The Internet of Things (IoT) can use advanced identification technology to convert the status of all objects into various parameters, and then share information through the Internet to form a network that connects everything.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has already begun to penetrate people's lives in some areas, and in the near future, with the development of sensing and identification technologies, it will bring people even more convenience.
The role of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to give different objects an ID card, categorize them, and then connect them.
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the use of various information sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, global positioning systems (GPS), infrared sensors, laser scanners, and other devices and technologies to collect real-time information on any object or process that needs to be monitored, connected, or interacted with. This information includes sound, light, heat, electricity, mechanics, chemistry, biology, location, and other relevant data. Through various possible network access methods, it enables ubiquitous connectivity between things and between things and people, achieving intelligent perception, identification, and management of objects and processes.
A communication protocol is a communication technology used to establish connections between different operating systems. It has a set of rules that affect the format, transmission method, and transmission speed of transmitted information. In today's Internet of Things (IoT) framework, there are many types of communication protocols. Let's take a look at them together.
MQTT: MQTT is an extension of TCP/IP technology. It is relatively small in size and suitable for devices with limited hardware performance or network transmission speed. It is one of the fundamental communication protocols in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry, with applications covering satellite links, healthcare, smart homes, and many other fields.
HTTPS: HTTPS is a secure communication channel that requires a request/response mechanism to ensure the security of information transmission. Because it enables encrypted communication, it is widely used on the internet.
CoAP: CoAP is a communication protocol primarily used in the Internet of Things (IoT). Built on the REST framework, it allows for a streamlined architecture, thereby reducing energy consumption. This protocol is commonly used in devices requiring a simplified architecture, such as water meters and electricity meters.
TCP: TCP is a byte-stream-based communication protocol with high flexibility. Therefore, it is often used in the construction of internal company systems, giving users a high degree of freedom.
UDP: UDP is a connectionless transport protocol focused on providing simple information transmission with relatively low latency and cost. This technology is primarily used for data acquisition and transmission in streaming media.
These are five common communication protocols in the IoT industry. Among them, MQTT and CoAP are relatively widely used; how do they compare in terms of advantages and disadvantages?
First, MQTT mainly acts as an information relay station; since it does not support the tagging of information, it is rather impractical for storage, so it is best used for real-time data transmission; CoAP, on the other hand, has different advantages.
The term "Internet of Things" is being mentioned more and more frequently, and it is expanding into many fields such as connected cars, smart homes, wearable devices, smart cities, and smart healthcare. From common household appliances to urban infrastructure, all products and devices are being connected.
In the IoT interaction environment defined by EdgerOS, IoT devices from different manufacturers and using different protocols only need to provide their most essential functions. We can use rich and flexible scenario-based organization to enable the entire system to perform incredible functions. Considering the wide range of applications and performance requirements, choosing the optimal protocol is one of the most important early decisions in the design process of any IoT device. Engineers must consider issues such as communication range, data rate and power consumption, reliability, security, and scalability to determine the appropriate protocol.
In addition to the CoAP, MQTT, SDDC, ZDDC, LoRa, and ZigBee protocols provided and compatible with the EdgeOS system itself, Aizhiyun also offers users a seamless IoT and internet connectivity experience. Through open-source communication protocols, device developers can easily build thousands of smart devices that automatically connect to EdgeOS using IoT-oriented operating systems such as FreeRTOS and MS-RTOS®. Together with Aizhiyun and Aizhi devices, this forms a cloud-edge-device integrated product system, giving rise to a variety of imaginative smart scenarios.
Let's take a look at commonly used communication protocols to compare and make the right choice. You can use these protocols and standards to build IoT solutions for your needs.
The Internet of Things (IoT) presents a complex connectivity landscape, encompassing communication environments such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, RFID, NFC (Near Field Communication), Zigbee, 6LoWPAN (IPv6 low-speed wireless version), Bluetooth, GSM, GPRS, GPS, 3G, and 4G networks. Each communication protocol has its own applicable scope. AMQP, JMS, and REST/HTTP all operate over Ethernet, while the COAP protocol is specifically designed for resource-constrained devices. DDS and MQTT, on the other hand, offer significantly greater compatibility.
In the internet age, the TCP/IP protocol has become the dominant protocol, and the current communication architecture of the Internet of Things (IoT) is built upon this traditional internet infrastructure. Among current internet communication protocols, HTTP dominates due to its low development cost and high openness, leading many manufacturers to develop IoT systems based on HTTP. Even Google's Physic Web project aims to build IoT protocol standards on top of traditional web technologies.
The HTTP protocol is a typical client-server (CS) communication model, where the client initiates the connection to request XML or JSON data from the server. Originally designed for web browser browsing, it is widely used on PCs, mobile phones, tablets, and other devices, but it is not suitable for the Internet of Things (IoT) scenario. In the IoT context, it has three major drawbacks:
(1) Since the device must actively send data to the server, it is difficult to actively push data to the device. This is barely applicable for simple data collection scenarios, but for frequent operation scenarios, the only option is to push the device to actively pull data periodically, which greatly reduces the cost and real-time performance.
(2) Low security. The insecurity of the web is well known. HTTP is a plaintext protocol. In many IoT scenarios that require high security, the consequences would be unimaginable if a lot of security preparations (such as using HTTPS) are not made.
(3) Unlike user interaction terminals such as PCs and mobile phones, the devices in the Internet of Things scenario are diverse. For devices with very limited computing and storage resources, implementing the HTTP protocol and parsing XML/JSON data formats are impossible tasks.
The seven major communication protocols of IoT:
1. REST/HTTP (Loosely Coupled Service Call)
REST, or Representational State Delivery, is a communication style developed based on the HTTP protocol.
