Why and What is MQTT?

Why Use MQTT?

In the world of connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), efficient communication is crucial. Whether it's a smart thermostat, industrial machinery, or a connected vehicle, devices need to exchange information quickly and reliably. This is where MQTT, a lightweight messaging protocol, comes into play.

There are several reasons why MQTT has become a popular choice for IoT applications:

• Lightweight Protocol: With minimal overhead, MQTT is ideal for devices with limited processing power and memory which is also perfect for battery operated devices as it uses very little power.
  
  
  

• Efficient Communication: The publish-subscribe model ensures efficient data distribution. Devices only receive messages relevant to their subscribed topics.
  
  
  

• Low Bandwidth: MQTT's compact message format is perfect for networks with limited bandwidth.
  
  
  

• Reliable Delivery: MQTT supports three levels of Quality of Service (QoS):
  
  

  • QoS 0: At most once (no guarantee of delivery).

  • QoS 1: At least once (ensures delivery but may duplicate messages).

  • QoS 2: Exactly once (guarantees message delivery without duplicates).

• Flexibility: MQTT can work over unreliable networks and is widely supported across programming languages and platforms.
  
  
  

What is MQTT?

MQTT stands for Message Queuing Telemetry Transport. It is a publish-subscribe messaging protocol designed to be simple, lightweight, and ideal for low-bandwidth, high-latency, or unreliable networks. MQTT is commonly used in IoT applications to facilitate communication between devices and servers. In recent years, there is a wider adoption of MQTT in AI applications too, specifically Computer Vision where cameras can provide results over MQTT.

How Does MQTT Work?

At its core, MQTT operates on a publish-subscribe model. Here's a breakdown of how it works:

1. Broker: The central hub of an MQTT system, the broker, facilitates communication between devices. Every message passes through the broker.
   
   
   

2. Clients: Devices connected to the broker. Clients can be publishers (sending messages) or subscribers (receiving messages).
   
   
   

3. Topics: Messages are sent to specific topics, which act like channels. For example, a weather station might publish temperature data to a topic like weather/temperature.
   
   
   

4. Publish-Subscribe: Devices subscribing to a topic will receive messages published to that topic. This decouples the sender and receiver, making the system scalable and flexible.
   
   
   

Use Cases for MQTT

MQTT is used in a variety of applications, including:

• Smart Homes: Connecting devices like lights, thermostats, and security cameras.

• Industrial IoT: Monitoring machinery and processes in real-time.

• Healthcare: Enabling remote patient monitoring with connected medical devices.

• Transportation: Powering vehicle telemetry and fleet management systems.

Getting Started with MQTT

To start using MQTT, you need three basic components:

1. MQTT Broker: Popular brokers include Eclipse Mosquitto, HiveMQ, and EMQX, in fact, ThingDash is bringing a Serverless Managed MQTT Broker as one of our features soon too!

2. Client Libraries: Libraries like Paho (Python, Java), MQTT.js, and others make it easy to implement MQTT in your applications.

3. Devices: IoT devices, sensors, or applications that will publish and subscribe to messages.

Conclusion

MQTT is a powerful tool for enabling communication in IoT and other distributed systems. Its lightweight nature, efficient messaging, and flexibility make it a go-to choice for developers building connected solutions.

Whether you're starting your first IoT project or scaling an industrial system, understanding MQTT is a foundational step toward building a smarter, more connected world.