What Are Protocols in IoT? A Guide to Communication Standards for Smart Devices
IoT is all around us and their way of working is guided by some protocols. Protocols in IoT refer to a set of standards and rules that define how communication is done between IoT devices. Such protocols ensure that every component of the IoT network will be able to understand and respond to messages and data transmitted. This is regardless of their manufacturer, operating system, or even the hardware they are built on. In this article, I will simplify the most common internet of things protocols that we see every day.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is perhaps the most recognized and widely used IoT protocols. It operates at a frequency of 2.4 GHz and uses short-range radio waves to connect devices. This Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) can connect different devices, including portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. Wearables and home appliances, can also be connected to take advantage of IoT device functionalities.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi-the standard for wireless local area networks have been on the level of the IoT ecosystem for quite a long time. There are various benefits of using Wi-Fi which includes high-speed data transfer from 11 Mbps (802.11b) to over 1 Gbps (802.11ac/ax). Wi-fi also provides support for 2 different frequency bands namely, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. And lastly for securing data transmissions, you can use WPA2 or WPA3 encryptions.
Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)
Protocols in IoT include the HTTP which is one of the widely used protocols for data exchange. However, HTTP is heavily loaded and needs good resources to run. Hence, comes the revolutionizing Constrained Application Protocol, which took a more straightforward alternative for IoT.
It works on RESTful architecture which is a request-response interaction model between application endpoints. This naturally makes the integration with HTTP easier for the integration of CoAP-enabled devices into existing web-based IoT ecosystems. Furthermore, CoAP incorporates Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms, such that messages may be sent as either “confirmable” or “non-confirmable”.
Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT)
Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), has indeed become the backbone choice among IoT protocols for both industrial and enterprise-level IoT installations. It is a lightweight and publish-subscribe messaging protocol. This makes it well suited for one-to-many and many-to-many communication. MQTT is among iot protocols which are lightweight and efficient too. Also, it can be used on all TCP/IP networks.
Lightweight M2M (LwM2M)
Lifecycle management of the IoT device represents the broader scope of Lightweight Machine to Machine (LwM2M). It does include simple data transmission. But it goes further by including firmware/software updates, configuration management, and remote diagnostics.
LwM2M is resource-efficient and power-efficient and supports in deployment of those IoT devices that do not have heavy resources. It also communicates through RESTful architecture and client-server model.
Data Distribution Service (DDS)
The Data Distribution Service (DDS) protocol is even more generalized for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. From publish/subscribe-based principles of communication models, devices can act as either publish or subscribe or both. The efficiency and the low latency of the data distribution are thus made possible. DDS provides broker-less feature which allows direct communication between devices.
Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)
Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) is a public, publish-subscribe messaging standard with that is very popular among the financial industry. Apart from finances, it comes under internet of things protocols that are highly used in ICT (Information and Communication Technology).
AMQP requires good number of resources to function properly and hence it is not suitable in small scale deployments. Therefore, it is commonly used where data exchange is primary requirement with enhanced security.
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)
The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) has been around for quite some time and was intended for real-time messaging applications. Not long after, it manifested itself within the IoT landscape, bringing with it a lightweight XMPP specification termed XMPP-IoT to address unique connectivity requirements of devices.
XMPP is actually the communication protocol for the real-time transfer of formatted data between the network clients as it is built around the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The best thing about XMPP is that it is real time and helps in exchange of structured data. You can easily add new features and functionality as your needs.
ZigBee
ZigBee is a low-power, low-data-rate wireless mesh networking technology. It is specifically manufactured for IoT applications which focuses primarily on energy efficiency and extended range rather than bandwidth.
ZigBee has a capacity of about 250 kbps, which is sufficient for any of the IoT uses such as sensor data transmission and control signals. This wide applicability accounts for its presence in almost every IoT application. It can be indoors (home automation and building management) or outdoors (industrial automation), where reliable, low-power but secure communication technology is desired.
Cellular IoT
Such protocols in IoT utilize the existing extensive coverage and infrastructure of mobile networks to give access to a distant, low-power connection for the IoT device.
Prominent cellular IoT protocols include:
Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT)
Narrowband IoT is an LPWAN network protocol for low-power wide-area networks using cellular licensed spectrum. NB-IoT was designed to enable reliable long-range connectivity to reduce indoor coverage with long-lasting battery life for IoT devices.
LTE-M (Long-Term Evolution for Machines)
Another cell-based IoT protocol is LTE-M, which uses LTE network architecture. This new LTE standard is optimized for providing low-power, wide-area coverage to IoT devices while supporting applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and positioning.
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