Using MQTT for IIOT Apps

Introduction to MQTT

MQTT is a communication protocol that has taken off in the IIoT community. It’s a lightweight, efficient protocol that works through a publisher/broker/subscriber model. It creates an easy way for field devices to communicate and retrieve data from a single location. In this tutorial, we’ll go over MQTT and dive into an example of how you can publish data using a groov EPIC PAC and retrieve the data using an MQTT client.

How MQTT Works

The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is used to describe the way machines and applications communicate between themselves. The model was developed with the idea that a provider can utilize different protocols or software components at every layer without having to re-architect the entire structure. The MQTT protocol will come into play at Layer 7 of the model; on top of TCP/IP (Layer 4). The reason that this is important is that this keeps a lot of infrastructure in place while redefining how the packets are being sent between devices.