The Internet of Things is developing rapidly. This has led to the introduction of various smart devices that make connecting to remote locations easy. One of the latest technological advancements in IoT is the MQTT gateway, which acts as an intermediary between the cloud and IoT platforms.
MQTT stands for Message Queuing Telemetry Transport. It is one of the key communication protocols for IoT devices and local networks. It is an ideal protocol for communication between smart devices or machine-to-machine communication. It works in two situations;
High latency environment
low bandwidth
MQTT makes it easy to transfer extremely lightweight messages between servers and clients. It uses Internet Protocol (IP) as the path through which it sends messages.
What is MQTT gateway?
Generally, an MQTT gateway can be defined as an intermediary between any IoT platform and sensors. It works by getting data from these sensors or smart devices and converting it into MQTT. It then transmits this data to the IoT platform or MQTT broker.
An MQTT gateway can also be defined as an Ethernet gateway, which acts as an MQTT client due to built-in modification software.
Advantages of Bluetooth MQTT Gateway
Messages are lightweight, which makes MQTT efficient.
It allows two-way messaging. This means it can enable communication from the cloud to the device or from the device to the cloud.
MQTT is reliable and efficient in messaging.
It is secure because it can encrypt messages using TLS.
How does the Bluetooth MQTT gateway work?
A Bluetooth MQTT gateway works by scanning and detecting all devices or sensors within range of the gateway. It allows all devices it detects to communicate and manage their communications from a central IoT platform.
All MQTT clients are notified when they are in the vicinity of the gateway; therefore they c
Easily track this gateway. The figure below illustrates how the MQTT Ble gateway works.
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How to set up an MQTT gateway and test
MQTT gateway is similar to Ethernet gateway and the setup is almost similar.
Start by building a physical gateway.
To build this gateway, you first need to wire or connect the electrical system. When connecting the wires, please note that standard sensor connections are different from radio module connections. The reason is that most Ethernet modules do not share SPI with the radio module.
The next thing to do when building your gateway is to configure it. Make sure to select the port, MAC and fixed IP address you wish to use for the gateway at this stage. The MAC address you choose must be unique and cannot be used on other networks.
Set up MQTT gateway
After building the gateway, you can decide which module to run MQTT on. The two modules you can use are;
Arduino W5100 Ethernet module
ESP8266 module
You can then connect the Ethernet module and radio of your choice. At this stage, make sure you define the theme and publish the prefix in the provided sketch. For example;
MY_MQTT_PUBLISH_TOPIC_PREFIX/FROM_NODE_ID/SENSOR_ID
You will then receive your topic from the gateway based on the data you sent. From the example above, you will receive the following information;
mygateway1-out/2/1/1/0/49
If you decide to share data with sensors, use the following topics in Sketch;
MY_MQTT_SUBSCRIBE_TOPIC_PREFIX
Feedback is as follows;
mygateway1-in/2/1/1/0/49
After setting up the MQTT gateway, it is recommended to test it with a broker to ensure it is working properly. IoT professionals recommend using Mosquito as the best broker. Mosquito is a licensed message broker that helps implement the MQTT protocol.
MQTT broker
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Brokers help handle clients in MQTT technology. It can manage hundreds, thousands, or millions of connected MQTT clients at once, depending on the implementation. Its main functions are;
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BB
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Decode and filter received messages
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Determine which client will be interested in which message
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Transmit these messages to customers based on their interests
MQTT gateway as bridge
MQTT gateway acts as a bridge between all MQTT devices and sensors or IoT. Additionally, Cloud IoT Core can communicate with devices using MQTT as a bridge. When you have MQTT devices distributed in many different places, you need some data for analysis. This data should be located on a shared server.
In this case, you deploy a gateway in every location where the MQTT device is located. An MQTT gateway can act as a bridge by consolidating data into a central location. The diagram below shows how an MQTT gateway acts as a bridge.
MQTT gateway use case
MQTT gateways are widely used in industrial environments around the world to help improve all business operations. These industries include;
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oil and gas companies
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food and beverage companies
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agribusiness
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mining industry
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manufacturer
They all have multiple sensors installed in their organizations to help transmit critical telemetry data. This information is then analyzed to see if there are any inconsistencies in their day-to-day business operations.
These industries can also use the data to understand trends in their business. With this information, they can identify gaps, strengths, and needs to improve business operations.
MQTT gateway products
Common QMTT gateways on the market, such as Zongheng Intelligent Control’s 4G RTU (ZHC492C), 4G RTU (ZHC493C), etc., all support the MQTT protocol and support most cloud servers on the market.
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