A Wireless Farm Network is simply a wireless data network used to move data around on a farm. Do you have a Wireless Farm Network? Do you have more than one? Do you need one? Do you need more than one?

You may be thinking, “a WHAT??? Is this the new buzzword from some Silicon Valley company that’s going to be gone in a week?”

But it’s not a buzzword or an advertising slogan; I argue that it will be as indispensable as the tractor, but something you will use all the time, in-season and out. In fact, you may already have one or more Wireless Farm Networks.

The Past

When we started on AyrMesh 15 years ago, people scoffed at the idea of a wireless network to cover an entire farm. “Why would a farmer need WiFi?” was a frequent question we received, and we patiently explained to anyone still listening that farming was going to become much more data-driven and much more automated over time. Farmers would need networks to move that data and enable automation, and the world has pretty much settled on Internet Protocol (IP) as the normal way to move data. Burying Ethernet cables and fiber across the farm is not really practical, so farms would be using wireless networks, and WiFi is simply the only feasible choice.

The funny part is that a lot of farmers already had rudimentary Wireless Farm Networks even then. I had come out of the auto-steering industry, and we had used 900 MHz. data radios to transmit corrections from RTK bases out to the “rover” units on tractors, sprayers, and combines. We even made “repeater” units to enable a very rudimentary “mesh” with those units. Some farmers used those same radios (which connected to RS-232 serial ports) to monitor weather stations, soil moisture probes, and to control irrigation systems.

In the mid-2000s, some vendors started to come out with soil monitoring systems based on 802.15.4 (Zigbee and others) meshing – very low-power, low-bandwidth intended for home automation. It was somewhat useful, especially for smaller operations and specialty crops, but quite a number of companies went out of business trying to make a market for these products.

Later, a company called Cycleo introduced products similar to Zigbee (low-power, low-bandwidth) called “LoRa,” but, instead of using meshing, they used good antennas and very low bandwidth to achieve very long range – up to 6.2 miles (10 KM). Cycleo was acquired by Semtech, which put a lot of marketing push behind LoRa and LoRaWAN. Several companies have adopted LoRa as a farm network of sorts for communicating to very low-power, low-bandwidth devices like sensors and simple controllers, and it works very well for sensors and other devices that need to run for long times on batteries and don’t need to use much data.

In 2010, Ayrstone introduced our first generation of AyrMesh Hubs for meshing WiFi, with the current Hub2 line coming out in 2013. WiFi has the advantages of being:

• Low cost – WiFi access points like the AyrMesh Hubs are based on very high-volume chips and designs, so can be made quite inexpensive
• Standard – There are a lot of things that can use WiFi – phones, tablets, laptops, cameras, sensors, actuators – because it’s an international standard, there are myriad vendors for the base technology (WiFi radios) that can be integrated into literally millions of products
• High Bandwidth – Even long-range WiFi like AyrMesh can achieve bandwidth in the tens of millions of bits per second (Mpbs), much more than the thousands of bits per second (Kbps) like the old data radios or hundreds of thousands of bits per second like LoRa.
• Low latency – since WiFi uses an IP network, devices on the network can “talk” to each other, as well as to the Internet, and latencies (the time it takes for data to get from one device on the network to another) are typically a few milliseconds.
• Familiar – everyone has WiFi in their homes, businesses, stores, cafes, restaurants, and many cities even have municipal WiFi for public use. Everyone has it and knows how it works.

The Present

Currently, all these technologies are still in use, in varying degrees. There are still 4800 and 9600 “baud” data radios on some farms and there are still some “Zigbee” networks out there, but they are disappearing because they have been eclipsed by more modern technologies. Perhaps more importantly, most of those radios were designed so they’d only work with the same vendor’s radios, and most of the vendors for these systems have stopped building those products or gone out of business, so replacements are unavailable.

Cellular has become a viable alternative in some places, but, first, the cellular network is not under the control of the grower, it’s under the control of the service provider, so they decide the coverage and the available bandwidth. Also, every device using the cellular network requires a “subscription” with the carrier, and those costs can add up very quickly. Finally, cellular data goes directly to the public Internet; there is no option to keep your data on the farm. You may be able to pull your data off “the cloud” and onto a device on your farm, but it will have to go up to “the cloud” somewhere.

