Wi-fi towers improve network on WA farm


Western Australian farmer Darrin Lee installed a network of soil moisture probes and weather stations to monitor rainfall, available soil moisture, temperature and relative humidity throughout the season across his 6,500ha (16,000 acre) grain and sheep farm. To access the data in real-time, he needed to improve network coverage across the farm, and installed three 23m (75ft) tall WiFi towers that enable voice and data connectivity in every paddock. Within paddocks, sector antennas and point to point connections create the backbone of the network. “We are set-up to have our own intranet that gives us the ability to have our own private


network,” he says, adding that it took five years to achieve. Climate and soil data from the nine weather stations is linked to plant development rates and projected available water and used to make management decisions. The network is also used to collect real-time data from machines – like harvesters, seeding rigs and sprayers, as well as agronomic information like spray rates, droplet size and crop yield. Other sensors provide surveillance. “We have cameras linked to network for security. I can go away and keep an eye on my 50,000 litres of fuel on the farm,” says Mr Lee. All information is stored in the farm’s own area in the cloud allowing him to access to his data from his own server. For Mr Lee, connectivity is fundamental to the running of his farming business and he believes in 10 years time “digital agriculture will be just called farming”.


wholesale broadband service provider. The survey, produced by government


research body CSIRO established that 55% of respondents relied on the mobile phone network for internet, yet 43% had patchy or no mobile reception across their property. That makes internet connectivity for machine telematics or data sharing very restricted. Some 6% of respondents had no internet


connection, although this could be through choice or lack of service, and a further 44% subscribed to one of the three NBN options. These are fibre to node (1% – service mainly


available in urban areas), fixed wireless (16%) or one of the two satellite options – Sky Muster (12%) or NBN interim satellite (15%). Not only is NBN a monopoly, it also dictates


which level of broadband connection it can provide each customer and only offers one connection per property. For example, my farm-based office is 15km (9 miles) from our nearest town and 100km (62 miles) from the state capital, Adelaide. Telstra’s voice service is patchy even with an antenna on a building or the car. Text is not too bad. On Optus, I can usually make and receive


calls from my office, although I occasionally need to resort to having a meeting sitting on top of the water tank. Mobile data can be patchy, but the other


day I took part in an international webinar that linked participants from North and South America, Europe and Australasia on my phone. For NBN, my only option is satellite, which


generally works well, unless the power goes out and there is no connection. I am grateful to have any broadband, as the


NBN roll-out is only due for completion in 2020. That is possibly another reason why 6% of survey respondents did not have any form of internet connection. The downside of satellite is that it is


expensive, slow, plans are capped and it has certain programming requirements that are unknown to designers of some cloud based services, so these fail to work. Oh, and if I do go over my plan then it is shaped until the next billing period starts – that means I have data, but speed is reduced to usually less than 100kbps. Add latency and that means internet connectivity is rubbish.


WHAT CAN AUSTRALIAN FARMERS DO TO IMPROVE THEIR CONNECTIVITY?


DIY options The challenges of patchy mobile connectivity and limitations of satellite broadband are making farmers take matters in to their own hands and invest in on- farm telecommunications infrastructure. Mobile booster Legislation controls the use of mobile phone


boosters, limiting what can be used. Cel-fi for static locations and Cel-fi Go for use in vehicles has universal acceptance from the three major networks. Boosters are not cheap, but are a one-off capital purchase with no monthly fees. Signal repeaters Several companies offer Australian farms


high-speed internet right across the property, providing they are within about 50km (30 miles) of a town with NBN fiber to node connectivity or an area with fast, reliable mobile connectivity. A gateway to/from the reliable, full-strength source beams signal to repeaters that bounce it to and across a property.


▶ ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 9 November 2017 41


EVAN COLLIS


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