A framework for wireless sensor networks management for precision viticulture and agriculture based on IEEE 1451 standard

• IEEE 1451 framework for managing IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee sensor networks in PA/PV applications.
• IEEE 1451 NCAP implementation over an in-field gateway (iPAGAT) that collects data from heterogeneous data sources.
• Smart and unmanned wireless data acquisition device that operates as a IEEE 1451 WTIM without the need of polling.
• Normalized procedures for distributed data acquisition procedures over mesh-type ZigBee sensor networks.
• Combination iPAGAT/NCAP allows the creation of smart, easy-to-configure systems.

Precision viticulture (PV) and precision agriculture (PA) requires the acquisition and processing of a vast collection of data coming typically from large scale and heterogeneous sensor networks. Unfortunately, sensor integration is far from being simple due to the number of incompatible network specifications and platforms. The adoption of a common, standard communication interface would allow the engineer to abstract the relation between the sensor and the network. This would reduce the development efforts and emerge as an important step towards the adoption of “plug-and-play” technology in PA/PV sensor networks. This paper explores this need and introduces a framework for smart data acquisition in PA/PV that relies on the IEEE 1451 family of standards, which addresses the transducer-to-network interoperability issues. The framework includes a ZigBee end device (sMPWiNodeZ), as an IEEE 1451 WTIM (Wireless Transducer Interface Module), and an IEEE 1451 NCAP (Network Capable Application Processor) that acts as gateway to an information service provider and WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) coordinator. The paper discusses the proposed IEEE 1451 system architecture and its benefits in PA/PV and closes with results/lessons learned from in-field trials towards smarter WSN.