Efficient and Flexibile IoT Communication Through a Plugin-Based MQTT Processing Architecture

This research focuses on the development and evaluation of advanced filtering, modification, and redirection capabilities for messages in an MQTT-based device network. In standard configurations, the MQTT broker solely handles message routing according to protocol rules, without altering their structure or destination (topics). The integration of message manipulation and rerouting capabilities enhances network flexibility and versatility, enabling operations such as unit standardization, file format conversion, and meaningful data filtering. These functionalities improve overall system efficiency by significantly reducing network traffic and optimizing message processing times, offloading computationally intensive tasks to more capable systems and alleviating the load on end devices (subscribers). To achieve these objectives, two distinct yet interoperable software solutions are proposed. The first involves modifying an open-source MQTT broker to include message manipulation and rerouting features prior to subscriber delivery. The second entails implementing an external software module, running on a dedicated device, which independently processes messages and reinjects them into the MQTT network for broker publication. These solutions represent a significant advancement in optimizing MQTT networks, offering enhanced versatility, efficiency, and scalability over standard configurations, with broad applicability in real-world scenarios.