WITH LOBSTER_DATA, OPC UA AND MQTT
MASTERING (I)IOT CHALLENGES
While digital transformation is already well advanced in the private sphere thanks to smart devices, full digitalisation is still a long way off in many companies. The Internet of Things, for example, has a lot of potential, especially for industrial manufacturing – this is also referred to as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
In factories, the most diverse levels of data and process control are frequently already digitalised. This is very positive, but you shouldn’t leave it at that, but instead ask: How can your own company use IIoT to become even more efficient and competitive? Organisations should be prepared for change, as the implementation of IoT technologies often proves to be a critical factor for success. Especially when production processes and sales procedures are due to be modernised or the customer experience improved. For this, individual devices must be connected with the infrastructure and – even more importantly – with people. This is what distinguishes IIoT.
OPC UA AND MQTT
In order for all systems to be able to communicate with each other, a generally available channel must be established, a so-called Factory IoT Bus. Currently, two main communication paths or protocols are used: OPC UA, where OPC stands for Open Platform Communication and is one of the most important communication protocols in the field of Industry 4.0 and IoT. With OPC, access to machines, devices and other systems in the industrial environment is standardised and enables manufacturer-independent data exchange. The UA in OPC UA stands for Unified Architecture and refers to the latest standard specification. Lobster_data implements both the OPC UA Server and an OPC UA Client.
A one-to-one topic structure – the real trick behind MQTT’s communication channel – is created with the MQTT protocol. Initially, the lean protocol was intended for the transmission of telemetry data in the form of messages between individual devices. Meanwhile, it plays a central role in the networking of numerous IoT devices. MQTT does not function like a classic client-server model, but has the advantage of being able to communicate directly and bidirectionally with all systems. Data, analyses and predictions can be played back directly to the clients via machine learning approaches in the cloud. In the economically optimised control of a refrigerated warehouse, for example.
Given today’s challenges in the Internet of Things, the popularity of MQTT as a communication protocol is explained by its properties: simplicity, bandwidth efficiency, scalability, standardisation and event-driven communication. In addition, MQTT is data-agnostic – for the protocol it does not matter in which form the data is present.
LOBSTER_DATA AND HIVEMQ MESH PERFECTLY TOGETHER
In order to be able to offer its customers the advantages of MQTT and thus more efficient IIoT use, Lobster has gained HiveMQ as a partner. HiveMQ is a successful German software manufacturer that has developed its own MQTT broker and other MQTT tools. By integrating the MQTT structure of HiveMQ into Lobster_data, it is possible to move large amounts of data between devices and the cloud in a secure, reliable and scalable way. And to be integrated into a wide variety of systems for further processing and evaluation. The use cases are as diverse as the Internet of Things itself. It is not a question of which end device, machine, truck or refrigeration unit ultimately delivers or receives data. It is about connecting thousands of devices easily and flexibly to your own systems, communicating with them and making this data available to the target system securely and in the required form. With Lobster_data, customised solutions for the respective use case can be implemented at any time, even if only a few devices are employed. As always with Lobster: Simply create the administration once. And off you go.
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