Communication via MQTT broker
Available from firmware 2024.0 LTS
From firmware 2024.0 LTS on, PLCnext devices can connect to MQTT brokers, such as Amazon Warehouse Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.
MQTT as a lightweight and secure protocol is useful for IoT data transfer via cloud servers: The PLC as a client establishes a connection to a defined MQTT broker. TCP and TLS are supported for the connection. After the connection is established, the PLC sends the values of marked out ports to the broker at a configurable interval. MQTT communication uses the out ports that are marked for Proficloud. Note that – despite the Proficloud marker – as long as a different MQTT broker or cloud service is selected the port data will not be available for Proficloud services (such as Device Management Service or Time Series Data).
Connecting to an MQTT broker
The MQTT broker is selected and configured in the Proficloud page of the Web-based Management (WBM) which is extended for that purpose from firmware 2024.0 LTS or newer.
If the connection is enabled and Other MQTT Broker is selected as the Cloud Server, then the connection configuration fields become visible:
Preparing
...
Connecting
...
Communicating with more than one MQTT broker at a time
In case you want to communicate with different MQTT brokers, use the MQTT Client function block provided with the free-of-charge IIoT library in the PLCnext Store.