Wide Area Wireless Network for Supporting Precision Agriculture James M. McKinion Jeffrey L. Willers J. N. Jenkins USDA-ARS Genetics and Precision Agriculture Research Unit, Mississippi State, MS

USDA-ARS Precision Agriculture Research Use multispectral imaging to develop maps for scouting cotton pests Use image processing and GIS to optimize scouting locations Use image processing to combine scout data with maps to determine spatially variable pesticide applications Have developed new statistical methodology to assess VRT applications

USDA-ARS Precision Agriculture Research Methodology developed requires access to high speed wireless networking on the farm for delivery and retrieval of large datasets Have successfully tested two wireless networks for individual farms Wanted to go to the next level of wireless networking to assess current technology

USDA-ARS Precision Agriculture Research USDA-ARS and Teletec Communications, LLC of Columbus, MS have entered into a three year contract High speed microwave link from Coumbus, MS connects to radio equipment at Prairie Point Road communcations tower High speed wireless network covering a forty mile radius with line-of-sight from the tower has been established

System Design and Characteristics Internet access via Teletec 18 mbps point-to- point link from 400’ tower in Columbus Management of system in Teletec’s operations center at Columbus Prairie Point Road tower has three 120º sectors each of which supports 4 mbps aggregate data rate System uses Motorola Canopy 900 MHz Uplink max 1.8 mbps, Downlink max 2.1 mbps

USDA-ARS Offers For cooperating growers currently using precision agriculture technology -- For growers who will adopt precision agriculture technology within the next year– ARS has supplied subscriber radios, micropop base station (if needed) and associated equipment for access to wireless network and Internet

Growers Growers have VRT equipment and yield monitors on harvest equipment Growers have agreed to furnish ARS with VRT application maps and harvest yield maps from their farm areas under precision agriculture regimen; ARS will use data to help evaluate statistical analysis methodology used to determine effectiveness of precision agriculture operations