Energy-Efficient Network Protocol for Precision Agriculture: Using threshold sensitive sensors for optimal performance

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become an emerging technology for precision agriculture. This article details a periodic threshold sensitive hybrid routing protocol for precision agriculture. The proposed protocol uses region-based static clustering approaches for deploying sensor nodes, which provide efficient coverage to the entire agricultural area. Deploying heterogeneous types of nodes in different regions as per their performing task and energy level provides a better solution for the coverage-hole problem. The sensor nodes deployed in the network sense the environment parameter continuously, but the sensed data acquired about the environmental factor of the agricultural area is transmitted to the base station (BS) only when the user-defined periodic timer (PT) or sensed attributes value exceeds the desired threshold.