Recently, satellite connections have come to market as an alternative – I know of at least one autonomous sprayer company using satellite data communications. While satellite data solves the problem of having to be close to a cellular tower, they require clear line-of-sight to the sky, which can limit effectiveness in some situations. All devices connecting to the satellite also need subscriptions, so this cannot be an effective solution for applications requiring significant numbers of devices (e.g. soil sensing).

While LoRa and other low-bandwidth modes may be useful for some situations (again, soil sensing as an example), there are still important reasons to have a WiFi network. A WiFi network can provide “backhaul” for a LoRa-type network, so the LoRa gateway does not need to be connected to the cellular network, as is common now. As noted earlier, there are many, many devices that can connect to WiFi, from phones to security cameras to weather stations and other sensors. Very few devices can connect to LoRa, and the vendor may exclude devices other than their own from connecting to their network. Once you have a WiFi network across your farm, you have a lot of flexibility for easily adding a lot of different devices from a wide variety of vendors because WiFi is a global standard.

Importantly, WiFi is still evolving – modern 802.11ax (WiFi 6) is fully compatible with older versions of WiFi like 802.11n, but offers greater efficiency for improved bandwidth and reliability. 802.11ax also includes features like Target Wait Time (TWT), which allows battery-operated devices like sensors to connect while using minimal power, much like LoRa, effectively eliminating the need for a second “sensor network.” Building your Wireless Farm Network now will give you good connectivity today, and future-proofing for tomorrow.

There is a danger of different products using different networks, leading to the presence of numerous Wireless Farm Networks on a farm. Vendors have wanted to be able to “own” the entire installation for their products, including the wireless network they use. The upshot is that you can end up with one wireless network for soil sensors, another for your grain bins, another for autonomous machinery, etc. The end result is a tower like the lead graphic for this blog post: a Gordian Knot of complexity, with vendors fighting each other (and blaming each other) and no control for the grower.

I want to encourage all AgTech vendors, and I want farmers to encourage the vendors they work with, to simplify and use WiFi as the wireless network (or at least an optional wireless network) for new AgTech products. If a product depends on cellular data connections, recognize that limits its usefulness for the vast majority of farms and build in an inexpensive, universally-applicable WiFi alternative. We’ll help. Similarly, if your product is using LoRa, look at using 802.11ax instead to drive down cost, complexity, and vendor lock-in.

I’ll be at World Ag Expo next week; if you’re going to be there, please drop me a line at bmoffitt@ayrstone.com and let’s try to meet up.

We have always focused on the longest range in the AyrMesh Hubs – best possible range to any given WiFi device, as well as maximizing the range (distance) between the Hubs to cover the maximum area.

And that has worked really well – tens of thousands of people across North America have gotten AyrMesh Hubs and have set up WiFi networks on their farms to enjoy outdoor WiFi for convenience, security, and productivity.

A small number of customers have been frustrated by the Hub’s long range, however, because the AyrMesh Hubs do not work well if they’re too close together. Some customers have more intricate central areas on the farm where they need to have several WiFi access points to “fill in” around buildings and other structures. It’s usually impossible to successfully place the AyrMesh Hubs within half a mile of each other, and that was much too large a span for many of these facilities. By reducing the power, we could enable customers to put the Hubs within 400 yards of one another, but, for many customers, that was still too far apart to support their physical plant.

AyrMesh HubDuo Modes

Because the AyrMesh HubDuo has both long-range 2.4 GHz. and high-bandwidth 5.8 GHz. radios, we have the option of moving the meshing from the 2.4 GHz. signal to the 5.8 GHz. signal, which allows the HubDuos to be placed much closer to one another – as close as a few hundred feet.

To support this, we have introduced four “modes” for the AyrMesh HubDuo, selectable in the “Network” section of your account on AyrMesh.com:

• Normal mode – Compatible with the AyrMesh Hub2 series (Hub2n, Hub2T, Hub2x2, Hub2x2C) – meshing on the 2.4 GHz. signal. This mode works just like the other AyrMesh Hubs, with the addition of a 5.8 GHz. WiFi signal for shorter-range higher-speed connectivity.
• Close mode moves the mesh signal to 5.8 GHz. so the HubDuo units can be placed much closer together. Transmission signal strengths are reduced, to avoid having the Hubs “overwhelm” each other when they’re closer. Both the 2.4 GHz. and 5.8 GHz. WiFi signals are available for use.
• Hybrid mode makes both bands available for mesh signals on the Gateway Hub, with Remote HubDuos only meshing on the 5.8 GHz. mesh. This allows a close-in mesh of HubDuo units meshing on the 5.8 GHz. signal and a further-away mesh of Hub2 units on the 2.4 GHz. signal.
• Access Point Only mode – this mode turns meshing off entirely. This is useful in cases where existing infrastructure exists to distribute connectivity around the area and only outdoor WiFi is needed from the Hubs.

It’s very easy to select the HubDuo mode in AyrMesh.com – under “My Networks” click on the pencil to edit your network settings. At the bottom of the panel, you’ll see “HubDuo Mode” – select the mode you want from the dropdown menu.

For more information, see the article on Ayrstone.com or the support information on our support site. Or just get an AyrMesh HubDuo today!

Coupon code

To make it easier, we’re offering 15% off Ayrstone AyrMesh Hubs, Receivers, IndoorHubs, and Bridges until the end of the year. Just use coupon code “ayrxmas” on your order on Ayrstone.com.

Happy holidays to all – we’re looking forward to a great 2025!

As mentioned a few weeks back, we have been working on a new version of AyrMesh.com, with a new interface and new capabilities to support upcoming products. For existing customers with our current products, the interface is a little different, but the features are largely the same. Shown above is the “Network” portion of the interface, where you can use the “pencil” tool to the right to change your network settings: SSID, encryption passkey, channel, and encryption type. The “four arrows” icon to the far right allows you to set or rescind permission for another user to manage your network.

The “permissions” part of AyrMesh.com has been there for years, but is not well-understood. There are a few reasons you might want to give someone permission to manage your network:

• You may have someone helping with your networking, and giving them permission to manage your network will help them see problems.
• Similarly, you may be helping neighbors with their networks, and having them give you access to their networks will help you keep things working
• Many people have multiple AyrMesh networks, either at multiple locations or, in some cases, multiple networks at a single location (e.g. one network for use with phones, tablets, and laptops, and a separate network for security equipment like cameras). By assigning control to a single AyrMesh.com account, they save time managing the multiple accounts.

Next down is the Device section – for simplicity, we’re just showing a single Hub2 device. If you click anywhere on the line for the device, you’ll see the details for that device:

Clicking on the pencil icon to the right of the device allows you to change the name of the device. This name is just for convenience – it does not affect the SSID or any functional part of the Hub, it just provides a name that’s more convenient than referring to the Hub by its MAC address:

To the far right is a “trash can” icon, which is used to delete a device from your account. DO NOT delete a device from your account unless you no longer possess that device – deleting a device that’s still in your network can make troubleshooting that device much more difficult. The most common reasons for deleting a device are:

• Deleting a device that was incorrectly added
• Deleting a device that has been sold, given away, or exchanged

Finally, of course, you may need to add a device manually if it does not appear automatically in your account. Click on the “Add Device” button and fill in the device’s MAC address (from the label on the device):

You can also add a device name if you choose.

AyrMesh.com will change over time, with new features being added to support new products and new capabilities. Of course, we always welcome your comments!

This press release from Case/IH says that Case is following Deere’s lead in enabling direct-to-satellite communications on their equipment, but using Intelsat as their satellite provider instead of Deere’s choice of SpaceX.

I’ll make two highly controversial predictions:

• This will be very beneficial to a small number of users, and the companies will claim a great success all around, but won’t be useful to the vast majority of farmers; and
• Agco and Globalstar (the last remaining major incumbent ag equipment supplier and the last incumbent satellite provider) will announce a similar deal soon. (that’s a little snarky, I admit, but… honestly, it would not surprise me.)

