Connecting the Canopy: C-Band and Ku-Band Satellite Technologies for Sustainable Oil Palm Plantation Management in Indonesia—A Review

Abstract

Indonesia's oil palm plantations are increasingly expected to combine high productivity with environmental protection, traceability, worker welfare, and smallholder inclusion. Achieving these objectives requires reliable digital connectivity across plantation landscapes that are frequently extensive, remote, and inadequately served by terrestrial telecommunications. This qualitative literature review examines the characteristics of C-band and Ku-band satellite technologies and critically explores their roles in supporting sustainable oil palm plantation management in Indonesia. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature published since 2020 covering satellite communications, Internet of Things, smart agriculture, remote sensing, oil palm agronomy, and sustainability governance, the review develops a socio-technical synthesis rather than a systematic or meta-analytic assessment. C-band generally provides stronger resilience to tropical rain attenuation and is attractive for fixed, availability-critical backbone connectivity, whereas Ku-band enables smaller terminals, greater deployment flexibility, and practical broadband access but requires more deliberate rain-fade mitigation. Neither band is intrinsically superior, and actual performance depends on link design, service architecture, traffic requirements, cost, and local conditions. The review identifies applications in environmental surveillance, precision agronomy, disease detection, harvesting, logistics, traceability, worker safety, and sustainability assurance. It proposes an Observe–Connect–Decide–Act–Verify framework and a hybrid connectivity architecture integrating field networks, satellite backhaul, terrestrial networks, edge computing, remote sensing, and analytics. Sustainable benefits ultimately depend not merely on connectivity but on inclusive governance, institutional capacity, appropriate agronomic action, and mechanisms preventing digitalization from reinforcing existing inequalities.