Design Considerations and Data Communication Architecture for National Animal Identification and Traceability System in Nigeria

Wireless communication systems and their supporting infrastructure continue to play a vital role in contemporary daily activities. Due to the unprecedented levels of interconnectivity achieved between wireless devices in recent times, new insights and paradigms for the robust deployment and better utilization of wireless communication systems are always of interest to many countries for socio-economic development. Present-day Nigeria is faced with the challenge of insurgencies whose financing has been linked to proceeds from livestock theft or rustling according to many scholarly works and news reports. To mitigate rustling and the sales of stolen livestock via identification and traceability from ‘herds to markets to homes’, the design considerations and data communication architecture for national animal identification and traceability system in Nigeria (NAITS) is proposed in this paper for safer and improved livestock farming and production. Particularly, technical insight into the co-use of radio frequency identification (RFID) and fifth-generation new radio (5G NR) technologies for the implementation of NAITS are highlighted and discussed in this paper for a prospective technological policy plan and development in Nigeria.