I mention this just to re-emphasize the points I made earlier about this and, tangentially, to show how far the incumbent suppliers will go to avoid using open-standards technology that they can’t control. Using a “dedicated” upload link, be it cellular or satellite, allows them to control where the data from your equipment goes and what happens to it. Using an open system like Ayrstone’s AyrMesh WiFi may not give you all the good choices you’d like, but it at least gives you the option to cut off access by using your router to block the data stream. I’d really like to see more open-standard AgTech equipment to give growers and their trusted partners more control over the data from the farm, and I’m hoping that’s a trend that takes hold in the industry.

For many installations, the most difficult (and most expensive) part of building a farm-wide AyrMesh network is getting the Hubs up in the air. To provide maximum maximum range, the Hubs have to have a clear Fresnel zone between them, which means they really need to be at least 25 feet above any obstructions that may lie between them. If your house is on top of a hill in the middle of Nevada, that may be very easy to achieve; if you are in a valley in an orchard surrounded by 50-foot trees, then it’s more difficult.

Most farming country is pretty flat or on rolling hills, so getting the Hubs in the air typically involves some sort of a pole or tower, and that typically involves some construction. There are plenty of ways to get little radios like the AyrMesh Hubs up in the air; if you’re fortunate enough to have buildings in the right places, poles on top of tall buildings frequently work very well. If not, there are myriad possibilities, from utility poles (which can frequently be obtained quite inexpensively) to flagpoles to normal radio towers.

Maintenance

One of the issues you’ll face eventually will be the need to service the Hubs, so you’ll either have to go up to the Hub on top of the pole/tower, or you’ll need a way to bring the Hub down to you. If you have access to a tall scissor lift (that you can get to the Hub’s location) or a bucket truck, that can be very simple.

One quick mention here: good Ethernet cables (link to https://ayrstone.com/www/ethernet-cable/) can reduce the probability and frequency of having to go up the pole or tower. Good strain relief (so the cable can’t pull out of the Hub’s port) and “drip loops” (so water can’t travel down the cable into buildings or enclosures) are also very important to keep you from having to service the Hubs.

Poles vs. Towers

Good, strong towers can be climbed (do you want to?), while poles generally cannot. However, another approach is to use a tower or pole that can “telescope” up and down and even “tilt over” to allow you to access the Hub while you’re on (or much closer to) the ground. One product that was recently brought to our attention for this is from Beacon Pole, which tilts over, making it very easy to service the Hubs. It’s a lot more expensive than a used telephone pole, but, over the life of your farm, it’s likely to more than make up its cost in time saved updating equipment.

Do-it-yourself vs. hire a pro

Installing any tall pole or tower requires some construction expertise and work, and, to extend a network all the way across your farm or ranch, you may need to install several poles and/or towers. Even if you have the requisite skills, it’s a considerable investment of time that might be better used on other aspects of your farm. There are construction companies that specialize in installing poles and towers for cellular telephone companies, utilities, and other customers; utilizing them to put infrastructure on your farm might be a better solution. In particular, we can recommend our friends at Augusta Towers in Grand Rapids, MI – they’ll take on construction jobs from Michigan to northern Indiana and Ohio. If you’re not in their region, check locally for construction companies who can install towers, and work with them.

Invest in your farm

You should view the investment in poles and towers as a long-term investment in your farm; you may install AyrMesh Hubs up there today (and replace them over time with newer, better AyrMesh Hubs over time), but you may also need them for other wireless technologies like LoRa, HaLo, or other future wireless networking technologies that may come to the farm. It’s more likely that there will be more need for wireless networking in the future, not less, so investing in the infrastructure to support it now will pay off. I’ll have more to say on this…

I was interested to read about the new partnership between John Deere and SpaceX to provide Starlink connectivity to John Deere machinery in the U.S. and Brazil.

On one level, it makes good sense – Starlink is already providing high-bandwidth connectivity for farmers across the U.S., so extending that to their farm equipment makes perfect sense.

In point of fact, we have been connecting customers’ machines to Starlink for several years – the AyrMesh system of stationary AyrMesh Hubs and mobile AyrMesh Cab Hubs can connect any Internet access – including Starlink – to your machines, regardless of what brand machines you use.

