that bridges the gap and allows organizations to improve operational performance by working around a unified set of objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). Data brokers A key technology enabler for IIoT to facilitate this data abstraction layer is a data broker. A data broker is an intermediary entity that enables OT and IT client systems to communicate with each other. Using an underlying standard, such as MQTT (message queueing telemetry transport), a data broker supports the ability to have multiple clients connected A data broker is an intermediary entity that enables OT and IT client systems to communicate with each other. that are publishing data and multiple clients that are subscribed to receive the data, such as enterprise applications (Figure 3). The clients communicating with the broker can abstract the underlying protocol that the machines and processes use to communicate. The broker works well in low bandwidth environments with unreliable communication mechanisms due to the underlying publish/ subscribe method where machines and processes do not need to keep polling to get the data. MQTT is an open-source messaging protocol for machine-tomachine communications. It is a standard binary publish-subscribe messaging protocol designed for fast and reliable data transport between devices especially under very constrained conditions. Constraints include unreliable network connectivity, limited bandwidth, limited battery power and so on. It is built on top of TCP/IP which is the go-to communication protocol to interconnect network devices on the internet. MQTT is ideal for IIoT due to CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM the above-mentioned reasons. The MQTT data broker is able to securely communicate the data between publishing clients typically on the OT side to subscribing clients on the IT side. For example, a streaming analytics application might want data from the SCADA system to run its analytics and publish real-time results. The application would run an MQTT client that is subscribed to the broker. The SCADA client would publish data to the broker when available. As a result, the streaming analytics application subscribed to the broker would automatically receive the updates without needing to poll for the data. MQTT technology is designed to push data to and from thousands of remote devices across numerous sites to the enterprise. Sparkplug For details visit adlinks.chemengonline.com/84648-13 CE Island Half Page Ad - Water Footprint - 100 MW Plant.indd 1 JUNE 2023 12/20/22 3:49 PM 29http://adlinks.chemengonline.com/84648-13 http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM