The MQTT is one of the most popular protocols in the Internet of Things domain. It facilitates message exchange between various parties of the IoT system. MQTT provides bi-directional communication between Devices or Applications and the MQTT Broker. Bi-directional communication means that Devices can send and receive messages via the MQTT Broker. On the contrary, one-way communication refers to Devices sending telemetry data without accepting incoming transmissions. For security reasons, some customers request to protect Devices from external access and are concerned about using the MQTT protocol.

We access our bank accounts daily via the Public Internet, so connecting IoT devices to the network is not the real issue. IoT devices are exposed when they accept incoming connections “from the Internet”. Sending telemetry data from devices to the backend system utilizing the Public Internet is totally valid approach, provided that: Devices are the active participants of communication. We establish mutual authentication between devices and the backend endpoint. Transmission is encrypted.

Most of my materials describe various technical aspects of IoT. I am sharing my experience so you can leverage it to improve your solutions. Additionally, I want to assist newcomers in entering the exciting Internet of Things space. During this presentation at the IoT Alliance webinar, I wanted to emphasize that the mindset is more important than technology in IoT initiatives. Spreading that message deserves more attention from my side. I witnessed spectacular failures of massive IoT undertakings.

During this live stream I explained why I consider telemetry to be the essence of any IoT solution. I hope you will find it interesting. Below you can find the diagram I presented during my stream: Telemetry Consider subscribing to my newsletter to get a notification about the next live stream!

There are three main benefits of using the MQTT protocol: Many-to-many communication. The Publisher is unaware of the Subscribers. MQTT helps to manage that chaos. Let’s break it down. Many-to-many communication is stimulating as it enables ecosystem capabilities. What do I mean by the IoT ecosystem? That is a dynamic group of loosely connected devices that can interact with each other to realize various business use cases. When we introduce a new device to this environment, it increases the overall value of that solution.

Introduction What can you tell about the monitored device and measured feature based on MQTT Topic? MQTT Topics are highly flexible and do not force any structure. We should wisely use that compelling feature. I saw companies struggling with MQTT because they lacked a standardized approach to the MQTT Topic definition. Every department/team used a different Topic structure leading to massive integration challenges. I created this guide to show how you can effectively organize the MQTT Topic structure following: