Smart Soil Monitoring: Leveraging LoRa-based IoT for Sustainable Agriculture 4.0

This paper explores the potential of LoRa-based wireless underground IoT systems to enhance smart agriculture applications, with a specific focus on underground-to-aboveground communication. The system features an underground node equipped with oxygen sensors connected to an aboveground node via a LoRa-enabled network. Laboratory tests were conducted to assess the impact of burial depth and internode distance on signal strength and reliability. The results show that both the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) degrade as burial depth and internode distance increase. Despite signal attenuation, LoRa’s modulation scheme ensured reliable data transmission, achieving a 99.8% of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR). These findings confirm the viability of LoRa-based networks for underground-to-aboveground communication in shallow underground environments, offering significant potential for advancing urban farming through efficient, low-power wireless IoT systems.