Combining FIWARE and IoT technologies for smart, small-scale farming: the case of QUHOMA platform architecture

Abstract

This work aims to integrate the technical designs of Future Internet (FI) Architecture of the European Community (FIWARE) with state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and the platform's business requirements and specifications for realizing efficient, small-scale qualitative, farming. An innovative business model is introduced through a set of offered services that are based on networking `things' and passing contextual data (information) to business entities to further process, distribute and monetise the derived knowledge to their organisations (farmers, agronomists/mentors, Quality Certification Bodies). All these follow, technologically, the IoT concept. A FIWARE-enabled platform exploits Future Intelligence's end-to-end standardised modern wireless sensor network (Future Intelligence's Internet of Things (FINoT)) that performs tedious tasks and makes field-data available anytime and `everywhere'. Everywhere currently means within the under-development community or for public use only under farmers' (on a per demand case) permissions. The platform enables access to the sensor data and facilitates process automation, resource management and data handling. The main target of the solution is to establish an ecosystem of technology services that lead to very specific business opportunities: a data consolidation mechanism acquiring data from different sensor controllers bought from various vendors. In that sense, the platform aims to continue the integration of FI-enabled software tools with emergent technologies, architectures and business concepts. Creativity and quality of usage of the Generic Enablers and FIWARE's Technology chapters is profound: the proposed solution takes advantage of the already built-in application programming interfaces and tools provided by the FIWARE platform, like the IoT/context chapter smoothly integrated with FINoT platform and co-developing outstanding B2B Marketplace opportunities (Business Framework) consumed through an ideal User Experience Web Environment. Overall, the agriculture marketplace and community's (QUalitative HOrticulture Marketplace) vision is to promote and reward quality and sustainable farming in fruit and vegetables' production by bringing together Internet of People with the IoT; a bridge realised by a proper business model.