Embedded Computing Design

MQTT is a popular protocol for connecting Internet of Things (IoT). But it’s incompatible with Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) – an increasingly popular communications standard for most IoT projects. It works fine during prototyping, giving companies the false impression that MQTT is the right choice of protocol.

But chances are high that products using MQTT will suffer performance issues or completely malfunction when they’re in the field. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that many manufacturers and system integrators aren’t aware of the consequent risks: high-expense support efforts, the need to reengage development teams, problems in distributing firmware updates to the device fleet, and product recalls.