 5G NR as well. While many have focused on how DSS will accelerate the roll-out of NR by expanding the amount of spectrum this new technology can use, DSS will also ensure that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) continue to support NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies for years to come.

Because 4G LTE, NB-IoT, and LTE-M can share the sub-6 GHz spectrum they currently use with NR, operators do not need to sunset or stop supporting 4G LTE, NB-IoT, and LTE-M technologies in order to use this spectrum both for 4G LTE, NB-IoT, and LTE-M, and also for NR technologies.

Where is NB-IoT coverage available?

According to this list from the GSMA, an industry organization that represents the interests of MNOs, 103 NB-IoT networks have been deployed around the world as of February 2021.

In addition, a map from GSMA shows that national NB-IoT network coverage is available today in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, China, Australia, South Africa, and most of Europe.

What should you look for in NB-IoT module solutions?

Though all NB-IoT modules are based on a common technology standard, modules vary significantly between vendors. When evaluating which module to integrate into your IoT application, some good questions to ask include:

Is the module multi-mode? While the deployment of NB-IoT and LTE-M networks continues to accelerate, there are still regions in the world where national NB-IoT networks are operational, but national LTE-M networks are not (for example, China and Russia). There are also countries where national LTE-M coverage is available but not NB-IoT (for example, Mexico), or where a given operator has no plans to deploy NB-IoT (for example Orange in Europe, or NTT DoCoMo in Japan, which shut down its NB-IoT network after a year of commercial service). By using a multi-mode module with support for both NB-IoT and LTE-M, it is easier to deploy an IoT application globally, knowing that your application can connect to either NB-IoT or LTE-M networks. If you are interested in further simplifying global deployment of your IoT application, consider using modules with a smart embedded SIM (eSIM) that can automatically connect to and switch between NB-IoT and LTE-M networks, allowing you to focus on maximizing the value of the data collected by your IoT devices.

How secure is the module? A poorly designed module can be more susceptible to cyberattacks than a well-designed one. Does the module include built-in security features, such as HTTPS, secure socket, secure boot, and free unlimited firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updates? These and other security features from trustworthy companies with deep-levels of IoT experience will help you protect your IoT data from malicious actors.

Is the module future-proof? Though the NB-IoT module you are evaluating might address all your needs today, updates to your application or new network technologies might result in you wanting to upgrade or update your edge device’s module in the future. Modules that can be updated with new firmware over the air, and those using a common form factor with consistent pin-out and software interfaces, will allow you to more easily adopt new technologies, helping you future-proof your IoT application.

Does the module support edge processing? Modules that make it easy for you to filter, prioritize, or otherwise process some data at the edge can help you update your IoT application’s rules as your business needs change, reduce data transmission costs, and extend the battery life of your devices.

LEOP – launch & early operation services

TT&C services opportunity

Payload Management Opportunity

Despite a few high-profile efforts from the hyper scalars, “Internet everywhere” remains a stretch goal. Still, how pressing is an immediate need for a multi-player gaming experience while sailing solo across the Atlantic, hiking the Australian outback or in rail freight across the plains of Rajasthan?

There’s a lot of useful value to be had in these remote locations through more basic narrow-band connectivity. For asset tracking in containers which may be at sea, on a long-haul train, for fishing vessels, farmers or utility operators, the most obvious way to provide broad coverage is through satellite networks, and very good way to handle low bandwidth traffic is through NB-IoT.

Satellite NB-IoT is coming fast

This is a very active field. It already past proof of concept, now moving into building actual networks. Satellite-based NB-IoT is already well tested in both geostationary satellites and LEO CubeSats. No enhancement is required to the satellites themselves, as these would simply act as a mirror, only this time connecting to small earth-bound hubs.

Such solution usually costs around 5% of what other options would demand, the hubs themselves costing less than $100 a piece, making this truly accessible to everyone.

Many big players are moving towards soon deploy their own constellation of small satellites which will act as base stations, in low orbit around the globe. Most have run trials on existing low-earth orbit satellites. They have already worked through the Doppler and range issues unique to non-stationary satellites. Most are planning services to early start ranging from third-party satellites offering their SDR-based service to a constellation of their own satellites.

There are also hints from China, who launched two IoT specific satellites in May 2020, as a start to building a larger constellation over the next 2-3 years.

SW as a differentiation factor.

The 3GPP standard is now working on release 17, to better support the non-terrestrial use-model. We now wonder if such a change can be supported through a fully SDM (software defined modem) implementation? If it can’t, pilot deployments are going to have a problem, especially if depending on hardware embedded in an already-launched satellite.

There’s another important consideration. While you need to exchange data with your IoT device, often you also need to know where it is, as it may be moving too, considering an asset tracker on a container, on an ocean-bound carrier. That device should provide GNSS support, the global version of GPS, which ideally should fit onto the same platform, adding little additional cost.

This is a very exciting new market opportunity, an opportunity in the middle of rapid evolution. Some of this evolution will impact not only the satellites but also ground-based implementations. CubeSats came to make it viable to scale. See details on Nanosatellites / CubeSat design

A reliable TT&C plus PDT (Payload Data Transmission) systems combined in the ground station service is essential for optimizing the application performance.

Please, also visit our GSaaS Global Ground Segment Network and Earth Observation cases, for more TT&C plus payload data recovery and processing.

Please, check out other KEY ON-GOING BUSINESS CASES at Brazilian Air Force (FAB), Brazilian Navy and other opportunities for Latin America:

If your company is interested in opportunities such as those above, please let us know. MEREGE would be more than glad to act as your bridge into Brazil.

Unfolding relationships previously developed, MEREGE partners are able to quickly build a specific network that reaches the market the costumer needs.

MEREGE Legal & Regulatory team has a long and vast knowledge and experience, hence able to help your company to set the safest and the strongest path.

Always count on the widely respected experience and networking of MEREGE Consulting Partners to reach out to the right people at the right time.

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