RUT955 MQTT

Summary

MQTT (MQ Telemetry Transport or Message Queue Telemetry Transport) is an ISO standard (ISO/IEC PRF 20922) publish-subscribe-based "lightweight" messaging protocol for use on top of the TCP/IP protocol. It is designed to send short messages from one client (publisher) to another (subscriber) through brokers, which are responsible for message delivery to the end point. RUT routers support this functionality via an open source Mosquitto broker. The messages are sent this way: a client (subscriber) subscribes to a topic(s); a publisher posts a message to that specific topic(s). The broker then checks who is subscribed to that particular topic(s) and transmits data from the publisher to the subscriber. This chapter is a summary of the MQTT function in RUT routers.

For in-depth MQTT configuration examples, refer to this page: Monitoring via MQTT

MQTT Broker

The Broker will “listen” for connections on the specified Local port. In order to accept connections from WAN, you also need to check Enable Remote Access.

field name	value	description
Enable	yes | no; Default: no	Toggles MQTT Broker ON or OFF
Local Port	integer [0..65535]; Default: " "	Specifies the local port that the MQTT broker will listen to
Enable Remote Access	yes | no; Default: no	If enabled, MQTT Broker will be reachable by remote user (from WAN)

Security

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The MQTT Security tab is used to establish MQTT connection security via TLS/SSL.

field name	value	description
Use TLS/SSL	yes | no; Default: no	Toggles the use of TLS/SSL certificates ON or OFF
CA File	.ca file; Default: " "	Certificate authority is an entity that issues digital certificates. A digital certificate certifies the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate
CERT File	.crt file; Default: " "	Certificate file is a type of digital certificate that is used by client systems to make authenticated requests to a remote server. Client certificates play a key role in many mutual authentication designs, providing strong assurances of a requester's identity
Key File	.key file; Default: " "	Specifies the local port that the MQTT broker will listen to
TLS version	tlsv1 | tlsv1.1 | tlsv1.2 | Support all; Default: Support all	Authenticates a client to a server and establishes precisely who they are

Bridge

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The MQTT Broker also supports a functionality called Bridge. An MQTT Bridge is used for the communication between two MQTT Brokers. The window of Bridge parameters is presented below. Some of these are mandatory as they are needed to create a connection: Connection Name, Remote Address and Remote Port. For more information on MQTT Bridge parameters you can read the official mosquitto.conf manual page.

field name	value	description
Use TLS/SSL	yes | no; Default: no	Toggles MQTT Bridge ON or OFF
Connection Name	string; Default: " "	Name of the Bridge connection. Although this is used for easier management purposes, this field is mandatory
Remote Address	ip; Default: " "	Remote Broker’s address
Remote Port	integer [0..65535]; Default: 1883	Specifies which port the remote broker uses to listen for connections
Use Remote TLS/SSL	yes | no; Default: no	Enables the use of TSL/SSL certificates of the remote broker. If this is checked, you will be prompted to upload TLS/SSL certificates. More information can be found in the Security section of this chapter
Use Remote Bridge Login	yes | no; Default: no	Enables the use of Remote login data. If this is checked, you will be prompted to enter a remote client ID, username and password
Topic	string; Default: " "	Specifies the names of the Topics that your Broker will subscribe to
Try Private	yes | no; Default: no	Check if the remote Broker is another instance of a daemon
Clean Session	yes | no; Default: no	Check to discard session state after connecting or disconnecting

Micellaneous

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The last section of MQTT Broker parameters is called Miscellaneous. It contains parameters that are related to neither Security nor Bridge.

field name	value	description
ACL File	.ACL file; Default: " "	The contents of this file are used to control client access to topics of the broker
Password File	password file; Default: " "	The Password file stores user names and corresponding passwords, used for authentication
Persistence	yes | no; Default: no	If enabled, connection, subscription and message data will be written to the disk. Otherwise, the data is stored in the router’s memory only
Allow Anonymous	yes | no; Default: yes	If enabled, the Broker allows anonymous access

MQTT Publisher

An MQTT Publisher is a client that sends messages to the Broker, who then forwards these messages to the Subscriber.

FIELD NAME	VALUE	DESCRIPTION
Enable	yes | no; Default: no	Toggles the MQTT Publisher ON or OFF
Hostname	host | ip; Default: " "	Broker’s IP address or hostname
Port	integer [0..65535]; Default: " "	Specifies the port used for connecting to the Broker
Username	string; Default: " "	User name used for authentication when connecting to the Broker
Password	string; Default: " "	Password used for authentication when connecting to the Broker