Application Protocol Conversion Corresponding to Various IoT Protocols

In Internet of Things (IoT) networks, devices use various application protocols, such as MQ telemetry transport (MQTT), constrained application protocol (CoAP), and extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP). However, because of the various protocols used, devices adopting different protocols cannot communicate mutually; thus, service interoperability issues arise. To enhance service interoperability, protocol conversion is required. Because different protocols are used in IoT networks, they are required to correspond to various protocols and have high extensibility for protocol conversion. In this paper, a protocol conversion method that satisfies these requirements is proposed. The proposed method converts packets into a middle format before converting them into target protocols. Conversion rules are described for each protocol; thus, the proposed method has high extensibility. We confirmed that clients that use the proposed conversion method could successfully connect to other devices using different protocols and communicate mutually through servers. The protocols included MQTT, CoAP, XMPP, and SMTP. Furthermore, the throughput degradation caused by the conversion process is small.