Application of Mobile Networks (5G and Beyond) in Precision Agriculture.

The multiple capabilities offered by the 5G network have significantly accelerated the expansion of the service portfolio of telecommunication operators. The future mobile network is expected to elevate these possibilities to an even higher level. Enormous data rate, near-to-zero latency and huge density of devices will allow for building robust and innovative ecosystems providing specialized services to the vertical industries. Moreover, the progress in network expansion towards the edge has facilitated the provisioning of services with stringent requirements much closer to the interested parties. One of such demanding field of services, which is recently gaining much economic significance, is Precision Agriculture (PA). The goal of the paper is to present and assess the possibility of application of 5G and next-generation mobile networks to facilitate PA use cases. After the requirements assessment and 5G network capabilities analysis, the assignment of currently defined slice types and 5G Quality Indicators (5QIs) to the typical PA services is proposed. Moreover, the readiness of the 5G network as well as missing features with regards to PA are identified and addressed to 5G-Advanced and future 6G mobile networks.