One of the stated goals of this effort is to better enable autonomy for John Deere’s equipment. This is a good idea for a single machine out in the field, as is currently the usual case in small grains, corn, and soybeans.

However, it’s easy to imagine a future in which multiple machines are working in the same field, in which they have to communicate with each other. If they have to communicate through the satellite, even though SpaceX’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites offer much lower latency than the older geosynchronous satellites, it’s much higher latency than a terrestrial solution. For minimum latency, of course, the key is to keep the data moving on the farm without moving it through the Internet at all, which is only possible using a high-speed, high-bandwidth Local Area Network (LAN). Using a solution like the AyrMesh network is the only way to keep that latency to a minimum.

My other critique of this is that it adds another subscription (for the Starlink terminal), adding to operational cost. I think this is an important advantage we bring to this: AyrMesh is a purchased system, so it helps growers keep operational costs at a minimum.

Criticism aside, I’m very encouraged that Deere is thinking much more seriously about the importance of having their machinery on the Internet, and using Starlink is a bold and intriguing way to accomplish it. As autonomous devices make their way into the mainstream of agriculture, we’ll be there to help make it practical and affordable.

Years ago when we were starting Ayrstone, we introduced the idea of “Beyond the last mile.” There was (and continues to be) a lot of talk about the “last mile problem,” because it’s very expensive to run cable, wire, or fiber from a major line to each house in rural areas. Wireless ISPs, cellular carriers, and satellite Internet providers have filled in quite a bit to solve the “last mile,” with results of varying quality. But getting broadband Internet to the home or business office – solving the “last mile” problem – doesn’t fulfill the needs of most farmers, ranchers, and others working in rural environments – they need broadband access beyond that “last mile.” Back in the early days of Ayrstone, one of our beta customers remarked: “We should have gotten together and bought the local spectrum and started our own cellular service.”

It’s an interesting idea, but probably would never have worked then – the carriers would probably have bid up the price of the local spectrum just to prevent anyone else from having it – in the early days of cellular broadband, no one knew exactly how valuable spectrum was going to be, and carriers paid some outrageous amounts for spectrum they never used.

Now the cellular market is much more mature and the carriers are much more careful about where they spend their money; in addition, the FCC set aside some spectrum in the 3.5 GHz. band called “CBRS” – Citizens Broadband Radio Service – also known as “LTE Band 48” – as “unlicensed” (although still regulated) spectrum that can be used to create private or public LTE and 5G networks.

This means that my friend’s idea of setting up a private cellular network is actually feasible – companies are doing it now to create private, hybrid, and public cellular networks for a variety of reasons. In particular, companies are building out private cellular networks to provide cellular service outside the enterprise network but still in a company-controlled network environment. It ends up being similar to a WiFi network – companies control the network and access to it – but using cellular technology.

There is another big upside to private cellular: because cellular equipment can use higher power and larger antennas, the cells can offer wider coverage and can be placed further apart than even high-power, high-gain WiFi access points like AyrMesh Hubs.

However, there are some rather extensive downsides for rural use:

• Cellular equipment is much more expensive than WiFi equipment, as well as more complex and difficult to install and maintain. It requires significantly more planning and skill to set up and maintain a cellular network.
• CBRS is in the 3500 MHz. band, while WiFi is in the 2400 MHz. band – higher frequencies are more prone to fading at distance and more susceptible to obstructions to the Fresnel zone.
• While CBRS is unlicensed, it is still regulated. There are still licensed users (Priority Access Licenses, or PAL) in the spectrum, and you may be forced to move frequencies away from them if you use the free General Availability Access (GAA) license. If you are trying to set up a network across a large area, it may be desirable to get a license to keep others off the frequency.
• You’ll need to deal with getting SIM cards for all the devices you want to allow on the private network, and manage the provisioning and access controls for those devices.

The “beyond the last mile” problem is a very real one for farming and ranching, as well as other rural enterprises. Private cellular is one of the solutions available IF you have access to the money and skills necessary to build and maintain a cellular network. WiFi, like Ayrstone’s AyrMesh, remains a more practical solution for most rural residents and businesses.