Implementation of an interactive environment with multilevel wireless links for distributed botanical garden in University Campus

Abstract

In this contribution, an end to end system to enable user interaction with a distributed botanicaluniversity campus garden is designed, implemented and tested. The proposed system employs differentwireless links to collect data related to different bio physiological parameters of both the vegetation massand the surrounding environment. Detailed analysis of these multilevel communication links is performedby using deterministic volumetric wireless channel estimation and considering underground, near groundand over ground radio propagation conditions. An in-house developed technique enables accurate wirelesschannel characterization for complete campus scenario considering the multiple link types and all itscomposing elements. Node definition and network topology is thus obtained by wireless channel analysis ofover ground, near ground and underground communication for both 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz Wireless SensorNetworks in an inhomogeneous vegetation environment. Connectivity to enable user interaction as well asfor telemetry and tele-control purposes within the campus is achieved by combining ZigBee and LoRaWANtransceivers with the corresponding sensor/actuator platforms. Coverage studies have been performed inorder to assess communication capabilities in the set of multiple underground/near ground/over groundlinks, by means of deterministic channel analysis for the complete university campus location. Measurementresults in lab environment as well as full system deployment are presented, showing good agreement withdeterministic simulations. Moreover, system level tests have been performed over a physical campus cloud,providing adequate quality of experience metrics. The proposed solution is a scalable system that providesreal time trees status monitoring by a cloud-based platform, enabling user interaction within a distributedbotanical garden environment in the university campus.