Desing and Implementation of MQTT Protocol Analyzer

Abstract

Background/Objectives: In this paper, we design and implementan MQTT protocol analyzerto monitor the data exchange between MQTT broker and clients. The implemented protocol analyzer does not affect the performance of the broker because it uses packet sniffering method and has functions, such as MQTT Topic status, that conventional protocol analyzers can not show.

Methods: The MQTT analyzer was developed using the Java language and the Jpcap library. We developed a GUI version protocol analyzer similar to the general protocol analyzer, and also developed a console mode analyzer that can simply check the number of messages per sec.

Findings: Since the MqttAnalyzer implemented in this research uses Jpcap packet capturelibaray, the MQTT protocol can be monitored with minimal performance degradation of the broker even they are running in a same computer. When operating in GUI mode, it displays packet-level analysis, including TCP/IP information, statistics based on MQTT protocol, and real-time message exchange performance. In case of console mode monitoring, with little overhead, itdisplaysMQTT PUBLISH message so that it can monitor real time message traffic more efficiently.

Applications: The MqttAnalyzer can be used for monitoring and debuggingan MQTT application system. In particular, it is useful for evaluating performance of high speed MQTT appliance where MQTT Broker is embedded. 

Keywords: MQTT, Protocol Analyzer, Jpcap, MQTT Broker