BYON: Bring Your Own Networks for Digital Agriculture Applications
Emerson Sie, Bill Tao, Aganze Mihigo, Parithimaal Karmehan, Max Zhang, Arun N. Sivakumar, Girish Chowdhary, Deepak Vasisht
TL;DR
BYON addresses the rural broadband gap in agriculture by decoupling permanent blanket connectivity from farm needs and enabling on-demand high-bandwidth access via a mobile CBRS gateway with Starlink backhaul. The approach combines a height-adjustable base station on farming equipment with a crop-aware signal model to optimize under-canopy coverage and teleoperation, validated through on-field measurements and multi-client scenarios. Key contributions include the first on-farm CBRS analysis under crop attenuation, a dynamic-height base station design, and an end-to-end demonstration of under-canopy robot teleoperation, all underscored by a physics-based signal model and calibration procedure. The practical impact is substantial cost reduction and expanded capability for video-rich farming tasks, aligned with the seasonal rhythms of agriculture.
Abstract
Digital agriculture technologies rely on sensors, drones, robots, and autonomous farm equipment to improve farm yields and incorporate sustainability practices. However, the adoption of such technologies is severely limited by the lack of broadband connectivity in rural areas. We argue that farming applications do not require permanent always-on connectivity. Instead, farming activity and digital agriculture applications follow seasonal rhythms of agriculture. Therefore, the need for connectivity is highly localized in time and space. We introduce BYON, a new connectivity model for high bandwidth agricultural applications that relies on emerging connectivity solutions like citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) and satellite networks. BYON creates an agile connectivity solution that can be moved along a farm to create spatio-temporal connectivity bubbles. BYON incorporates a new gateway design that reacts to the presence of crops and optimizes coverage in agricultural settings. We evaluate BYON in a production farm and demonstrate its benefits.