Status quo and progress of data transmission and communication technology in field information acquisition

The progress of data transmission and communication technology in field information acquisition was reviewed, and several transmission modes classified according to wired communication techniques and wireless communication techniques were introduced. Controller Area Network(CAN) Bus and communication mode based on Personal Digital Assistant(PDA) are two major forms of wired communication techniques. They have been widely used in integration of many kinds of sensors for agriculture machinery and field information acquisition. Wireless communication techniques are divided into two types, i.e., long distance communication mode (GSM, GPRS and so on) and short distance communication mode (Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID and so on). GSM and GPRS can perform remote field information collection and remote control by mobile communication network. Bluetooth, Zigbee and RFID show enormous potentiality for monitoring environment of greenhouse, identifying and tracing agricultural products. In the future, the trend of the data transmission and communication technology is suggested to use embedded system and internet-based control system.