Review of the internet of things communication technologies in smart agriculture and challenges

The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) spurred a new direction of research in agriculture, and various IoT communication technologies are used to connect with different devices in different layers. With the rapid increasing number of studies and projects about IoT-based smart agriculture, information got scattered and the involved communication technologies were not been analyzed and discussed before in other reviews. Intending to identify and review scientifically validated literature on IoT communication technologies in smart agriculture, this study critically summarizes the recent research pertinent to the smart agriculture with IoT communication technologies. The employed method was a thorough search from these three databases, namely: ScienceDirect, IEEE Xplore, and Scopus. Total 94 research articles were reviewed after the total of 886 titles being scanned for relevance. The monitored parameters by sensors and communication technologies associated with IoT-based smart agriculture applications are analyzed comprehensively, as well as some specific issues, challenges, and recommendations in IoT applications in agriculture. The study provides reference for researchers, and more burgeoning communication technologies should be applied in agriculture to realize the great-leap forward development in smart agriculture.