Application layer Protocols for Embedded System Applications: A Comparison

Abstract

The Internet of Things is one of the fast-growing trends in information technology applications. As with the growth of IoT devices, the volume and pace of the data also increased to a greater extend. The data transfer is possible with the help of a message transmission system. The protocol has a major role in effective communication with the devices and connects them using various applications on the internet of things. The application layer is responsible for the data formatting, presentation, providing assistance, and also it determines the protocols for the message transfer at the application level. The selection of an efficient protocol is the foundation for the intact IoT system. The performance aspects of the IoT protocols are important to its widespread utilization in various fields. However, the protocol feature set aspect is essential for its adoption in the real world. The IoT devices are generally limited to computational resources and processing power, selecting a lightweight, reliable, and secure messaging protocol becomes a daunting challenge. This paper discusses four important application layer protocols that are being used to ensure a reliable bond among devices, which are connected in an IoT system. In this paper, we present a comparison and an evaluation of four application layer messaging protocol for IoT such as MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Protocol), AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol), CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol), and XMPP (Extensible Messaging Presence Protocol). The protocols and their characteristics are explained in this work followed by a comparison to understand the strengths and limitations of these protocols.