Purdue ABE · IoT4Ag
Making agricultural IoT easier to deploy.
RING is a Purdue Agricultural and Biological Engineering research project exploring a simpler way to deploy LoRaWAN infrastructure for farms, research plots, and field experiments.
The project started with a practical problem: LoRaWAN works well for agricultural sensing, but deploying the software behind it can still require more networking and Linux knowledge than many field users should need.
Why RING exists
The difficult part should be the field experiment, not configuring the server.
A LoRaWAN deployment has two halves. In the field there are sensors and a gateway, where most of the work is placement, power, and a clear radio path. On a server there is a network server, a message broker, databases, and a gateway bridge, each with its own configuration.
The field half is where the research happens. The server half is where projects stall: a Linux machine to prepare, Docker to install, a frequency plan that has to match the gateway, ports to open, and several configuration files that all have to agree.
RING exists so a research team can get the server half running from a short set of questions, then spend its time on the plots.
What RING is trying to simplify
Hardware
A gateway, a few sensors, and a Linux server you already have or can rent.
Setup questions
Where will RING run? Which computer are you working from? How will the gateway reach the server?
RING
Turns the answers into configuration files, an installer, and the checks that confirm it worked.
Deployment
ChirpStack and its services running on your server, ready for gateways and sensors.
Where the project stands
Research prototype
The current setup workflow demonstrates the planned RING deployment experience. Automated remote installation is still under development.
Live
Sensor monitoring
Two soil sensors report moisture, temperature, and conductivity about every 20 minutes.
View SensorsLive
Historical field data
Every reading is stored and can be charted over any period since the sensors started reporting.
Prototype
Guided deployment setup
Walks you through preparing a server and installing the LoRaWAN stack. You run each command yourself.
Open setupIn development
Automated remote deployment
RING carrying out the installation it currently walks you through.
Where the research is going
01
Automated remote deployment
Let RING carry out the installation that the guided setup walks through today, with the same checks at the end.
02
Gateway and sensor onboarding
Register gateways and sensors in the same guided flow, instead of separately in ChirpStack.
03
New sites on the dashboard
Bring readings from newly deployed sites into the RING dashboard alongside the existing sensors.
People and institutions
Developed within Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering as part of ongoing digital agriculture research.
- Purdue Agricultural and Biological Engineering (opens in a new tab)
The project’s home department.
- IoT4Ag (opens in a new tab)
The Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture research center.
- OATS (opens in a new tab)
Purdue’s Open Ag Technology and Systems Center.
Website developer and researcher
Aryan Jitendrakumar Sharma
Junior, Agricultural Systems Management · Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering · Purdue University
Research supervisor
Dennis R. Buckmaster
Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering · Dean’s Fellow for Digital Agriculture