Enhancing sensor network sustainability with fuzzy logic based node placement approach for agricultural monitoring

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks are widely used in many areas such as underground monitoring, underwater monitoring, and agricultural monitoring. Agricultural monitoring is mostly used in rural areas by farmers with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity. Therefore, the technique of determining the locations where sensor nodes are located in terms of cost and sustainability is very important. The locations where the nodes are located affect the probability of the target region that is within the detection area of a sensor node, relay node, and their connection to the collector station. In this article, a new approach is proposed in which a large number of sensor nodes are placed over a wide agricultural area. In addition, fuzzy logic-based relay selection approach is proposed to enhance network sustainability for agricultural monitoring. Sensor nodes are considered to sense values such as temperature, humidity, pressure, etc. in an agricultural area. Sensor nodes are placed to cover the entire agricultural region to detect these parameters. The values sensed by the sensor nodes are collected by the collector station, which is stationary in the center. The simulation model of the proposed approach was carried out using the Riverbed Modeler software. Thanks to the proposed node placement and relay node selection approaches, it is provided to monitor a certain agricultural area with the least number of wireless sensor nodes.