Deployment and topology of a wireless sensor network for precision viticulture

Precision viticulture is a specialization of precision agriculture techniques applied to viticulture. Precision agriculture is the use of information system technologies applied to agricultural production. Some of the applicable technologies are; Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), spectroscopy analysis of Near-Infrared (NIR), Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These systems provide means of observation, evaluation and control of agricultural activities. The farmers demand assistant systems to perform actions for saving time and avoiding risks. There are studies of maps crops and mesh-sampling techniques to predict the harvest volume in a vineyard with a certain varieties of grapes. The prediction is based on a previous study of crops over a period of three to four years. Along these three or four years a large volume of samples is taken to study several parameters. In this application area is where the wireless sensor networks technologies would have high incidence. In this context we intend to analyse, at first place, the specific characteristics of the operational environment of a vineyard. Second, we will analyse the most appropriate architecture for a sensor network in this environment. Application of wireless sensor networks technology can take many forms depending of environment, and implementation objectives. In this paper we discuss about the best procedure for deployment and the optimal topology of a wireless sensor network for viticulture.