Work begins to standardize 'internet-of-things' protocol
OASIS has announced a new technical committee is being formed to formalize a standard protocol for machine-to-device-to-sensor-to-refrigerator-to-other-machine-somewhere-else-on-the-network interactions, otherwise known as the "internet of things.'
The protocol, "MQ [Messaging Queue] Telemetry Transport," or MQTT, is described on the MQTT.org site as a "machine-to-machine (M2M)/Internet of Things connectivity protocol." The protocol, designed as an "extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport," is intended to facilitate "connections with remote locations where a small code footprint is required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium." Examples include "sensors communicating to a broker via satellite link, over occasional dial-up connections with healthcare providers, and in a range of home automation and small device scenarios."
MQTT is also well-suited for mobile applications, proponents say, due to "its small size, low power usage, minimized data packets, and efficient distribution of information to one or many receivers."
Having a universally accepted and adopted M2M protocol will help get new devices and systems to market faster, since they often are built using many variations of hardware and software platforms, device types, and networks, OASIS notes.
MQTT was invented by Dr Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM, and Arlen Nipper of Arcom (now Eurotech), back in 1999. It also has been called the “SCADA protocol,” the “MQ Integrator SCADA Device Protocol” (MQIsdp), the “WebSphere MQTT” (WMQTT).
OASIS' MQTT Technical Committee will work with MQTT as its base document to "define an open publish/subscribe protocol for telemetry messaging designed to be open, simple, lightweight, and suited for use in constrained networks and multi-platform environments." OASIS has scheduled the first, in-person meeting to be held in Boston on Monday, 25 March 2013, to be hosted by IBM. A working specification will be completed by March 2014, OASIS says.
The MQTT TC is intended to complement previous work by the OASIS AMQP Technical Committee, which released a specification that provides for transaction and publish & subscribe messaging between autonomous businesses, departments and applications using an open protocol for enterprise middleware. The MQTT specification adds a means "by which sensors, control systems, embedded systems and mobile devices can publish and subscribe low-level, technically-orientated data," OASIS says. "There is natural affinity to bridge MQTT with AMQP, so as to connect telemetry with enterprise applications."
(Photo: Joe McKendrick.)