Mobile Ad Hoc Networking Approach to Detecting and Querying Events Related to Farm Animals

This paper proposes a mobile ad hoc networking approach to detecting and querying events related to farm animals such as oestrus, animal diseases and decreased efficiency of pastures. This problem is essential because inattention to the health or welfare of the animals can lead to reduced productivity and death of valuable stock. The proposed approach guided by the identified requirements utilizes the available networking infrastructure but also works in a fully ad hoc infrastructure-less conditions. Data is acquired from the animal mounted devices using reliable multi hop wireless communication. Data can be also accessed from a portable device directly connecting to the sensor devices over wireless communication. We perform a simulation based evaluation of our approach showing that the proposed acquisition of data from the animal mounted devices is feasible even using energy efficient, low range, low bandwidth wireless communication