Cirrus Link launches Chariot V2 Sparkplug-aware MQTT server
Arlen Nipper of Cirrus Link
Cirrus Link reports the availability of the patent-pending Chariot V2 MQTT Server, to be Sparkplug-aware for complete MQTT network oversight. Chariot V2 is OASSyS MQTT 3.1.1 compliant, the dominant messaging protocol enabling industrial customers to share industrial IoT (IIoT) data across the enterprise from operations to information technology (OT to IT).
Sparkplug is an open source software specification that improves the interoperability and scalability of IIoT solutions by defining a topic namespace, payload definition and state management for real-time, mission critical applications. Coupling MQTT with Sparkplug allows for complete digital transformation, interoperability and 100% data self-discovery.
“Chariot V2 is the only MQTT server that understands the Sparkplug structure and can add additional features to create a rich MQTT ecosystem with system insight and overview,” says Arlen Nipper, president and CTO of Cirrus Link and co-inventor of MQTT. “Sparkplug is essential in the evolution of IIoT, providing MQTT clients with a framework to integrate data. Chariot V2 enables this technology by receiving all messages from clients and routing them to the appropriate destination client.”
The Chariot V2 MQTT Server runs as a Java application on-premise or in the cloud for high availability applications. It can be used as an MQTT server or broker in any SCADA system. The server runs on Java so it can be transported across any platform and includes an updated user interface and web-based administration. Security is handled with TLS, username/password authentication, and Access Control Lists (ACLs) user authentication.
Early in 2021, Chariot V2 will automatically roll out the following features with any license:
- Detect and report duplicate Sparkplug and edge node ID collisions across multiple MQTT clients
- Store Sparkplug metric properties within the MQTT Server so it can be queried
- Track and report Sparkplug-specific data flowing through the MQTT Server
- Track and report of all online/offline edge nodes and primary host applications
- Track and report edge nodes that are going offline often
- Perform compression sampling to see if it is a good idea or not
- Track edge nodes that are not subscribing and possibly should be on the primary host ID
- Track long keep alive timeout configurations and potential misconfigurations of MQTT LWT
- Configure ACL based on Sparkplug topic tokens.
Chariot V2 is a backwards compatible OASIS 3.1.1 update to the original Chariot server and is also a functional replacement for the MQTT Distributor Module for larger scale deployments where the Inductive Automation Ignition Platform is being used. Chariot V2 comes with a two-hour re-settable trial period so customers can download and experiment for free.
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