Special Temporary Authority application - Applicant Name
Name of Applicant:
The Yield Americas Inc
Special Temporary Authority application - Best Contact
First Name:
John
Last Name:
McGee
Phone Number:
437425440
Title:
Infrastructure Lead
Special Temporary Authority application - Certification
Applicant certification
Neither the applicant nor any other party to the application is subject to a denial of Federal benefits that includes FCC benefits pursuant to Section 5301 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, 21 U.S.C. Section 862, because of a conviction for possession or distribution of a controlled substance. The applicant hereby waives any claim to the use of any particular frequency or electromagnetic spectrum as against the regulatory power of the United States because of the prvious use of the same, whether by license or otherwise, and requests authorization in accordance with this application. (See Section 304 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.) The applicant acknowledges that all statements made in this application and attached exhibits are considered material representations, and that all the exhibits part hereof and are incorporated herein as if set out in full in this application; undersigned certifies that all statements in this application are true, complete and correct to the best of his/her knowledge and belief and are made in good faith. Applicant certifies that construction of the station would NOT be an action which is likely to have a significant environmental effect. See the Commission's Rules, 47 CFR1.1301-1.1319.
Date:
2018-05-20 00:00:00.0
Signature of Applicant (Authorized person filing form):
John McGee
Title of Applicant (if any):
Infrastructure Lead
Special Temporary Authority application - Explanation
Please explain in the area below why an STA is necessary:
An STA is necessary to enable The Yield Americas Inc (The Yield) to conduct a trial of its technology for a wine company in two of its Californian vineyards - one in Napa and one near Santa Maria at North Canyon. The timing for the trial is aligned to the 2018 pre-harvest time in the vineyards, and so is looking to commence from mid-late June and run for no more then 6 months. The Yield is an agricultural technology company that deploys microclimate and soil condition sensing across a farm - in this case two vineyards - to collect real time data. The data is then made available to the grower as both current information and as modelled and predictive information using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. It is an example of the application of the Internet of Things and big data analytics, which in this case, is for better informed decision making in the agriculture sector. The technology has been developed in Australia and is currently operating in Australia and New Zealand. The technology includes a number of farm-wide RF transmitting nodes using the ISM 915MHz band, and using spread spectrum frequency hopping. The Physical Layer is IEEE 802.15.4. The nodes form a mesh network (at Layer 3 with 6LoWPAN) and communicate the microclimate and soil condition sensor data to a farm gateway. The nodes and gateway have been developed by Bosch Australia and have been certified for RF transmission in Australia and New Zealand. As the grape growing season is fixed the STA will enable The Yield to demonstrate the system using the Australian RF configuration and extended for US conditions while it makes application for full FCC certification. If The Yield were to await full FCC certification then the capability of the trial would not be possible as the growing season in 2018 would be missed. In particular, the predictive modelling requires the accumulated data history across a growing season.
Special Temporary Authority application - Information
Callsign:
WM9XYB
Class of Station:
FX
Nature of Service:
Experimental
Special Temporary Authority application - Manufacturer
Equipment 1 Experimental
Yes
Equipment 1 Manufacturer
Robert Bosch Australia
Equipment 1 Model Number
TY001
Equipment 1 No. Of Units
8
Equipment 2 Experimental
Yes
Equipment 2 Manufacturer
Robert Bosch Australia
Equipment 2 Model Number
GWIC TY001
Equipment 2 No. Of Units
2
Equipment 3 Experimental
Yes
Equipment 3 Manufacturer
Robert Bosch Australia
Equipment 3 Model Number
GWICTY001 spare
Equipment 3 No. Of Units
1
Special Temporary Authority application - Purpose of Operation
Please explain the purpose of operation:
The purpose of the operation is to demonstrate wireless networking of microclimate sensing nodes within two vineyards one in Napa Valley and one near Santa Maria. The RF transmitting equipment to be used in the vineyards includes Sensor Nodes and a Gateway. There is a 915MHz transceiver in each Sensor Node and Gateway. The same transceiver chip is used in both, and is the Texas Instruments CC1310 - a low power, sub 1 GHz, System-on-a-Chip (transceiver and microcontroller). The Gateway will, for the trial, communicate via the internet to The Yields cloud platform via each vineyards local network with an Ethernet interface. The Gateway will be centrally located within each winery to enable the 915MHz wireless networking to reach any part of the vineyard. The Gateway will use a roof mounted +6dBi 915MHz omnidirectional antenna that will be located 6 feet above roof level. The Gateway transmitters ERP is 1 watt. The trial will have four Sensor Nodes located across each vineyard at nominated microclimate locations within and adjacent to the vine rows. The Sensor Node antennae will be located on poles at a height of 6 foot above ground. The Sensor Node antenna is +2dBi omnidirectional and the ERP is 1 watt. One of the four Sensor Node will be deployed within the vineyard for routing purposes if a direct RF path from a Sensor Node to the Gateway is not possible. The distance between most distant Sensor Node and the Gateway for the trial within each vineyard will be no greater then 1,000 yards. The wireless network design is a 6LoWPAN Layer 3 routed network, which allows for Sensor Node data from one to route through other Sensor Nodes to the Gateway. The routing protocol is RPL. The Link Layer employs time slotted channel hoping with radio duty cycling to minimise the transmitter on times. The Sensor Node and Gateway transmitters have been certified for operation in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian certification is under the class license for spread spectrum devices meeting the requirements of the Australian Radiocommunications (Short Range Devices) Standard 2004. The devices use frequency hopping transmitters in the Australian 915MHz to 928MHz ISM band, with EIRP of 1 watt and using a minimum of 20 hopping frequencies. However, for this vineyard trial the RF transceivers have been extended to support 50 hopping frequencies in the 902MHz to 928MHz band, as is the requirement of the FCC. The Yield is currently undertaking FCC certification. And so for this trial The Yield is seeking authorisation to use the extended Australian equipment which uses 50 hopping frequencies in the 902MHz to 928MHz band.
Special Temporary Authority application - Requested Period of Operation