The choice of IoT protocols is one of the essential steps in the deployment of an environment. If the Internet of Things involves a concurrence of devices, sensor networks and management systems, the IoT communication protocols are the ones that make it possible communication between all of them to take place and be effective.
We look at what IoT protocols are, how they work and why they are important, and explore the main network protocols that are incorporated into these systems.
IoT platforms provide multiple benefits to companies in the industrial environment - from boosting automation and productivity to generating new management models. However, without network protocols, these systems could not run.
In the IT and telecommunications field, IoT protocols are a set of standards and rules that allow two entities to understand each other and exchange information, facilitating Machine2Machine (M2M) communication.
In other words, IoT protocols are to machine-to-machine communication what languages, gestures, or body language are to human-to-human communication. So, just as two humans need to speak the same language to understand each other, devices need to use the same IoT protocols to exchange information.
On the other hand, in our recent study on Industrial Edge Computing, we observed that one of the needs that companies have and want to cover is precisely knowledge in IoT protocols (You can see more details in our report, the Industrial Edge Computing Barometer).
For their operation, the emerging data protocols used in IoT networks have several layers:
You might be interested in: IoT platforms, what they are and how they could benefit your business.
As mentioned above, IoT protocols are necessary for communication to take place between the different devices in the IoT system.
Thus, the IoT communication protocols will have to fulfil the following functions:
Due to the variety of existing IoT devices, different IoT protocols have emerged to manage communication in different contexts.
The type of protocol is determined by the devices to be connected, the function they perform and the distance the data must travel to be transmitted. In any case, IoT communication protocols are divided into two types:
There is no standardization when it comes to choosing between the different IoT protocols. However, there are some common guidelines that are followed:
- When communicating IoT devices with the Internet, the most common protocols are MQTT, CoAP and HTTP. They are highly flexible as they are designed to transmit any type of information.
In addition to the well-known HTTP protocols, the following protocols stand out here:
- In industrial communication and industrial IoT deployments, protocols are used that are very focused on operations and not so much on sending information. In other words, they are protocols oriented to allow a controller device (a PLC) to communicate with another machine that executes orders.
In this case, the most common protocol is Modbus. However, there are very specific IoT protocols for specific industrial sectors, such as IEC102 and IEC104 for electricity meters or MBUS for water meters.
In short, when choosing the most appropriate IoT protocols for a particular deployment, it is crucial to first determine the needs of the particular system to be used, and then adjust the chosen protocols.
However, for ease of use, IoT platforms such as Barbara aim to achieve an "agnostic" state, allowing communication over any network interface and any industrial protocol.
The aim is to generate a connectivity that allows companies to become independent of device manufacturers, networks and specific platforms and generate IoT deployments as flexible as possible.
Learn more about the flexibility in IoT protocols enabled by the Industrial IoT platform Barbara OS y request a demo to see the security and efficiency benefits of our software.