On Burial Depth of Underground Antenna in Soil Horizons for Decision Agriculture

Abstract

Decision agriculture is the practice of accurately capturing the changing parameters of the soil including water infiltration and retention, nutrients supply, acidity, and other time changing phenomena by using the modern technologies. Using decision agriculture, fields can be irrigated more efficiently hence conserving water resources and increasing productivity. The Internet of Underground Things (IOUT) is being used to monitor the soil for smart irrigation. Moreover, the communication in wireless underground sensor networks is affected by soil characteristics such as soil texture, volumetric water content (VWC) and bulk density. These soil characteristics vary with soil type and soil horizons within a field. In this paper, we have investigated the effects of these characteristics by considering Holdrege soil series and homogeneous soil. It is shown that the consideration of soil characteristics of different soil horizons leads to 6% improved communication in wireless underground communications for smart agricultural practices.