Technologies, Protocols, and applications of Internet of Things in greenhouse Farming: A survey of recent advances

Abstract

Greenhouse farming is considered one of the precision and sustainable forms of smart agriculture. Although greenhouse gases can support off-season crops inside the indoor environment, monitoring, controlling, and managing crop parameters at greenhouse farms more precisely and securely is necessary, even in harsh climate regions. The evolving Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, including smart sensors, devices, network topologies, big data analytics, and intelligent decision-making, are thought to be the solution for automating greenhouse farming parameters like internal atmosphere control, irrigation control, crop growth monitoring, and so on. This paper introduces a comprehensive survey of recent advances in IoT-based greenhouse farming. We summarize the related review articles. The classification of greenhouse farming based on IoT (smart greenhouse, hydroponics greenhouse, and vertical farming) is introduced. Also, we present a detailed architecture for the components of greenhouse agriculture applications based on IoT, including physical devices, communication protocols, and cloud/fog computing technologies. We also present a classification of IoT applications of greenhouse farming, including monitoring, controlling, tracking, and predicting. Furthermore, we present the technical and resource management challenges for optimal greenhouse farming. Moreover, countries already applying IoT in greenhouse farming have been presented. Lastly, future suggestions related to IoT-based greenhouse farming have been introduced.