Impact of Sensor Mobility on UAV-based Smart Farm Communications

Agricultural productivity has long been a key metric for measuring farming efficiency and it has been proven that agricultural productivity can be increased through smart farming. Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has also been incorporated into smart farming in order to provide additional perspectives, i.e., imagery analysis and agricultural surveillance. These UAVs not only perform their specific tasks but also capable of communicating. We investigate the impact of sensor mobility on network communications in a smart farm platform, comprising of sensor-equipped UAVs. Through a simulation study, we demonstrate how sensor mobility impacts network throughput and delay as well as determine the optimal UAV mobility profile.