A software architecture based on FIWARE cloud for Precision Agriculture

Using suitable information storage, management and processing resources is essential when Precision Agriculture-based applications are developed. Nowadays, traditional client-server paradigm is useful but it might not be enough for this purpose. The amount of data that could be stored and processed, and the need of generating complex knowledge and rules that allow stakeholders to take appropriate decisions related to crop optimization are leading researchers to pay attention to new solutions based on designing software architectures in the Cloud. This paper demonstrates that using cloud services in the agronomic context could be considered as highly beneficial. In particular, the used cloud provider is FIWARE, since it provides open source and free development modules, and even, several enablers for agriculture. An application has been developed by using the FIWARE components, and it has been validated in real crops located in a semiarid area of the South of Spain with the aim of reducing the amount of water necessary for irrigation tasks. The advantages of using FIWARE, opposite to the use of traditional systems, are properly analysed and highlighted. In addition, a discussion that emphasizes the advantages of using FIWARE instead of other well-known cloud providers is also presented.(C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.