Dependable Network Design for Balancing Cost and Availability in a Multi-Crop Greenhouse NCS

Precision agriculture is a growing field worldwide. The quality of the monitoring process in greenhouses has an important effect on the quality of the crops. This paper studies a 200m × 40m greenhouse with wireless sensors, actuators, a controller, and five Access Points (APs). The greenhouse has two different crops, one more sensitive than the other and requiring a more dependable monitoring process. A Performability model is developed (based on Markov models) to help greenhouse management make appropriate decisions regarding the best sensor data routing scheme in case of one or more AP failures. The model considers the location of the crops in the greenhouse as well as their different monitoring requirements and profit margins. A case study case is presented, to illustrate the use of the model, which produced counter intuitive results.