T-MQM: Testbed-Based Multi-Metric Quality Measurement of Sensor Deployment for Precision Agriculture—A Case Study

Efficient sensor deployment is one of the primary requirements of the precision agriculture use case of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to provide qualitative and optimal coverage and connectivity. The application-based performance variations of the geometrical-model-based sensor deployment patterns restrict the generalization of a specific deployment pattern for all applications. Furthermore, single or double metrics-based evaluation of the deployment patterns focusing on theoretical or simulation aspects can be attributed to the difference in performance of real applications and the reported performance in the literature. In this context, this paper proposes a testbed-based multi-metric quality measurement of sensor deployment for the precision agriculture use case of WSNs. Specifically, seven metrics are derived for the qualitative measurement of sensor deployment patterns for precision agriculture. The seven metrics are quantified for four sensor deployment patterns to measure the quality of coverage and connectivity. Analytical- and simulation-based evaluations of the measurements are validated through testbed experiment-based evaluations which are carried out in “INDRIYA” WSNs testbed. Toward realistic research impact, the investigative evaluation of the geometrical-model-based deployment patterns presented in this paper could be useful for practitioners and researchers in developing performance guaranteed applications for precision agriculture and novel coverage and connectivity models for deployment patterns.