When data is all you need: An overview of IoT communication with the cloud

This article provides guidance on selecting communication protocols for IoT projects, emphasizing a data-centric approach to device-cloud communication.

• Analyze four system constraints: device capabilities, data types/volume, transmission costs, and security requirements
• MQTT is a bidirectional, lightweight, scalable protocol ideal for most IoT projects
• AWS IoT Core supports MQTT, MQTT5, and MQTT over WebSocket with device provisioning and fleet management
• Amazon Kinesis handles high-volume streaming data ingestion and processing
• HTTPS/HTTP suitable for one-directional, lightweight communication patterns
• MQTT shadows enable efficient reading of small static configuration data
• Amazon S3 for downloading larger files like firmware updates
• Cloud-to-cloud communication or API wrappers for projects without direct device access

The article emphasizes that IoT success depends on selecting appropriate communication protocols based on project constraints rather than using a single protocol for all scenarios.