Internet of things (IoT) is a promising technology which provides efficient and reliable solutions towards the modernization of several domains. IoT based solutions are being developed to automatically maintain and monitor agricultural farms with minimal human involvement. The article presents many aspects of technologies involved in the domain of IoT in agriculture. It explains the major components of IoT based smart farming. A rigorous discussion on network technologies used in IoT based agriculture has been presented, that involves network architecture and layers, network topologies used, and protocols. Furthermore, the connection of IoT based agriculture systems with relevant technologies including cloud computing, big data storage and analytics has also been presented. In addition, security issues in IoT agriculture have been highlighted. A list of smart phone based and sensor based applications developed for different aspects of farm management has also been presented. Lastly, the regulations and policies made by several countries to standardize IoT based agriculture have been presented along with few available success stories. In the end, some open research issues and challenges in IoT agriculture field have been presented.

Introduction

The concept of IoT caught attention in 1999, by means of Auto-ID center at MIT and its relevant market investigation publications. Basically, IoT is an integration of multiple devices which communicate, sense and interact with their internal and external states through the embedded technology that IoT contain [1]. IoT has become the megatrend for next generation technologies which can impact the whole business spectrum with extended benefits which are advanced connectivity of end devices, system and services. IoT offers appropriate solutions for multiple applications such as smart health care, smart cities, security, retail, traffic congestion industrial control and agriculture [3]. A significant amount of work has been done regarding IoT technology in agricultural area to develop smart farming solutions [4]. IoT has brought a great revolution in agriculture environment by examining multiple complications and challenges in farming [5]. Now a days, with the advancement of technology it has been expected that by using IoT agriculturalists and technologists are finding out the solution of those problems which farmer are facing such as shortages of water, cost management and productivity issues [6], [7].