MQTT is one of the most popular application-layer protocols used in the scope of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Industrial-Internet-of-Things (IIoT), given its suitability for resource-constrained embedded systems. However, MQTT Quality-of-Service policies do not support timeliness requirements, which is common in IIoT. The literature reports several research works that address this limitation, but they are limited in scope (e.g., improvements in the broker’s internal operation, control of the publisher’s data rate, and path optimizations). Conversely, this paper presents a comprehensive architectural approach, proposing a set of extensions to the MQTT protocol that allow applications to explicitly specify real-time requirements and instantiate corresponding network reservations to enforce the desired temporal behavior. Such reservations are enforced via Software Defined Networking, specifically the OpenFlow protocol, but other protocols that allow bandwidth reservations, e.g., TSN, can also be used. This paper presents the proposed system architecture together with extensive emulation and implementation results that validate the feasibility of the approach, showing that time-sensitive MQTT traffic can be effectively segregated and prioritized to meet application-defined real-time requirements. Using several combinations of network topologies and load levels and comparing to the absence of the proposed real-time mechanisms, both average and worst-case latencies of the time-sensitive traffic decreased to approximately half, while for the normal traffic, they increased by approximately 10%.

The increasing prominence of concepts such as Smart Production and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) within the context of Industry 4.0 has introduced a new set of requirements for the engineering of industrial systems, including support for dynamic environments, timeliness guarantees, support for heterogeneity, interoperability and reliability. These requirements are further exacerbated at the network level by the notable rise in the number and variety of devices involved. To stay competitive in this ever-changing industrial landscape while boosting productivity, it is vital to meet those requirements, combining established protocols with emerging technologies. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is the forefront traffic management paradigm that offers flexibility for complex industrial networks, enabling efficient resource allocation and dynamic reconfiguration. Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is a low-overhead protocol of the application layer that is gaining popularity in the scope of the IoT and IIoT. However, its Quality-of-Service (QoS) policies do not support timeliness requirements. This paper presents a framework that seamlessly integrates SDN and MQTT, enhancing network management flexibility while satisfying real-time requirements found in industrial environments. It leverages the User Properties of MQTTv5 to allow specifying real-time requirements. MQTT traffic is intercepted by a Network Manager that extracts real-time information and instructs an SDN controller to deploy corresponding network reservations. MQTT traffic across multiple edge networks is propagated by selected brokers using multicasting. Extensive emulation experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, demonstrating its superiority over MQTT and Direct Multicast-MQTT (DM-MQTT) in latency reduction. Additionally, a response time analysis is provided and validated experimentally, emphasizing the robust performance of the proposed approach across distinct metrics.