The Messaging and Data Exchange Protocol of the IoT - MQTT

By Ashish Kasama

March 25, 2025|3 Minute read|

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Introduction

Delve into the core of IoT communication through MQTT, the Messaging and Data Exchange Protocol. Recognized as an OASIS standard, MQTT presents a nimble publish/subscribe messaging transport designed for linking remote devices. This piece unravels MQTT's essential aspects, its importance, and its extensive use in various industries.

MQTT is an OASIS standard messaging protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT). It is designed as an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport that is ideal for connecting remote devices with a small code footprint and minimal network bandwidth. MQTT today is used in a wide variety of industries, such as automotive, manufacturing, telecommunications, oil and gas, etc.

Why MQTT?

Lightweight and Efficient
MQTT clients are very small, require minimal resources so can be used on small microcontrollers. MQTT message headers are small to optimize network bandwidth.

Bi-directional Communications
MQTT allows for messaging between device to cloud and cloud to device. This makes for easy broadcasting messages to groups of things.

Scale to Millions of Things
MQTT can scale to connect with millions of IoT devices.

Reliable Message Delivery
Reliability of message delivery is important for many IoT use cases. This is why MQTT has 3 defined quality of service levels: 0 - at most once, 1- at least once, 2 - exactly once.

Support for Unreliable Networks
Many IoT devices connect over unreliable cellular networks. MQTT’s support for persistent sessions reduces the time to reconnect the client with the broker.

Security Enabled
MQTT makes it easy to encrypt messages using TLS and authenticate clients using modern authentication protocols, such as OAuth.

MQTT Publish / Subscribe Architecture

Key Takeaway

MQTT, an OASIS standard, is a lightweight messaging protocol for IoT.

Deployed in automotive, manufacturing, and telecommunications, MQTT offers features such as compact client sizes, two-way communication, scalability to millions of devices, dependable message delivery, support for unreliable networks, and secure TLS and OAuth integration.

What is MQTT's primary advantage?

MQTT excels due to its lightweight and efficient nature, making it suitable for small microcontrollers, optimizing network bandwidth with small message headers.

How does MQTT handle message reliability?

MQTT ensures reliable message delivery with three defined quality of service levels: at most once (0), at least once (1), and exactly once (2).

In which sectors does MQTT see frequent usage?

MQTT is applied in a range of industries, spanning automotive, manufacturing, telecommunications, and oil and gas, underscoring its adaptability across diverse sectors.

Also, read: Headless CMS- A response to the new IoT Era