Ericsson and PAWR light up 5G network for rural agricultural research
- Ericsson-powered 5G standalone (SA) network will support precision agriculture applications and other research initiatives at ARA’s wireless living lab
- Sample research will include the use of connected robots to collect plant phenotyping data, livestock monitoring, and agriculture automation
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) in cooperation with the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program announced the launch of its 5G SA network for public research together with the Agriculture and Rural Communities (ARA) team at Iowa State University (ISU). Powered by Ericsson, the network is part of ARA’s multi-modal platform for wireless research, based on the ISU campus with coverage extending to local crop and livestock farms and parts of the city of Ames.
The Ericsson-powered 5G SA network will be used to support precision agriculture applications, along with other research initiatives, and is already connecting farm sites that previously had little to no broadband access. ARA is partnering with the ISU Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering as well as the College of Agriculture of Life Sciences for initial precision agriculture research projects.
