FORTE: An Open-Source System for Cost-Effective and Scalable Environmental Monitoring

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Pfister, Zoe, Vierhauser, Michael, Medvedova, Alzbeta, Schroeder, Marie, Rampp, Markus, Kronenberg, Adrian, Hammerle, Albin, Wohlfahrt, Georg, Jäger, Alexandra, Breu, Ruth, Simon, Alois
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866910827013996544
author Pfister, Zoe
Vierhauser, Michael
Medvedova, Alzbeta
Schroeder, Marie
Rampp, Markus
Kronenberg, Adrian
Hammerle, Albin
Wohlfahrt, Georg
Jäger, Alexandra
Breu, Ruth
Simon, Alois
author_facet Pfister, Zoe
Vierhauser, Michael
Medvedova, Alzbeta
Schroeder, Marie
Rampp, Markus
Kronenberg, Adrian
Hammerle, Albin
Wohlfahrt, Georg
Jäger, Alexandra
Breu, Ruth
Simon, Alois
contents Forests are an essential part of our biosphere, regulating climate, acting as a sink for greenhouse gases, and providing numerous other ecosystem services. However, they are negatively impacted by climatic stressors such as drought or heat waves. In this paper, we introduce FORTE, an open-source system for environmental monitoring with the aim of understanding how forests react to such stressors. It consists of two key components: (1) a wireless sensor network (WSN) deployed in the forest for data collection, and (2) a Data Infrastructure for data processing, storage, and visualization. The WSN contains a Central Unit capable of transmitting data to the Data Infrastructure via LTE-M and several spatially independent Satellites that collect data over large areas and transmit them wirelessly to the Central Unit. Our prototype deployments show that our solution is cost-effective compared to commercial solutions, energy-efficient with sensor nodes lasting for several months on a single charge, and reliable in terms of data quality. FORTE's flexible architecture makes it suitable for a wide range of environmental monitoring applications beyond forest monitoring. The contributions of this paper are three-fold. First, we describe the high-level requirements necessary for developing an environmental monitoring system. Second, we present an architecture and prototype implementation of the requirements by introducing our FORTE platform and demonstrating its effectiveness through multiple field tests. Lastly, we provide source code, documentation, and hardware design artifacts as part of our open-source repository.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_00049
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FORTE: An Open-Source System for Cost-Effective and Scalable Environmental Monitoring
Pfister, Zoe
Vierhauser, Michael
Medvedova, Alzbeta
Schroeder, Marie
Rampp, Markus
Kronenberg, Adrian
Hammerle, Albin
Wohlfahrt, Georg
Jäger, Alexandra
Breu, Ruth
Simon, Alois
Populations and Evolution
Networking and Internet Architecture
Software Engineering
D.2.1; D.2.11
Forests are an essential part of our biosphere, regulating climate, acting as a sink for greenhouse gases, and providing numerous other ecosystem services. However, they are negatively impacted by climatic stressors such as drought or heat waves. In this paper, we introduce FORTE, an open-source system for environmental monitoring with the aim of understanding how forests react to such stressors. It consists of two key components: (1) a wireless sensor network (WSN) deployed in the forest for data collection, and (2) a Data Infrastructure for data processing, storage, and visualization. The WSN contains a Central Unit capable of transmitting data to the Data Infrastructure via LTE-M and several spatially independent Satellites that collect data over large areas and transmit them wirelessly to the Central Unit. Our prototype deployments show that our solution is cost-effective compared to commercial solutions, energy-efficient with sensor nodes lasting for several months on a single charge, and reliable in terms of data quality. FORTE's flexible architecture makes it suitable for a wide range of environmental monitoring applications beyond forest monitoring. The contributions of this paper are three-fold. First, we describe the high-level requirements necessary for developing an environmental monitoring system. Second, we present an architecture and prototype implementation of the requirements by introducing our FORTE platform and demonstrating its effectiveness through multiple field tests. Lastly, we provide source code, documentation, and hardware design artifacts as part of our open-source repository.
title FORTE: An Open-Source System for Cost-Effective and Scalable Environmental Monitoring
topic Populations and Evolution
Networking and Internet Architecture
Software Engineering
D.2.1; D.2.11
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.00049