Azure IoT Hub, also known as Azure Internet of Things serves by providing a cloud-hosted solution back end to connect virtually any device. It is a cohesive form of cloud services that are further managed by Microsoft for monitoring, connecting and controlling the assets of the Internet of Things.
In other words, the Azure Internet of Things is a one-stop solution that works and operates in the cloud.
The Azure cloud platform comprises more than 200 products as well as cloud services that are designed to help consumers with better solutions. It is supported by continuous innovations and promotes development for today as well as for the future that lies ahead.
Azure IoT Hub is made up of one or more than one IoT device and several back-end services that communicate with each other.
IoT Hub supports and braces multiple messaging patterns such as file upload from devices and request-reply methods to control your devices from the cloud.
It is a service that is organised and hosted in the cloud and it acts as a central messaging hub for bi-directional communication between an IoT application and the device it manages and is in charge of.
Azure IoT Hub
Internet of Things (IoT) puts forward businesses immediate as well as real-world opportunities to lower and reduce the costs, escalate revenue, as well as transform their businesses.
Azure IoT Hub is a managed IoT service that is collocated in the cloud.
This cloud-to-cloud device connectivity intends that one can receive data from their devices, but can also send commands and policies back to the devices. Azure IoT hub differs from the existing solutions as it also provides the infrastructure to authenticate, connect and manage the devices connected to it.
Azure IoT Hub provides,
- Device libraries for the most commonly, habitually as well as frequently used platforms and languages for convenient and easy device connectivity.
- Safe and secure communications with multiple options for device-to-cloud and cloud-to-device hyper-scale communication.
- Storage of per-device state information as well as meta-data.
Components of Azure IoT Hub
The main components of Azure Internet of Things (Azure IoT) are – devices, back-end services and communication between the two.
- Devices: IoT (Internet of Things) devices usually have a sensor attached to them. They can transmit data from one object to another or people with the assistance of the internet. IoT devices are attached to a particular object that operates through the internet, further allowing the transfer of data among objects or people spontaneously and automatically without any sort of intervention from us. These devices are capable of communicating via a Wi-Fi chip too. Just like pressure sensors on a remote oil pump, temperature and humidity sensors in an air-conditioning unit, accelerometers in an elevator and the presence of sensors in a room.
- Communication: With the help and assistance of Azure IoT Hub one can easily connect and manage their IoT device to communicate securely with back-end services in both directions. Let us take an example of how your device can send alerts based on the values from its sensors, just like monitoring a batch reactor in a chemical plant, one may want to send an alert when the temperature exceeds a particular value.
- Back-end services: The back-end services under Azure IoT Hub provide us with several functions like receiving telemetry at scale from your devices and determining how to process and store that data, analysing the telemetry provide insights, both in real-time as well as after the fact, provisioning devices and control which device can connect to your infrastructure and so on.
MQTT
MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is nothing but a lightweight messaging protocol that was developed by IBM and was first released in 1999.
MQTT can also be defined as a publish-subscribe network protocol that transports messages between devices. It translates messages between devices, servers and applications.
Initially, the MQTT protocol was created to link sensors on oil pipelines with communication satellites, with prominence on minimal battery loss and bandwidth consumption.
A few out of the several benefits offered by MQTT are minimized data packets, energy efficiency, real-time operation with little to no delay, and retained messages that clients automatically receive after subscribing.
Azure IoT and MQTT
Azure IoT Hub supports as well as assists the standardised version 3.1.1 of the MQTT protocol.
In other words, data can be exchanged with the IoT Hub via MQTT. It prioritizes safe and secure communication with no delay whatsoever.
