MQTT communication packages

There are various software libraries that provide MQTT communication capability, and they differ in many aspects such as the protocol versions and features supported, target platforms, licensing etc. OPC Labs software has uses pluggable MQTT communication packages, and therefore you can decide which of these libraries to use. Each MQTT library is wrapped in a communication package, which provides interface to the rest of OPC Labs software. Some communication packages are built-in, i.e. they are always available, do not require additional artifacts for their operation, and are licensed together with the base product and under the same conditions.

The available MQTT communication packages are described in the table below, together with the underlying software (library) they use. The table may also contain columns for MQTT libraries for which no communication package is available yet, but is in consideration or development.

Communication package	OpcLabs.Mqtt	OpcLabs.MqttNet	n/a	file-based emulation
Documentation	OpcLabs.Mqtt communication package	OpcLabs.MqttNet communication package	Will be developed if need arises	File-based MQTT emulation
Roles	Client	Client		Client
Target platforms	.NETFramework 4.7, .NETStandard2.0	.NETFramework 4.7, .NETStandard2.0		.NETFramework 4.7, .NETStandard2.0
NuGet package	https://www.nuget.org/packages/OpcLabs.Mqtt/	https://www.nuget.org/packages/OpcLabs.MqttNet/		The package is built-in
Underlying software	System.Net.Mqtt (code name Hermes)	MQTTnet, MQTTnet.Extensions.ManagedClient	M2MqttDotnetCore
Author	Xamarin (Microsoft)	Christian Kratky
Version	0.6.0-beta	3.0.8	1.0.8
License	MIT License	MIT License	Eclipse Public License 1.0
Project site/documentation	https://github.com/xamarin/mqtt	https://github.com/chkr1011/MQTTnet/wiki	https://m2mqtt.wordpress.com/
Code repository	https://github.com/xamarin/mqtt	https://github.com/chkr1011/MQTTnet	https://github.com/mohaqeq/paho.mqtt.m2mqtt
MQTT versions	3.1.1	3.1.0, 3.1.1, 5.0.0
Roles	Client, Server	Client, Server	Client
Transport protocols	TCP	TCP, TCP+TLS, WS, WSS	TCP, TCP+TLS
Target platform	.NETFramework 4.6, .NETStandard2.0	.NETStandard 1.3, .NETStandard 2.0, UAP 10.0	.NETStandard 2.0
NuGet packages	https://www.nuget.org/packages/System.Net.Mqtt	https://www.nuget.org/packages/MQTTnet, https://www.nuget.org/packages/MQTTnet.Extensions.ManagedClient	https://www.nuget.org/packages/M2MqttDotnetCore/

Currently, we recommend to use the OpcLabs.MqttNet communication package, and it is set as default. The underlying library has most features. You can switch to a different communication package if you like (see Using communication packages). You can even develop your own communication package if needed (contact us for information to that).

For details on how to work with a particular communication package (such as what is the format of the URL strings used, or how to configure it), see the links in the Documentation row under Communication package in the table above.