NDN, CoAP, and MQTT: A Comparative Measurement Study in the IoT

TL;DR

This study compares NDN, CoAP, and MQTT protocols in IoT environments, revealing NDN's resource efficiency and robustness in multi-hop scenarios, while IP protocols excel in single-hop deployments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive measurement comparison of NDN, CoAP, and MQTT in IoT, highlighting NDN's advantages in resource use and resilience over IP-based protocols.

Findings

NDN is most resource-efficient on nodes.

NDN shows superior robustness in multi-hop scenarios.

IP protocols have lower overhead and higher speed in single-hop deployments.

Abstract

This paper takes a comprehensive view on the protocol stacks that are under debate for a future Internet of Things (IoT). It addresses the holistic question of which solution is beneficial for common IoT use cases. We deploy NDN and the two popular IP-based application protocols, CoAP and MQTT, in its different variants on a large-scale IoT testbed in single- and multi-hop scenarios. We analyze the use cases of scheduled periodic and unscheduled traffic under varying loads. Our findings indicate that (a) NDN admits the most resource-friendly deployment on nodes, and (b) shows superior robustness and resilience in multi-hop scenarios, while (c) the IP protocols operate at less overhead and higher speed in single-hop deployments. Most strikingly we find that NDN-based protocols are in significantly better flow balance than the UDP-based IP protocols and require less corrective actions.