Communication Protocols for IoT Solution Devices
Question
You have to build an IoT solution which gathers data from 400 devices, with the expected total load of 100000 messages per day.
Most of the devices are smart sensors, ready to connect to the IoT Hub, but some of them need to be connected via Linux-basedgateway devices.
You want to use advanced configurations to control the devices remotely and to distribute some logic to the edges.
There are also some low resource, legacy temperature sensors which must be directly connected to the Hub and need to communicate through port 443
Which communication protocol would you use for which device category?
Answers
Explanations
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D.Correct Answer: B.
Option A is incorrect because for low-resource devices, the AMQP protocol is not the right choice.
For these, “legacy” devices often the HTTPS is the only choice, because of its smallest footprint.
Option B is CORRECT because MQTT is common for new types of sensors; AMQP is the only supported option for gateway devices; HTTPS is the right option for low-resource devices which are allowed to connect to port 443 (note: MQTT over WebSockets could also be a valid option).
Option C is incorrect because gateway devices will be used to connect several single devices to the IoT Hub.
Forwarding traffic from multiple sources with multiple IDs requires using the AMQP protocol.
Selecting MQTT for the gateway devices is not supported.
Option D is incorrect because gateway devices will be used to connect several single devices to the IoT Hub.
Forwarding traffic from multiple sources with multiple IDs requires using the AMQP protocol.
Neither MQTT nor MQTT over WebSockets for gateways are supported.
Reference:
To choose the appropriate communication protocol for each device category, we need to consider their capabilities, requirements, and constraints.
Smart sensors are ready to connect to IoT Hub, and they can leverage the MQTT protocol to establish a lightweight, bi-directional communication channel with the hub. MQTT is a publish/subscribe messaging protocol that operates on top of TCP/IP and is designed for low-bandwidth, high-latency, and unreliable networks. It is an efficient protocol for devices that generate a significant volume of telemetry data, and it allows for the bidirectional exchange of messages between the device and the hub.
Gateway devices, on the other hand, may have more processing power and memory resources than smart sensors, and they can act as intermediaries between the sensors and the hub. Gateway devices can use the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) to connect to the IoT Hub. AMQP is a binary, session-oriented, and reliable messaging protocol that supports a wide range of messaging patterns and features, such as flow control, message acknowledgments, and transactions. It is an efficient protocol for gateways that need to manage multiple connections to sensors and distribute some processing logic to the edge.
Finally, low-resource, legacy temperature sensors may not support the MQTT or AMQP protocols and may need to communicate directly with the IoT Hub via HTTPS. HTTPS is a standard protocol for secure communication over the web, and it uses the TCP/IP transport layer to transmit encrypted data between the sensor and the hub. Port 443 is a common port for HTTPS traffic, and it can be used to secure the communication between the sensor and the hub.
Based on these considerations, the correct answer is A. Smart sensors use MQTT, Gateway devices use AMQP, and low-resource, legacy temperature sensors use AMQP over HTTPS.
