Differentiating Between MQTT Client and MQTT Broker

Clear communication is important in IoT and connected devices, and MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a widely used protocol that facilitates this process.

MQTT has two main components: the MQTT Client and the MQTT Broker. The MQTT Client gathers and transmits data, while the MQTT Broker acts as the central hub, managing the communication between clients.

MQTT Client

The MQTT Client is a device or application that connects to the MQTT Broker to publish and subscribe to topics. In the ZeroKey ecosystem, an Edge Compute Device (ECD) functions as an MQTT Client. This device collects data and sends it to the broker. For instance, the ECD gathers positioning data from the ZeroKey QRTLS and transmits it to the broker for further processing.

MQTT Broker

The MQTT Broker acts as the central hub that manages communications between MQTT Clients. It receives messages from clients, filters them, and distributes them to the appropriate client. The MQTT Broker ensures that data from the ECD (MQTT Client) is routed to the correct applications. The user must set up the MQTT Broker on each application used to collect data from the ECD. Once set up, the user connects the client to the broker, enabling data collection and forwarding to the user’s application, allowing for real-time data processing.